Compared to the first THOR movie, the second had so much meat. Again I refer to it as meat not the whole package. But's lets go back to that later.
Malekith The Accursed here was under-utilized. I mean here we have a powerful enemy for Thor and Asgard with technology that made the feared Asgardians look like chumps and we rarely get to see them do anything other than infiltrate Asgard, threaten Natalie Portman's character Jane Foster and kill Rene Russo's Frigga. That's it for them. It would have been better if they get raided throughout the Asgard scenes seeing that Malekith's got a lot of Dark Elf fodder at his beck and call.
Underused is also how I would describe the Warrior's Three and Lady Sif. They all have their cool moments somewhere in the film but it's really not enough. These aren't you average foot soldiers after all; these are the most trusted advisers for the future king of Asgard. Amongst them four, I really felt bad for Hogun the Grim who was practically written out of the story. The moment the battle was won in his world, he stayed behind and then towards the end, we see a glimpse of him; just a glimpse.
The love triangle between Lady Sif, Thor and Jane Foster was also non-existent. That's one of the things I was looking forward to in this Alan Taylor-helmed film yet it never resurfaced. We're only relegated to a few dirty looks and that was it.
Kurse was cool here. I loved how he transformed from Angrim to Kurse. Those scenes also could lead to future Agent of SHIELD territory but really, that's a long shot. What's definite is that monster that got left behind in London during the 'big' battle scene between Thor and Malekith and the rest of the Dark Elves. Coulson, Ward and the rest of our team would have their hands full that's for sure.
With regards to the special Avengers cameo here - It's Captain America.
This happens after Thor busts out Loki from his cell and Loki keeps on transforming to annoy his brother. One of the transformations that he undergoes through is as Chris Evans' in his Captain America costume from The Avengers. It's short, sweet and totally caught me off guard. Good one Marvel Studios.
Like what I've said in the non-spoilery version, I loved how the filmmakers gave Asgard. What was once an empty and dull civilization is suddenly full of life with actual people and with actual soldiers to boot. Kudos to Alan Taylor for his experience in directing episodes of Game of Thrones, at least this doesn't look like a ghost town. And they actually have MRIs and Gun turrets in Asgard too.
The two post credit trailers were up there in my list. Benicio Del Toro as The Collector was very interesting, almost Mugatu-ish. Still pretty and it also gives us more insights with regards to what the INFINITY GEMS will look like in the MCU. The dialogue was just.... wow. It does open the world of hurt for the good guys as it's implied that The Collector too is after the gems. Also wow again for making both the Tesseract (re: Cosmic Cube) and the Aether are both the gems.
The second post-credit scene was OK. I mean it doesn't change anything other than having Thor at the ready for Avengers: Age of Ultron. That and that scary looking monster that got stranded in Midgard following the transdimensional fight between Thor and Malekith.
Fuck I almost forgot that Marvel wasn't quiet about showing us Surtur's fiery realm in the climax. That alone is a huge easter egg if fan clamor/rumor is to be trusted. Surture and the fire giants, here we come!
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Finally, the ending was great. I read somewhere that the trilogy for the big three always wanted to emulate the formula for the Star Wars trilogy. THOR: THE DARK WORLD definitely hit the right chords if it wanted to become the EMPIRE STRIKES BACK for the film franchise. Oh and if you're asking me how I saw that ending, I'd say Loki got Odin trapped somewhere in a deep, dark recess of the dungeons. Somewhere only he knows or everybody's forgotten. Heck he could've forced Odin to tell him the location of this dungeon.
THOR: THE DARK WORLD did not have a mission statement so it's really hard to gauge it on anything other than the previous movie. It does open new doors for both the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the TV-verse spearheaded by the Agents of SHIELD series.
THOR: THE DARK WORLD is still showing in all cinemas nationwide!
