[Mystic Mock]

I've just watched Thor: Dark World yesterday, and after seeing both Films there's potential for it to be the best Marvel franchise, but it blows it on some really basic things imo.

Pros:
1. I like a lot of the heroes like Heimdall, Darcy, and Sith etc.

2. I love the setup of Asgard, it looks like it would be a great place.

3. I love Loki as a villain, possibly the best villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

4. I love the Frost Giants and their world.

5. I like the fact that the Films can go a bit political in the sense of people fighting for the throne to be the rulers of Asgard.

6. They have a decent sense of humour.

Negatives:
1. Jane is a useless character with a poor actress (I never liked her in the Star Wars Movies) she's just annoying and there for no reason other than to hook up with Thor.

2. I feel that characters like Heimdall, and Thor's friends need more screentime and development than just oh it's Thor, Jane, and Loki's Film again.

3. The villains in Thor: Dark World needed more screentime, and needed subtitles up so the audience could understand what they was saying to each other.

4. The franchise seems to have pacing issues, sometimes it will be really fast paced, other times (like the beginning of Thor: Dark World) it will be incredibly slow paced, there's no middle ground.

5. I know it can't help this feature but I think that Thor doesn't suit being the lead of a Film, don't get me wrong his okay in Avengers when bigger characters are in there with him taking up a lot of the screentime too, and Chris Hemmsworth actually doesn't play him badly, it's more the fact that his too much of a himbo type to really suit leading a Film for me personally, well it's gonna need a lot of good stuff in between it to make it work for me anyway.

I hope you all enjoyed the read (if you read it all) and I'm looking forward to what people have to say.

[user104658]

It's my least favourite standalone Marvel franchise, although I enjoyed the second film a lot more than the first, which honestly I found quite boring. I think you're right with a lot of the reasoning - the characters are fairly weak other than Loki, and Thor himself doesn't really carry a film in the same way that Iron Man or even Captain America does... although even with the latter, there's a good reason that they had Black Widow basically co-starring rather than just supporting.

And yes, Jane is an utterly rubbish, weak and boring character. Change a few minor plot points and you basically don't really need her to be in The Dark World at all... even though they've tried their very best to shoehorn the character into being a major piece of the puzzle.

It's not even that Thor is a bad character himself. He's a bit vanilla but he works well as the "muscle" of the Avengers and in the newer film bounces quite well off the others... there's just not enough of a character there for the standalone films to be "good" for anything other than impressive action sequences.

[edited to add] ...oh, and for Niamh to drool over.

[Mystic Mock]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

It's my least favourite standalone Marvel franchise, although I enjoyed the second film a lot more than the first, which honestly I found quite boring. I think you're right with a lot of the reasoning - the characters are fairly weak other than Loki, and Thor himself doesn't really carry a film in the same way that Iron Man or even Captain America does... although even with the latter, there's a good reason that they had Black Widow basically co-starring rather than just supporting.

And yes, Jane is an utterly rubbish, weak and boring character. Change a few minor plot points and you basically don't really need her to be in The Dark World at all... even though they've tried their very best to shoehorn the character into being a major piece of the puzzle.

It's not even that Thor is a bad character himself. He's a bit vanilla but he works well as the "muscle" of the Avengers and in the newer film bounces quite well off the others... there's just not enough of a character there for the standalone films to be "good" for anything other than impressive action sequences.

[edited to add] ...oh, and for Niamh to drool over.

She really enhanced Winter Soldier for me.