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As the saying goes, a rising tide lifts all boats. 2012’s The Avengers is the aforementioned tide. There was probably never any doubt of Ironman 3’s box office clout, so Thor: The Dark World was the first real test of whether moviegoers would be keen to follow closely the individual adventures of the marvel superheroes.

The answer seems to be a resounding ‘Yes’. Well played Marvel. You now have a slate of upcoming and highly anticipated films in Phase 2, to be concluded with Avengers 2.

We last left Thor with a broken Rainbow Bridge, and a lot of wars to wage across the 9 realms in order to restore the peace that Loki had disrupted. We also learn that eons ago, Odin’s father, Bor,  had fought a long and hard war with the dark elves, led my Malekith, who wanted to restore the universe to it’s original state; Darkness, by using a magical force known as the Aether.

Bor had managed to subdue and contain the Aether and vanquished the elves, but not before Malekith and a few more of his lieutenants escaped into suspended animation.

Dove campaign for real elves: Not everyone looks like Orlando Bloom, and that’s OK.

As the nine realms move into a rare alignment, the borders around the realms start to bleed into each other, and Jane Foster gets sucked into a vortex, where the Aether enters her. The Aether awakens Malekith, who vows to finish the job once and for all, plunging the universe back into a dark dark world.

This time, Thor doesn’t have the help of the Avengers, and is instead dependent on Loki for assistance. This is the first time we actually see Thor and Loki working together, as Loki had mainly played the antagonist role in Thor and The Avengers.

We get to see a lot more of Asgard this time round, not just the palace, and it was great fun to see Thor and Loki working through their differences and mistrust for each other to accomplish their mission. As they say “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”. Loki really steals the limelight this time around, and the film is much better for it.

In the end, you get good laughs, decent action, and one more scene of topless Thor before the next Avengers.

As with Marvel superhero films, watch for a quick cameo of one of the other characters from the series, and do stay back for end of film credits (there are 2 of them).

Rating: 7/10