The Dark World' more thudding than thunderous, critics say

The titular hammer-wielding superhero returns in "Thor: The Dark World," this time to stop a race of dark elves from plunging the universe into blackness. But, despite all creation hanging in the balance, film critics are somewhat unmoved by the god of thunder's latest outing alligator shear— though they are pretty keen on his brother Loki.In a review for the Los Angeles Times, Michael Phillips writes, "So how's this 'Thor' sequel? Same old threats of galaxy annihilation spiced with fairly entertaining fish-out-of-water jokes." Director Alan Taylor "handles the battle sequences dutifully and without much visual dynamism," Phillips says, noting that the 3-D version doesn't add much. He continues: "By now, in this Marvel world, we've seen everything twice, and it's hard to impress audiences with something new."

On the plus side, "amid the digital mayhem and smashed columns, plenty of fine actors in 'Thor 2' do what they can," including Tom Hiddleston as the trickster Loki and Kat Dennings as an astrophysics intern.The New York Times' Jeannette Catsoulis is less impressed, writing, "If the multiple idiocies on view strike you as neither here nor there, it's probably because your eyeballs are too busy recoiling from the onslaught of disorienting 3-D effects, or else too distracted by the title character's Popeye arms and really big mallet."The dark elves,alligator shear led by Christopher Eccleston as Malekith, are "disappointing villains," and Thor himself, as played by Chris Hemsworth, "voice pitched low enough for mystified worms to detect its vibrations, has neither the glint in his eye nor the lightness in his step that would signal some winking self-awareness." Hiddleston, at least, is "the spoonful of sugar that helps this medicine go down."

The Wall Street Journal's Joe Morgenstern says the big problem "is that this action-adventure sequel from Marvel soon turns so dumb and 3-D-murky that it hurts." He continues: "Most of the action is generic, though sufficiently straightforward to provide relief from the incoherent storytelling. Which realm are we in now? Where were we a moment ago,skin analyzer and how did everyone get here? Such questions seem not to have troubled the writers or producers." As for Taylor, a veteran TV director, "there's no sign he has a feel for feature films; his emphasis is entirely on big set pieces at the expense of narrative flow."

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