Thor: The Dark World
Walt Disney Pictures | Release Date: November 8, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
54
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 44 Critic Reviews
Positive:
22
Mixed:
19
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
Portland OregonianJamie S. RichNov 6, 2013
The big battle in Thor: The Dark World is one of Marvel’s more genuinely rousing sequences. Once this movie gets warmed up, it’s warm through and through. Read full review
80
Total FilmNeil SmithOct 24, 2013
Marvel’s man with the mallet does all that’s required of him in a breakneck sequel that’s never dark for long. Next time, though, we’ll have more Loki and fewer elves. Read full review
80
EmpireChris Hewitt (1)Oct 22, 2013
For a movie that has dark in its title, and which is — yes! — darker (people die, Asgard is grimier, as befitting Alan Taylor’s Game Of Thrones heritage), Thor 2.0 is consistently amusing. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineR. Kurt OsenlundNov 6, 2013
Superhero movies aren't going anywhere, nor is their standard, on-to-the-next-fight structure, so it's heartening to see a gem that grandly and amusingly fills in the blanks. Read full review
75
IndieWireEric KohnNov 6, 2013
Like Whedon's whip-smart "Avengers" screenplay, Thor: The Dark World manages to acknowledge the inherently silly nature of its premise while compellingly asserting that, hey, sometimes it's fun to suspend your disbelief when the results look this good. Read full review
70
NPRIan BuckwalterNov 8, 2013
The lack of chemistry between Hemsworth and Portman, plain enough in the first Thor movie, is still a problem here, but at least they've largely ditched the starry-eyed schoolgirl routine. Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'HehirNov 7, 2013
It’s a highly capable sequel that drinks long and deep from the established Marvel legendarium and brings back all the key players from Kenneth Branagh’s 2011 hit “Thor.” Read full review
70
The DissolveKeith PhippsNov 5, 2013
It looks like no other movie, Marvel or otherwise, and it’s populated by characters compelling enough to support a more complex, richer story than this one. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinNov 4, 2013
Thor: The Dark World gets a lot more entertaining in the second hour, when the shape-shifting Loki is sprung from his cell (for complicated reasons) and immediately begins trading bitchy insults with his forthright, manly brother. Read full review
70
VarietyJustin ChangOct 22, 2013
This robust, impersonal visual-effects showpiece proves buoyant and unpretentious enough to offset its stew of otherwise derivative fantasy/action elements. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Nov 6, 2013
Forget the fairy-tale romance between Jane and her hammer-wielding hunk. The real emotional center of the Thor series is this sibling rivalry, more compelling than any climactic battle royale or winking teaser for the next chapter. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesNov 6, 2013
After the recent rash of superhero end-spectacles as long-winded and self-serious as a term paper, the limited ambition of The Dark World’s climax is a relief. It scuttles all term paper aspirations and instead humbly lobs a thesis statement-slash-open invitation: Let’s have some fun, shall we? And so we did. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanNov 6, 2013
Hiddleston, with pleading eyes and a mad-dog grin, plays Loki as a wounded sociopath who's cackling at the world but seething on the inside. Which makes you realize he's just about the only character in the movie who has an inside. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliNov 8, 2013
The movie is pretty to look at in a "Transformers" sort of way and moves briskly enough that it never threatens to bore, but it's hard to feel much of anything about the characters and, when it's all over, there's a sense that everything that happens is obligatory. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaNov 8, 2013
One of the problems with The Dark World is that its monsters and angry armies and visual effects are interchangeable with Peter Jackson's Tolkien pics, with Clash of the Titans, with The Avengers, with Man of Steel, and on and on. These superhero movies. These Middle Earth movies. These mythic god movies. It's getting hard to tell them apart. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comSimon AbramsNov 8, 2013
Thor: The Dark World's characters are often very charming, but they're only so much fun when they're stuck going through the motions. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Dave McGinnNov 7, 2013
A good model of how superheroes can save the world without forced gravitas, and have fun doing it. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsNov 7, 2013
Compared to other Marvel characters, Thor is a difficult sell. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter TraversNov 7, 2013
This Thor sequel is way funnier than any movie subtitled The Dark World has a right to be (thanks, Hiddleston). And the blowout climax pitting Thor against Malekith and the elves is excitingly staged. It's just that waiting for the good stuff can be a real mood-killer. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsNov 7, 2013
So how's this "Thor" sequel? It's fairly entertaining. Same old threats of galaxy annihilation, spiced with fish-out-of-water jokes. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperNov 7, 2013
At times Thor: The Dark World does fire on all cylinders, with fine work from the returning cast, a handful of hilarious sight gags and some cool action sequences. But it’s also more than a little bit silly and quite ponderous and overly reliant on special effects that are more confusing than exhilarating. Read full review
63
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreNov 5, 2013
The design is brighter and sharper, the jokes are broader and the villainy utterly generic in this by-the-(comic)-book adaptation. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzNov 6, 2013
There’s nothing in Thor: The Dark World that wasn’t done better in “Thor,” or a lot better in “The Avengers.” Except Tom Hiddleston’s performance as Loki. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierNov 6, 2013
Thor: The Dark World may not be thunder from the movie gods, but it is — shock! — an entertaining journey into mystery, action and fun. Read full review
60
Time Out LondonTom HuddlestonOct 29, 2013
This is a deeply silly, extremely noisy and sometimes impenetrable action movie that’s drowning in CGI, wild overacting and mullets. And it’s enormously entertaining. Read full review
60
The GuardianBen ChildOct 23, 2013
No amount of tool-wielding heroism can save The Dark World from being a startlingly unbalanced movie. Read full review
58
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerNov 8, 2013
My favorite moment in the movie: Astrophysicist Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard) insisting on wearing only his underwear because he says he thinks better that way. Hey, whatever works. Read full review
52
Film.comKate ErblandNov 5, 2013
If only all of Thor: The Dark World could capture the magic of its last act, the film wouldn’t feel like such a chink in Marvel’s otherwise solid armor. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleNov 7, 2013
Bigger is not always better. Thor: The Dark World pumps up the action and special effects and loses some of the human element that made the original "Thor" something charming and unexpected. True, this sequel gets better as it goes along, but that's a very steep climb just to arrive at not bad. Read full review
50
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallNov 7, 2013
Poor Thor. Dude can't even hold center stage in his own movie. He's the Asgardian god of stolen thunder, upstaged at each ab turn by Loki, malarkey and Odin's eyepatch. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrNov 7, 2013
Has its moments of visual invention and self-aware humor — mostly when the hero’s trickster brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) is around — but otherwise it’s an awkwardly plotted extravaganza. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigNov 7, 2013
Leaden, non-involving and filled with mind-numbing computer-generated effects. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezNov 7, 2013
There’s a fleet and funny comic-book movie nestled inside Thor: The Dark World. You catch glimpses of it here and there. Read full review
50
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanNov 7, 2013
Hiddleston steals the show here, making wickedness and treachery look a heck of a lot more fun than virtue. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinOct 22, 2013
Although director Alan Taylor manages to get things going properly for the final battle in London, the long stretches before that on Asgard and the other branches of Yggdrasil are a drag. Read full review
50
The PlaylistOliver LytteltonOct 22, 2013
A film that is enjoyable in spots, but haphazard and ultimately unsatisfying. Read full review
40
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottNov 8, 2013
None of that is to say that Thor: The Dark World is a bad movie, necessarily. I would never speak ill of a man with a giant, magical hammer. At the same time, hammer or no hammer, it doesn't quite nail it, either. Read full review
40
TimeRichard CorlissNov 7, 2013
The clutter makes your head feel like it's about to explode - and not in a good way, with wonders upon wonders. Instead it seems like arcana that might show up on the midterm final: the next Marvel movie. Read full review
40
Time OutDavid FearNov 6, 2013
This is a superhero movie that feels like it might have been made by anyone and no one at the same time, simply space-filler before the next big team-up movie. Read full review
40
Village VoiceAmy NicholsonNov 5, 2013
Lacking Iron Man’s wit, the Hulk’s brains, and the Captain’s ideals, he’s in peril of going poof himself if the franchise doesn’t figure out how to capitalize on its most glorious hero. Read full review
40
The TelegraphRobbie CollinOct 22, 2013
It feels entirely made by committee – the definition of house style, without a personal stamp in sight. Read full review
38
New York PostKyle SmithNov 6, 2013
"Dark World” is low-stakes, low-emotion, lowbrow. Read full review
30
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisNov 7, 2013
The battle scenes are as lacking in heat and coherence as the central love story. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternNov 7, 2013
The larger problem, transcending all realms, is that this action-adventure sequel from Marvel soon turns so dumb and 3-D-murky that it hurts. Read full review
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