The Marvel Cinematic Universe is one of the most successful film franchises of the 21st Century, and it has changed the industry in many ways. Rival studios have been trying to replicate the interconnected storytelling model that the MCU perfected for years, but few projects since have matched the success of what Marvel Studios perfected with even the first The Avengers film in 2012. It was the essential crossover film that spawned Marvel’s second phase, which included a continuation into the Thor franchise. Directed by Alan Taylor, Thor: The Dark World featured Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman reprising their roles as Thor and Jane Foster, respectively.

While the film earned modestly mixed to positive reviews at the time and was a box office success, its reputation has declined in recent years. Marvel fans love to rank the franchise films based on quality, and Thor: The Dark World often ends up close to the bottom; IndieWire placed it at #29 on its list, and Time Out had it placed at the very bottom. While all opinions are subjective, the hatred centered around Thor: The Dark World feels somewhat misplaced. While the film is hardly on the level of some of the MCU’s truly great films like Captain America: Civil War, Iron Man, and Guardians of the Galaxy, it’s far from being the worst.

The Enjoyable Story and Characters

thor the dark world
Marvel Studios

While it’s hard to judge Hemsworth’s appearance in Thor: The Dark World and compare it to his roles in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, he does a very respectable job reprising his role and adding more depth. It seems like fans were more excited by Hemsworth’s more comedic work after Taika Waititi took over the franchise with Thor: Ragnarok, but it was important for Thor to make a transition before he could become a more light-hearted character. 2011’s Thor was much more of a sincere Shakespearean epic that had a lot in common with director Kenneth Branagh’s stage adaptations, and Thor: The Dark World is certainly much more fun. While in the first film Thor is very self-serious, he has a much more developed confidence and sense of humor in the sequel, particularly when he is home in Asgard.

Unquestionably, the most entertaining part of Thor: The Dark World is the dynamic between Thor and his adopted brother, Loki (Tom Hiddleston), who had just tried to conquer Earth in The Avengers and has now been imprisoned. The chemistry between Hemsworth and Hiddelston has evolved and changed throughout the entire MCU, and it's interesting to see them at this critical stage when they’re forced to team up. The banter between the two is quite funny, particularly when Loki must be freed from prison and becomes the subject of mockery in the eyes of Thor’s friends. However, the more sincere moments when Thor and Loki mourn the death of their mother (Rene Russo) are just as effective.

Related: Thor: The Dark World Director Talks About The 'Taylor Cut'

The MCU has employed the work of some very acclaimed auteur filmmakers such as Chloé Zhao and Ryan Coogler, but Taylor is certainly not lacking in credentials. With directorial credits on some of the best episodes of Game of Thrones, Mad Men, The Sopranos, and the mafia show’s spinoff film The Many Saints of Newark, Taylor certainly knows how to balance an ensemble and create elaborate production design; Asgard looks absolutely beautiful, and the computer generated-imagery has actually held up after a decade. Many would cite Christopher Eccelston’s Malekith the Dark Elf as one of the MCU’s worst villains, but that isn’t necessarily an anomaly; despite the generally positive reception that they received, Guardians of the Galaxy and Doctor Strange don’t have particularly compelling antagonists either.

The Failures That Followed

Natalie Portman as Jane Foster and Chris Hemsworth as Thor in Thor: Love and Thunder
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Thanks to Thor: Love and Thunder, Thor: The Dark World is hardly even the worst Thor film. While the worst thing that can be said about Thor: The Dark World is that it is somewhat forgettable, Thor: Love and Thunder is shrill, obnoxious, and completely misses the mark on tone; serious scenes of Jane’s issues with cancer and Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale) are intertwined with scenes of childish comedy. In terms of MCU sequels, Iron Man 2 is a more egregious example of a character being ruined and a story being messy. Hemsworth still does a great job in Thor: The Dark World, but in Iron Man 2, Robert Downey Jr. turns Tony Stark into an arrogant, selfish jerk that wrecks his home and fights with his friends.

The reason that the MCU has been so consistently successful so far has been on the strength of casting and characters; fans are engaged in these heroes on an emotional level, and both Thor and Loki develop in interesting ways throughout Thor: The Dark World. Some of the weaker MCU installments failed to do that; none of the new heroes introduced within Eternals really stood out, and Brie Larson’s depiction of Carol Danvers in Captain Marvel failed to elicit any excitement from fans.

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The Standalone Quality

Chris Hemsworth as Thor prepares for combat in Thor: The Dark World.
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Considering how disappointing Phase Four has been, Thor: The Dark World feels like a relative breath of fresh air. One of the issues that the new film has had is the focus on bridging everything together, which has just made the ongoing storylines more difficult to watch on their own. While Thor: The Dark World contains references to the other franchise installments, it is still understandable for those that have only seen The Avengers and the first Thor.

Thor: The Dark World isn’t necessarily one of the MCU’s most well-written films, but it's certainly not the sloppiest. Between the sloppy use of flashbacks in Black Widow, the awkward inclusion of television characters in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the confusing scientific mumbo jumbo in both Ant-Man and the Wasp and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and the tonal inconsistency of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Thor: The Dark World hardly has one of the franchise’s worst scripts.