The Marvel Cinematic Universe has released its next big blockbuster film to go along with its collection of movies such as“Iron Man”, “Captain America : The First Avenger”, and “The Avengers”. Is “Thor: The Dark World” the Marvel film we’ve all been waiting for, or is it a flop?

I saw Marvels newest movie, “Thor: The Dark World”, in which Thor, played by Chris Hemsworth, returns to earth to stop Dark Elves from spreading darkness throughout the universe. This movie is action packed and has some truly stunning visuals.

The look of the elves, the ships, and powers of all the gods are a treat for the eyes. But the studio seems to think that the way to make a good film is to use special effects up the wazoo, as they spend a lot of time creating incredibly long scenes in which the main focus seems to be the visuals that Marvel wants to show off. I often found myself being taken out of the movie thinking that I was watching something produced by Michael Bay.

Putting aside the overuse of special effects, the film also struggles with a plethora of incredibly annoying supporting characters who try too hard to be funny. Many of the characters often come off as more annoying than they are actually humorous. Many of these characters don’t even provide anything that important to the film, even Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) is only used as a convenient plot device to support Thor in his quest, while everyone else in the film  is there for the same reason or as comic relief.

The film begins with a dumbed down plot that even the youngest of viewers could figure out, but gradually becomes convoluted and frustrating to follow as the conflict seems to always be changing. One minute Jane Foster is in danger, the next Thor needs to stop the dark elves from spreading darkness. The film seems to so focused on what’s happening at a given moment that they don’t even bother to explain things such as what happens when darkness is released, or how come Jane is working in England, or how she can receive cell phone reception on another planet.

Another issue I had with this movie was that Loki is finally run into the ground as a character, as he becomes incredibly predictable and boring to watch. He is seemingly thrown into the film to get the Avengers fanboys and girls super excited, barely getting any screen time in the film. He serves relatively no purpose to the story and simply used to enact plot twists.

I do appreciate that this film tries to have a more serious tone than the last few Marvel films, which have come off as incredibly campy (cough cough Iron Man 3 and The Avengers). The film makes an attempt to come off as grim and angry, but Marvel fails to do this with how many jokes are thrown in at an unnecessary rate.

As a fan of superhero films, it disappoints me to say that this movie has failed to satisfy my expectations of what a great comic book movie should be. Not to say that it was horrible, but rather it could have been much better. Perhaps Marvel could make a masterpiece if they abandoned their policy of “make fun the first priority and get out as many movies as possible, as soon as possible”, and hired some really good script doctors to help the film, and cut what’s unnecessary to the film to achieve this goal.

Ultimately Thor: The Dark World is a fun film, but its not nearly on par with other films before it. The film feels very average at best, and seems its only purpose is to help develop “The Avengers: Age of Ultron”. I give Thor the dark world a 2.5/4.