Review: Thor: The Dark World
Set after the events of “The Avengers”, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is back on Asgard, and his scheming brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) is now sentenced to imprisonment. A race of dark elves (led by Christopher Eccleston) poses a new threat with something called The Aether. And this is where Thor’s human acquaintance Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) comes in. An ill-advised investigation of some kind of wormhole/inter-dimensional portal has somehow seen Jane become possessed by The Aether. Thor has a plan to use Jane as bait for the dark elves, but unfortunately this means letting Loki loose and forming a shaky alliance with his untrustworthy brother. Their father Odin (Sir Anthony Hopkins) has no knowledge of this plan, and won’t be happy when he finds out. Kat Dennings returns as Jane’s friend Darcy, with Stellan Skarsgaard back as their scientist colleague Erik, who has gone considerably nuts since we last saw him and has made a public spectacle of himself at Stonehenge. Chris O’Dowd