From the original theatrical review:
The film badly wants to be The Empire Strikes Back but trips up on its own feet enough times to fall short of that level of a sequel. But as only the second film in Marvel’s cinematic universe to get a followup thus far, Thor: The Dark World is the first to have a clear cut success (sorry Iron Man 2).
The stakes are raised, the scope is bigger, the actors are having fun and aside from some goofy elements, most everything works in the way it should for Thor: The Dark World. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is becoming one of the most impressive creations in film history and the ride keeps re-inventing itself all along the way.
Thor: The Dark World takes this successful theatrical release and does just about everything right bringing it home to Blu-Ray. These types of colorful special effects-laden movies are what the medium was made for, and it’s translated to vibrant life in this release. The vast landscapes of Asgard and the rest of the Nine Realms really bring a distinct look to every sequence that just makes it all pop on the disc as it comes alive on your couch.
But what really makes this Blu-Ray release stand out among most other modern releases are the extreme quality presented in the excellent special features. Marvel has done something really special with its genius idea of the Marvel One-Shots, providing completely original adventures in their cinematic universe that expand and enrich it while each one seems to up the star-quality and impact. And Thor: The Dark World‘s Blu-ray release contains the best one yet in All Hail the King.
The short revolves around Ben Kingsley’s faux-Mandarin Trevor Slattery from Iron Man 3, and his days since that film now being spent in prison. The short, directed by the co-writer of Iron Man 3 Drew Pearce, is brilliant for a few reasons but none more than actually fixing one of the major plot issues I had with Iron Man 3. But in addition, the story is hilarious, fast paced, and has one of the funniest and most unexpected cameos that I won’t dare spoil for you here. Don’t ruin it for yourself on the internet either, just pick it up and watch it. You won’t be sorry.
Thor: The Dark World also includes an audio commentary track that includes the great Tom Hiddleston, director Alan Taylor, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, and cinematographer Kramer Morgenthau which isn’t quite as fun as you’d expect, but offers an in-depth dissection of the film that gets extremely detailed into each scene.
Many releases feature behind-the-scenes documentaries and this release is no different, but the content here makes the feature A Brother’s Journey: Thor & Loki extremely interesting for Thor fans. The documentary starts out chronicling the actors on Thor, then moves through The Avengers, and closes out with Thor: The Dark World. Viewers get to see casting auditions back to the original film, including Hiddelston’s audition for the role of Thor and many other fascinating “What if?” scenarios of how the films could have played out and been very different.
There are six deleted scenes, all of which are pretty interesting in quality and flesh out some of the more short-changed characters including my favorites, Sif and The Warriors Three. There’s also a neat alternate take on the “First Avenger” sequence that was one of the great nerd surprises for me the first time around.
Filling out the rest of the Blu-Ray are a short piece about scoring the film with Brian Taylor, a cool Captain America: The Winter Soldier exclusive look that draws out a bit of what fans have already seen in the trailers and a cute, but nothing special, Gag Reel that will make you chuckle a bit.
Living in a culture where it’s becoming less and less common to buy hard copies of films, Thor: The Dark World (and the Marvel Cinematic Universe films in general) have figured out how to stay relevant with quality releases providing actual content worth the money. Thor: The Dark World is worth it for All Hail the King alone, but this film is a ton of fun to watch and contains robust and extremely entertaining supplemental features that enhance your experience and will leave you checking your calendar for their next release.
