I went into Thor: The Dark World with no knowledge of spoilers, plot, story, character. Anything. I think I saw the trailer once and that was it. But even being completely in the dark as I was, I knew that the crux of the story would have to involve Loki and if that was the case, his redemption. All the story beats were there and it was all playing out exactly as I saw it. I even knew that when Loki was "killed" that he wouldn't actually be dead and I even foresaw that he would somehow change his appearance to suit his needs. I even knew before it was revealed that he had assumed the identity of Odin himself. Now this implies that Loki killed Odin to be able to do exactly that. I for one don't think he killed him, but more likely banished him to another realm. At least I hope so. I just think to kill Odin off camera would deprive the audience of at least given him a heroic death. Now I'm probably talking out of my ass and this has already been talked to death by everyone else on the planet. But since I don't read what others post (until I've seen the movie for myself), I'm not going to know one way or another.

With all that said, and knowing how the bulk of the movie was going to play out. I still enjoyed it for the most part. I don't think it's as good as the first movie, but Dark World didn't do anything to wreck the franchise either. I'm glad that the majority of the movie takes place elsewhere and not on Earth. Although the final fight does take place on Earth. Speaking of Realms, even though it was easy for me to follow along, I can only imagine what was going through the minds of people that aren't fans of the series or this type of Realm-hopping. I know that when I loan this movie to my Mom, she's likely to get lost and tune out and most likely turn off the movie. I can see her getting frustrated with the movie because it actually steps outside the box of Superhero movies and that's something I actually like and applaud. She would expect something along the lines of Superman I and II for sure. Anyway, I think this one is definitely worth a Rent. I'd watch it again for sure.

That portal jumping in the final act was like something out of my dreams, I loved that.  And I love that it took place in London, too.  I could totally see some of the plot twists coming as well, that was a problem, I didn't feel like there was that much surprise going on (because you know the status quo has to be maintained), but at least the execution was fun and entertaining.

Good lookin' movie, I love that they got a Game Of Thrones guy in, I thought it helped keep all these CGI-heavy realms feeling grounded and real.

I haven't seen the movie in a while, but I remember still digging what a geek Natalie Portman is in the movie (the whole Scooby gang is adorable).  And while Tony Stark got PTSD from Avengers, Solveig just went loopy and pantsless, I thought that was a nice touch (I also liked seeing Chris O'Dowd show up).  My only real issue is with Portman's character being "sick," she really doesn't get a chance to muck in as a bit of an equal, that kind of bugged me.

He was the Frenchy guy.  I didn't recognize him either.  But I love that Thor's group are, like, the ultimate versions of warriors from all these different cultures.  You could totally imagine any of them getting their own spin-offs or showing somewhere else, like Sif did on Agents of SHIELD.  That's something I actually really dug about this movie (and so many Marvel movies0, you get the sense that the characters actually do this kind of stuff in their normal lives, and the movies are just when they run into each other by random chance or dire circumstance.  It's not everyone waiting until the next movie, Thor's kicking butt in other dimensions, Natalie and her crew are going around the world trying to find wormholes, Captain America and Black Widow are doing all kinds of weird covert ops, Tony Stark's still inventing sh*t, etc.