Overall, I enjoyed it. It was a little weirder than the first one in some respects, but it also had a lot more emotion in it, so I can't decide which one I like better. I was kind of surprised by it, though, because even though I had read the basic storyline some time back, I had gotten the impression from the trailers and clips I had seen that some things happened in a different order than they actually occurred (which was actually kind of nice). Since both my blog about the first Thor movie and about the Avengers movie were done in a character-analysis format, I'm going to do this one in the same way.
Thor: He is still absolutely wonderful. Brave, honourable (it seemed appropriate to use the British spelling), loyal, gentle, funny, and as good looking as ever. And he still has his knack of creating cool entrances.
He doesn't even need to be moving to create a great entrance. ;)
Jane: Boy, she gets put through the ringer in this movie. First she's trying to get over the heartache of thinking that Thor has forgotten her, then she gets sucked into some strange kind of space warp and gets infused by the all-consuming AEther. Then Thor pops up again and whisks her out of the polices' clutches and off to Asgard to try to find a treatment, then Thor's mom Frigga dies protecting her (I know! I was almost in tears). Then they go through a harrowing escape from Asgard in which they have to rely on the unreliable Loki, THEN she gets the AEther taken out of her in a way that wasn't all that gentle, and then she has to help save the world from being thrown into eternal darkness and Thor almost gets killed (again), and then he has to leave her again to try to patch things up with Odin. After all that, she deserves a month-long vacation in Hawaii or something. But at least Thor does come back again in one of the post-credit scenes and makes everything ok. :) (Interesting side note: The woman Chris Hemsworth is kissing in that scene is not Natalie Portman, but actually his own wife! That's why it's so sweet and wonderful).
Loki: Loki is a lot more understandable in this movie. While in the others he seemed to have some kind of personality disorder, from the very beginning of this one you can tell that he is just plain bitter. Bitter about everything and everyone. But then the woman who raised him and loved him is killed, and even though he had told her that she wasn't his mother he cannot deny that it hurts him to the core, and that gives him something outside of himself to live for: revenge. That is what causes him to show that when he wants to he actually CAN be a good guy! He also gets to show more of his wonderful quick wit (the scene of their escaping Asgard is my favorite out of the whole movie because of that and his and Thor's sibling bickering). But the end of the movie...what does that mean?!?!? Was Loki saying "Thank you" for giving him a chance to redeem himself and for what Thor said in his honor? Or does he have another scheme up his sleeve? I hope not! I like the better, helpful Loki.
Darcy: Jane's assistant has a bit more of an important role in this movie. She's not only the one responsible for getting Jane interested in her work again, but she's also the one who has to hold down the fort in London while Jane's in Asgard and Eric (the other scientist) is being held in a medical ward for mental examination. And I have to admit, I'd probably be handling it about the same way she did: "Will somebody PLEASE tell me what the heck I'm supposed to do here?!?" I feel for you, girl. But through it all she is still her funnily honest self.
Sif: Her loyalty is really put to the test in this one. Not only does she have to meet the woman who has claimed Thor's heart, but she also has to be the one to break her out of prison so that they can escape. But her love for Thor is enough where she does it no matter what her personal feelings are. In some ways she's the strongest character in the whole movie.
Volstagg: He isn't quite as much of a teddy bear in this movie, but once he has all his bases covered, he's up for anything! And he'll enjoy it the whole time. :)
Fandrel: You get to see a bit more of him in this movie than in the first one, and one thing that I love about him is that, while everyone else was threatening Loki to behave, he just goes ahead and mocks him. You definitely get to see why he's called Fandrel the Dashing. (And what's even better is that in this movie he is played by the same guy that voiced Flynn Rider in "Tangled". I totally need to see Zachary Levi play a character like Zorro or something. That would be so cool!)
The one thing I would have changed about this movie was having more of Frigga in it before she got killed (which really was heart-wrenching! The fact that Thor got there a split second after it happened...) She was such a strong character, and a pretty good fighter, too. So, to finish up this post, I am including a deleted scene from the movie which would have really been helpful if it had been left in which explains a bit more about her and her relationship with her two sons.
