Thor: The Dark World

The superhero gets a second solo album with Thor: The Dark World, which manages to outpace the first Thor in terms of atonality and gobbledygook. This time, the crown prince of Asgard battles elves who seek to bring darkness to the interconnected universes, for reasons that probably make sense to them. These elves have been hiding for millennia in the far reaches of outer space, unnoticed by Asgard, even though they have a guy whose sole purpose in life is to watch the entire universe. Natalie Portman is back as Thor's wooden love interest Jane, who gets possessed by a powerful form of energy that the elves want to use as an apocalyptic weapon. It would be nice to credit director Alan Taylor for the hilarious irony of having the drowsy Portman play a woman “consumed by energy,” but it's probably just bad acting.