Loki and Friends

We took the kids to see Thor: The Dark World today. Surprisingly, they stayed quiet and in their seats most of the film, just getting restless towards the end. The film was fun, probably a little better than the first one, which spent too much time on Earth. This one has a more epic, space adventure feel to it and I also liked it better than Iron Man 3.
All the main characters from the first reappear (everyone's favourite crazy scientist, Erik Selvig, gets to streak around Stonehenge) and the new characters include the villainous Malekith (an underused Christopher Eccleston) and his henchman Kurse (as an 80's Marvel fanboy I enjoyed seeing a Secret Wars character on screen). The action and visuals are great (though the 3D is pretty useless) and there's nice humour throughout. But what everybody really cares about is Loki, right? Tom Hiddleston fans won't be disappointed. Loki is just as sly, devious, witty and charming as ever, whether he's in his Hannibal Lecter cell or set loose. He even gets to show a tender side and sacrifice himself bravely to save Thor (or does he?). He raises the film to another level whenever he's on screen.
Marvel fans will enjoy all the nods to the greater cinematic universe, including a surprise cameo from a fellow Avenger and a mid-credit scene that sets up Guardians of the Galaxy. Overall, Phase II is coming along nicely, though I haven't seen as much of Joss Whedon's guiding hand as I'd have expected. Hope they can keep the momentum going until The Avengers: Age of Ultron.