This time, Thor and company, are up against a returning army of dark elves who are looking for their WMD, which was locked away by Odin's dad after the dark elves lost in the last war against the Asgardians, in order to plunge the nine realms back into darkness.
The production value was clearly stepped this time around and just the look and feel of the movie felt not campy, but as real as comic book world with nine realms with one of them being a realm of Norse-ish gods could be. I guess the first Thor didn't have much to work with in settings since the scenes on earth were in New Mexico, but the scenes in Asgard looked sooooo cartoony. Having more settings to shoot in like different planets and realms as well as the backdrop of gloomy London really helped out BIG TIME.
