Is Odin dead? Who knows. I think the writers needed an out if Anthony Hopkins is perhaps unable to reprise the role somehow in a few years.
About the post credits scene.
Asgard had the Tessaract and the Infinity Glove. The briefly showed the glove in the first Thor movie.
The decision to give the collector the Aether is obviously Loki's, since he's in charge now. This ties in really nicely with a write up I read after The Avengers came out. Loki meant to be captured and sent back to Asgard.
I'm struggling with how anyone is going to follow the Guardians of the Galaxy that comes out next August.You could read up on Thanos and the infinity glove if you want to, because that's what it's talking about. It's weird the way they're going about this because a lot of these after credit reveals makes no sense unless you know a decent amount about the Marvel universe already. Your average joe that's watching these movies now won't recognize Thanos in the Avengers credits scene, or what "5 to go" means in Thor 2, but it's all connected and building up for the future films.
Ahhh, I hadn't realized that Loki sent the Aether to the Collector! That would explain why the superhero sidekicks were acting so weird - they couldn't figure out why it wouldn't be safer at Asgard! That makes sense.
I enjoy the movies from a fun superhero-movie standpoint, but I'm not familiar with the backstory - so what's the deal with the Infinity Glove and the stones and all that jazz?
In reality, I think it could have been a deeper and better movie if they had added an extra hour onto it. Number one, really mesh the seriousness of the space elves with the story. Number two, let the editors give more backstory to the superhero girl vs. Portman, to the naked Stonehenge professor, and to the audience reaction times. Number three, create a story trap where Loki got funneled into his situation in such a way that it wasn't just completely open, as everyone had mentioned - it's like an infinite deus ex machina machine for the writers because they didn't really pin him down in certain areas. No one can detect when he's doing a holographic projection, so he can do anything he wants, whenever he wants. They could have really gone nuts with different ideas there, fooling the bad guys for example.
maybe in 3D this time.
I lol'd HARD when I saw Chuck (does anyone know if he was supposed to be the Princess Bride sidekick from the first movie, or was he a different dude?).
So there was one more scene after the credits rolled? I thought they changed it up and just rolled the extra scenes right at the end. Bah!
The first one was right after the movie and was VERY weird. Apparently there was a dude with a secure art collection that they gave the Aesther stuff to, but told him it was a second Tesseract. Then he's like "5 to go!" so they opened it up for a double Thor trilogy, whoohoo!
Ahhh, I hadn't realized that Loki sent the Aether to the Collector! That would explain why the superhero sidekicks were acting so weird - they couldn't figure out why it wouldn't be safer at Asgard! That makes sense.
They should have just kept it like the Spiderman series and slowly introduce new earthly villains and use all of the good storylines from Avengers and not involve too much of the Asgard cosmic crap, just like they've avoided the Silver Surfer (no FF movie doesn't count), Captain Mar-vell, Sentry, Quasar, Adam Warlock, and even Black Bolt i.e. overpowered superheroes that can level planets for fun.
I agree with most of this. Good movie but there seems to be a lot of unfinished business and things that never really came to a head, and knowing full well there's a lot more movies to come doesn't help me feel better.
The ending was by far the most absurd though. So Loki's not dead... so I assume he was just faking it. How do you fake a sword through the chest though? OK, now everybody thinks he's dead which gives him a lot of room to fuck with people as he loves to do. Was he just messing with Thor at the end, or is he really intending to stay as king? So where's Odin?
Sounds like Doctor Strange would be out then.
Liam Neeson wasn't in Thor.
Commenting on your numbers 1-3:
1) I did notice that they did try to make the space elves all serious and badass and the Asgardians were goofy. It reminded me of Ghostbusters with the demon lady and the demon dogs which were offset by the goofiness of the Ghostbusters. Of course this movie wasn't actually a comedy so I agree it seemed off a bit.
2) There is no backstory of Sif vs Jane Foster. Sif clearly wants Thor, but he wants Jane and it probably pisses Sif off. What else are they going to do, show Sif's journal that details how she had a crush on Thor since junior high? In the comics they have a history of course but it's really not necessary to know that since Thor wants Jane.
3) Loki is one of the most powerful sorcerers in the Marvel universe: http://villains.wikia.com/wiki/Loki_(Marvel) The movies really dumb him down, but ultimately in the comics he is kept in check by defending Asgard from outside powers that would threaten the prophecy of Ragnarok, or the cyclic events that would destroy Asgard. He has helped Thor and Odin many times defend Asgard from outside forces and the movie seems to follow that. While he does break bad even more in the comics and maybe they're going with that, he never killed Odin. Maybe the movie could have revealed that he does have limits to his plots but ultimately it is true, he is powerful enough to destroy Asgard and has a part in Ragnarok. That is where it kind of got cheesy, Marvel bit Norse mythology and injected their own flavor into it. Eventually with such cosmic and godly cheesiness, there has to something even MORE powerful than Gods right? And more powerful than that? And so on and so forth. For example: http://marvel.com/universe/Those_Who_Sit_Above_In_Shadow
The Infinity Gauntlet is more cheesewhiz and I don't think Marvel should have gone in that direction, it's going to be too much for audiences to handle. They should have just kept it like the Spiderman series and slowly introduce new earthly villains and use all of the good storylines from Avengers and not involve too much of the Asgard cosmic crap, just like they've avoided the Silver Surfer (no FF movie doesn't count), Captain Mar-vell, Sentry, Quasar, Adam Warlock, and even Black Bolt i.e. overpowered superheroes that can level planets for fun.
Or the (new and fake) Guardians of the Galaxy. Maybe they're trying to go more sci-fi which is fine, but the problem with all of the mystical stuff is that power is relative to what? Could Galactus beat Those Who Sit Above In Shadow, and which Elders of the Universe are they more or less powerful than? What about Warlock vs Thanos? It's all subjective crap. At least in Iron Man 3 they gave us laws of physics as to why Tony's suit was melting (Extremis around 3000 degrees). With the mystical stuff it's always just because Marvel says so. Dr. Strange fighting Dormammu or Surtu is going to turn into a boring version of Harry Potter, but maybe set in space or some other fictional ethereal realm. /yawn
My guess would be it was actually some minion of his he was projecting his image on. I don't remember if his projections can actually manipulate physical objects.
An absolutely phenomenal sequel. The family and I loved the first Thor, and we all agreed that this was even better. As others stated, the length was perfect at just under 2 hours. Nothing felt forced, no action for action's sake, great characters and story, what else could you ask for in a hero flick?