Superhero movies are often a cliché. Strong men punch their foes until the bad guys are defeated. Likely a love story will appear in the background to draw in a wider audience. But it’s rare to see something more complex; a movie with all of the aspects of a stereotypical superhero film with deep characters and emotionally moving sections. Thor: The Dark World was one of these rare movies.

The perfect example of a deeper-than-expected character in this movie was Loki (Tom Hiddleston). In Thor, Loki was a child driven to madness by the knowledge that he was originally their enemy’s son and was adopted.  In The Avengers, he was a more classic villain — he wanted to subjugate humans (a common aspect of superhero villains). But in Thor: The Dark World, Loki is endlessly multifaceted. In the beginning of the movie, he is a confined psychopath (again, a common aspect of  superhero stories), but farther into the film his character shows how intricate he is. He has a conversation with Frigga (Rene Russo), the biological mother of Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and adoptive mother of Loki, which reveals how he cares for her, even in his insanity. Loki also makes agreements with some characters throughout the film which shock the audience as he travels back and forth on a scale of morality.

Surprisingly, the character development was the most interesting part of the movie was the character development, not the main villain, Malakith the Accursed (Christopher Eccleston), and his quest for destruction. Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) has a terrifying power “overtaking” her, Thor and Jane’s relationship matures when Jane meets Thor’s parents, Darcy (Kat Dennings) has much more screen time, Odin (Anthony Hopkins), Thor’s father, goes from a seemingly perfect god to an angry ruler, and Frigga, Thor’s mother, shows how strong and brave she is.

These aspects, along with the stunning beauty of Asgard (the realm in which Thor, Frigga and Odin are from) that is continually breathtaking, make Thor: The Dark World not only a better movie than its predecessor, but a standout in all superhero films. I’m sure it won’t be long before I go see it again.