Thor

Seen Iron Man 2? That. Mostly. Only with magic.

In many respects, Thor needs no particular introduction, even if you don't read comics, because he's the Norse God of Thunder. He lives in Asgard, his dad is Odin, king of the gods, he fights ice giants a lot, that's him. Only not quite for the Marvel version. Presumably because of the theological implications of introducing Norse gods into an otherwise strictly Judeo-Christian, Asgardians aren't exactly gods; they're massively powerful, immortal, magic-wielding aliens. They used to appear on earth hundreds of years ago, because they were fighting a war against the Jotuns (ice giants), and Earth was a bit of a battle ground for this. Having freed Earth from the Jotuns, they left, only to take their place in myth and legend. So, inasmuch as there's any difference between a god and a massively powerful immortal that looks after mortals, and between magic and a Sufficiently Advanced technology, they're not really gods.

So, it's many centuries since the Asgardians beat the Jotuns, and peace has mostly reigned. However, following a minor incursion of three Jotuns into Asgard, Thor ignores his father's wishes, and travels to Jotunheim via Bifrost (the rainbow bridge of the gods, or a pandimensional wormhole projector, take your pick) to kick some ass, take some names, and demand some answers. This of course shatters the fragile peace, and for this Thor is stripped of his powers and exiled to Midgard. You know. Earth. Where we're from. There he meets astrophysicist Natalie Portman, who's kind of interested in this interdimensional wormhole thing that Thor's just appeared through. Additionally, SHIELD (the mob of secret service guys that Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) has been running behind the scenes in all the recent Marvel movies) turns up, interested in Thor's Hammer, Mjolnir, which has also appeared, and which due to a geas put on it by Odin, can only now be lifted by someone worthy, and who will gain the power of Thor if they do. (Shame they haven't got Captain America on the team yet, because he apparently qualified as worthy at one point.)

All of this mucking about is, of course, due to the machinations of Loki, Thor's younger brother, who's plotting to improve his position.

So, Thor must prove himself worthy, get his hammer back, and save the day. Easy.

As with all of this stuff, it's only ever going to work if it's fun. Fortunately, it's a lot of fun. Principal in making it all fun is new guy Chris Hemsworth. There may have been some suspicion initially that they were casting a relative unknown to keep the wage bill down when they finally got round to making The Avengers. However, these fears prove unfounded. He plays the role of a swaggering, arrogant seven foot tall mountain of Nordic muscle with gusto, but also with all the seriousness that it deserves - i.e. not that much. Hence, as much as this is a supernatural, superhuman, sci-fi action epic, it's also a bit of a fish-out-of-water comedy, which makes the whole thing eminently watchable inbetween the bits when things explode. Having said that, boy howdy do things explode.

I was wondering just what kind of a widescreen explodo-movie we could expect out of Dear, Dear Kenny Branarrgh. Turns out that despite the low-key pedigree of his earlier stuff, he's got an eye for a good special effect. One of the key special effects here is The Destroyer. The Destroyer is an enchanted suit of armour, about twelve feet tall, filled with magical flame which bursts forth as a lambent energy beam whenever it opens its visor. And under the direction of Loki, this engine of destruction is unleashed on a New Mexico town, which it proceeds to trash like a cross between a Toho Film monster and Gort from The Day The Earth Stood Still (the proper one.) It is deeply warming to see a sequence crafted to pay such homage to such classics of mayhem and destruction.

The film is perhaps not without its flaws - perhaps we linger on the human level stuff too long in the movie's midsection, leaving us with not enough time to enjoy Thor cutting loose and trashing stuff when his powers eventually are returned to him. But it's a small criticism. This is a film which takes the terribly restrictive box-ticking formula of the superhero origin movie, in which the hero isn't even the hero until the final 15 minutes, and makes something of it which is very entertaining. Looking forward to The Avengers all the more now.