THOR

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Starring Chris Hemsworth

Trailer

Y

Thank Gods for that. Anyone giving even a wandering fuck about the state of the Marvel Movie Universe was left bleeding after last year’s Iron Man 2, a frat boy nightmare detailing one man’s valiant battle against a script scribbled on the back of a napkin. Thor redresses those wrongs by actually caring about itself and its audience. The cast’s great (except for Anthony Hopkins), the script’s half-decent (unlike Anthony Hopkins), the sets are ropey (like… that guy.). But whocaresbecause it’s all so likeable, an almost unheard-of quality in the jizz-lobbing money fight that is blockbuster Hollywood today. Two stars are born in the shapely shape of Chris Hemsworth, the man-God who’s made his personal trainer the most hard-working man in the industry as well as his dirty foil Tom Hiddleton, playing Loki as a confused vulpine bastard with an eye on the ultimate villain prize in Joss Whedon’s Avengers next year. It’s fun, in short, while its greatest achievement is to make an uncaring multiplex give as much of a one about a stately race of uptight celestial Vikings as they did for an alcoholic man with a metallic heart. Actually scratch that – its real worth lies in the fact that the blockbuster bar for the summer has been set by Kenneth Branagh, a man whose surname alone makes you want to punch out Shakespeare; well played sir… well played. Though next time write more in the script for Oscar-winner Natalie Portman than ‘Cute up, Doe Eyes.’ Feminism fail, large superhero win.