Thor (2011)

For my birthday on Wednesday Andrew took me out for lunch and tea, and inbetween we saw Thor - just a few years earlier we saw Iron Man in London on my birthday, so it was nice to follow the Marvel-movie tradition! And just as I was blown away with how good Iron Man proved to be, Thor is up there with the best comic book adaptations yet.

It felt so much different than other Marvel or even DC movies, pitched at just the right level between funny and dramatic, Kenneth Branagh's steady hand kept things from getting ridiculous - and with the subject matter, costumes and themes it was an ever-present danger that it could have all gone a bit Flash Gordon. Instead I was rivetted to the Shakespearean themes, of Thor (a buff and surprisingly funny Chris Hemsworth) and his rivallry with brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston), who had more layers than I expected, and both have complex relationships with dad Odin, a marvel-lous Anthony Hopkins.

I thought that the movie would start in Thor's far off home-land of Asgard and then transfer to present day USA for the rest of the running time, but both locations co-existed throughout, and the drama in Asgard was countered with a lighter touch in smalltown USA, where Natalie Portman, Stellan Skarsgård and Kat Dennings played the scientists who find Thor in the middle of the desert, after Odin has banished him from Asgard. There are some hilarious fish-out-of-water-moments, especially when Thor's friends turn up to find him. A few knowing references to other Marvel heroes and another cracking Stan Lee cameo, plus a post-credits Samuel L. Jackson headfuck were the cherries on top of a refreshing, dramatic and joyful addition to the comic book hero canon.