Thor

Ended up catching this on the most appropriate day of the week and as the first salvo of this Summer's blockbuster efforts and in particular a key part of Marvel's big Avengers plan it works pretty well.

Opening with a brief Earth set sequence the film soon zaps the audience to the other realm of Asgard, where Thor demonstrates his power, gets exiled, Loki plots and Anthony Hopkins collects his cheque. Then Thor must use his time on Earth to learn how to be humble, wise and not generally be a crass jock smartarse. Then he saves the day, obviously.

The Asgard based scenes are where the film could have easily failed and have slipped into overly campy territory but they are executed well striking a solid balance between the required Shakespearean mythic qualities and the much needed reality to sell the concept.

Design wise it is an excellent set of work both in the architecture of the Kingdom (both ultra modern and reminiscent of Norse myth) and the costuming ensure the characters look imposing rather than daft as easily could have been the case. In fact one can only imagine the presence Idris Elba's Stringer Bell could have had on the streets of Baltimore if he'd had access to the same wardrobe as Heimdall

Away from Elba who does well as the largely static Heimdall and Hopkins as Odin (who does ok but doesn't really put any real feeling into his role), the cast is pretty strong.

Natalie Portman is charming as Jane (even if she doesn't really convince as a scientist), Kat Dennings provides solid comedy support, Stellan Skarsgard manages to make a good first of a largely exposition based role and it's always good to see Clark Gregg's Agent Coulson.

But crucially it's Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston that really standout as brothers Thor and Loki. With Hemsworth bringing charm and physicality to his role alongside a sense of vulnerability as his Thor trends the path from cocksure through to lost before re finding purpose and humility.

Whilst Hiddleston's Loki is built more as the son looking for his father's acceptance rather than just a hissable villain. In fact it's the strong sense of relationship between Loki and Thor that helps the film through it's rather confused and slightly rushed climatic scenes.

And this is where the film does fall down, it does come across in the end almost as a two hour prologue to something bigger. Which in fact it actually is as it's here to setup Thor for his appearance in The Avengers. But you are now really starting to get a sense of Marvel's movie world building with brief mentions for Iron Man's Tony Stark, a Hawkeye cameo and the regulation post credit appearance of Samuel L Jackson's Nick Fury.

Despite this though it is an entertaining prologue for the most part with Kenneth Brannagh showing he has the lightness of touch needed to balance comedy (an early hospital based sequence is a highlight), adventure, perils and drama without the film feeling like it's violently shifting gear.

He makes a decent fist of the action sequences too, with Thor's multiple SHIELD agent takedown and an early brawl against some frost giants being the highlights although the final confrontation is a little unclear and not helped by some slightly dodgy effects.

Brannagh does also find time to include some nice bits of framing and a couple of quick shots that feel like they've been cribbed from the pages of the comic book source.

So overall, it's a fun film that gives you a sense that Marvel's grand scheme could well pay off very well indeed but standing by itself it does feel a little like the opening chapter rather than a whole story. And for what it's worth I did really like the closing line.