Thor

Stars:**

Thor belongs to the Marvel comics’ series of superhoes who together make up the team of Avengers. However,don’t go in expecting Iron Man’s edge or even drama you would normally associate with a director as steeped in Shakespeare as Branagh.

This is a straightforward superhero film,with straightforward characters,straightforward villains,straightforward loyal friends,straightforward Earthlings — remarkably unfazed at running into gods at a New Mexico intersection — and a straightforward godly abode creaking under its own weight in gold. Why is it in 3D? Hard to say,given that not even Thor’s Hammer gets hurled straight at us for a good old-natured scare.

Hemsworth does well enough as the strapping,goodlooking Thor,the Nordic God of Thunder,proud and vain of his powers,till he disturbs a carefully nurtured peace between their realm of Asgard and the realm of Jogenheim housing the evil Frost kingdom. Thor’s angry father Odin (Hopkins) banishes him to Earth,stripped of his powers,to make him learn a lesson. Thence steps up Thor’s younger brother Loki (Hiddleston),who has always oscillated between love for big brother and for the big throne. With Thor out of the picture,which may or may not have been orchestrated by Loki,the younger brother’s dark side comes to the fore.

So that’s how the battle between these two gods with their respective powers comes to Earth,and that’s how it encounters Jane (Portman),a scientist who studies storms and who runs her observation trailer straight into Thor,who is on his way down from the skies.

That’s the closest the film comes to a lightning strike. The rest is a pretty mild drizzle.