This was my favourite of the Marvel franchises, but boy have we now plumbed the depths. Taika Waititi presents us here with a mess of a film that dumps just about all of the original exciting Norse mythology and legend, and substitutes it with something little better than a cartoon. Chris Hemsworth does try quite hard, and nobody could ever doubt Christian Bale's commitment to his roles - he must have lost half his bodyweight as he portrays the emaciated "Gorr". This poor fellow loses his daughter but has hopes that his local god will step in. Nope, as Jordan Peele might have said, and as the evil necro-sword mysteriously appears in his hand, he duly dispatches this thoughtless immortal and thereby vows to do the same for all the rest. When several Asgardian children are kidnapped and taken to the shadowland, it falls to Thor, "King Valkyrie" (Tessa Thompson) and the newly empowered - but terminally ill - "Jane" (Natalie Portman) to thwart this plan. Along the way, they try to recruit some other gods from different pantheons - notably Zeus (a hammily absurd Russell Crowe) but ultimately it's all down to these three to save the day. There is a bit of humour at the start - and maybe Jane Fonda would have been an useful addition, but for the most part this film is neither one thing nor another with too much romance - a serious illness that just didn't belong in a light-heated fantasy film that treats death as an occupational hazard for the characters; and the need to generate and sustain the supporting characters reduced the impact of Thor to little more than a team player in a red cape. The ending is weak, but frankly no more so than most of the rest of this truly disappointing feature. If you stick right to the end of the credits, you will see that perhaps Hercules is to be the next topic for this character - I can only hope Sir Kenneth Branagh is available. Looks great on a big screen, superb visual effects etc., but Marvel have lost their way with this...
