Starring Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Tessa Thompson, Cate Blanchett, Karl Urban, Tom Hiddleston, Jeff Goldblum

Directed by Taika Waititi

Marvel, out now (UK), 3 November (US)

A catastrophe unleashes the Goddess of Death – and Asgard faces its final days.

How you’ll react to the third of the Thor movies depends on how you take the opening sequence, in which Thor is taken prisoner and faces off against an age old creature… breaking off every so often from the discussion because the chains from which he’s suspended have turned so that he’s facing away from his opponent. It’s self-aware comicbook comedy, that makes you both want to slap Thor silly and congratulate him on his handling of the situation.

It’s the most comedic of the Marvel movies, in many ways, and certainly the most fun for a very long time – much more so than Guardians Vol. 2, which felt like it was trying too hard. It’s also one of the bloodiest – Hela’s arrival in Asgard is marked by a massacre that deals with a number of familiar characters in ways that emphasizes just how casually death can arrive in such situations. It certainly doesn’t address criticisms of the way Marvel Studios has handled female characters – beyond Blanchett’s Hela and Thompson’s slave trader, few if any get names, and their characters are sketched in. (You have to wonder if Jaimie Alexander was meant to be involved – there’s certainly a Sif-sized portion of the narrative.)

What the movie does do very well is deal with Thor’s place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, using Chris Hemsworth’s comic timing to very good effect in the numerous gags at the character’s expense, but also making the God of Thunder face up to exactly what being a hero actually means. There’s a couple of very on-the-nose comments from Anthony Hopkins’ Odin in case the audience hasn’t got the point, but you can excuse those as we see the god face up to reality.

Karl Urban and Tom Hiddleston both run well with the material they’re given – Loki’s reaction to seeing the Hulk for the first time is priceless – with Urban bringing nuance to what could easily have been a lifeless and cliched role. Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk and Banner both get quite a bit of development, and Idris Elba seems to put more effort into any one scene in this than the entirety of the first Gunslinger movie!

Waititi keeps the pace up, with occasional flashes of theatrics that add further depth to the film (the flashback to the original battle with Hela is a case in point). Mark Mothersbaugh’s score is very different from other MCU contributions, despite musical shout-outs to Thor’s previous cinematic adventures.

Verdict: One of the best Marvel movies for a long time. 9/10

Paul Simpson