Alan Dee’s film preview: Thor comes thundering back with a big bangs blockbuster

All right, let’s get the obvious out of the way for starters – there’s a new Thor movie out.
Chris Hemsworth stars in ThorChris Hemsworth stars in Thor
Chris Hemsworth stars in Thor

And what else can we say about it? Pass...

I’ll be honest, this sort of Game Of Thrones meets Thundercats mash-up leaves me cold, no matter how much money they throw at the screen.

I can’t get the hang of the names, I can’t remember who is siding with who, and I just don’t care.

Chris Hemsworth stars in ThorChris Hemsworth stars in Thor
Chris Hemsworth stars in Thor

So let’s just leave it at this: Chris Hemsworth returns to the dressing up box to take on a foe older than the universe itself, a year on from his last outing along with other Marvel cartoon characters.

In Thor: The Dark World grizzled Anthony Hopkins pops up again as Odin, the new baddy on the block is Christopher Eccleston, Thor has to look up his human love interest Natalie Portman and also needs the help of his bad boy half-brother Loki .

Director Alan Taylor, who has helmed episodes of Game Of Thrones in the past but has probably had nothing to do with Thunderrcats, calls the shots.

Oh, and there’s a spectacular battle in which much of London is destroyed.

Big, silly, star-studded, expensive, and a bit of a bore, I’m afraid.

This is more like it – top British talent telling a proper story.

Welcome Judi Dench, welcome Steve Coogan, and welcome Philomena – another of the growing number of films made with the more mature audience in mind.

Dame Judi plays a sparky Irish woman who can’t get over the fact that, as a young girl, the nuns snatched her baby son and sold him to some rich Yanks to give him a better life. Well, that was their story and they were sticking to it.

50 years on, she wants to find him, and Coogan is thegrumpy hack who helps her.

Like The Magdalene Laundries and Oranges And Sunshine before it, this is based on a true story but it’s not out to bash the nuns or the Catholic church – it’s just a moving tale of mother love, loss and reunion, and very well told.

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