LOCKED : Tuesday 25th March 2025

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'LOCKED' this week, and this American action thriller film is Directed by David Yarovesky who made his feature film making debut with 2014's 'The Hive', and which he would follow up with 'Brightburn' in 2019 and 'Nightbooks' in 2021. This film is an English language remake of the 2019 Argentinian action thriller film '4'x4', has generated mixed or average reviews and has so far grossed US$1.1M since its release in the US and here in Australia last week. 

The film opens up with down on his luck small time criminal in an auto repair shop attempting to get his van back on the road, but with US$450 still owing on the repair job the owner of the shop tells him to get lost and come back when he has the funds to cover the cost of repairs. The guy sees a wallet on a nearby trolley and spies an opportunity, so he creates a scene involving a heavy set mechanic who man handles him forcing him back against the trolley, and with that the wallet is lifted. He promptly leaves saying he'll be back on Friday. Walking down the street his partner calls screaming down the phone saying why he didn't pick up their young daughter from school as planned. He apologises but his lame excuse falls on deaf ears. He removes a bunch of notes from the wallet, and then ditches it. He buys something to eat and three scratch cards. He then calls several 'associates' and asks them all to loan him some money, but they all hang up on him and soon as he says his name, Eddie. 

And so Eddie (Bill Skarsgard) walks along the street surreptitiously pulling at car door handles in the hope that one of them will open. He comes across a public parking lot, in the middle of which is parked a very sleek looking black SUV, with the name DOLUS emblazoned in big lettering on the rear tail gate. He pulls at the drivers side door handle and it opens, much to his amazement. He climbs in, and quickly sets about exploring the interior for anything of value that he can steal. When all he finds is a pair of sunglasses he decides to exit, but the doors are all locked. He tries frantically pulling at every door handle but to no avail. He finds a tyre wrench in the rear and first tries to pull away the trim to the drivers side door but badly cuts his arm when reaching for the lock mechanism. 

He then tries to smash the glass but its seems the glass is smash proof. He tries kicking out the window with both feet, but that's no good either. He then pulls out a revolver and shoots off one round at the window, and the bullet ricochets off the glass and straight into his lower leg. He writhes around in agony as blood pours onto the carpet. Then the phone rings with a message on the display saying 'Answer Me'. Eddie ignores it, until the caller rings off. It rings again, and again Eddie ignores it, and again, and again. Eventually Eddie answers the call. It is Friday evening. 

The caller states his name as William, the owner of the vehicle that Eddie is now trapped inside, a retired Doctor who was born in a small town in South Wales, who made his money by working hard for decades, and who now has terminal prostate cancer and has about four months to live. Eddie pleads with him to let him go, but William is not the sort of man to be bargained with, does not suffer fools lightly, and wants to teach Eddie a lesson and the consequences of his actions. 

William explains that the car has been modified to his own specifications, including bullet proof glass, one way windows so nobody can see into the car, mobile phone jamming technology, four internal cameras, soundproofing, and everything about the car can be controlled remotely. After a while Eddie falls asleep. He wakes up the next morning and his arm and leg are bandaged up. 

And so Saturday comes and goes, as does Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. During this time William and Eddie converse frequently, with Eddie pleading to be released, then cussing and cursing, then turning on the Mr. Nice Guy routine all to no avail. Every time Eddie cusses, so William sends an electric shock through the front or rear seats to teach him a further lesson. William at one point turns the air conditioning down so low for a prolonged period of time that Eddie turns blue, and on another occasion turns the aircon up so high that Eddie strips down to his jocks. William also plays Swiss yodelling music at such a high volume for hours on end, almost sending Eddie over the edge. All the while Eddie has long since exhausted his supply of water, and has taken to pissing in his water bottle and in a moment of desperation drinks his own urine to stay hydrated. He also has no food. 

And so on Tuesday night with the rain pouring down, Eddie out of frustration once again, gets into the drivers seat and stabs away at the electronic ignition repeatedly with his finger. The engine fires up, and he's elated. But his high hopes of escape are very short lived as the steering wheel is being handled remotely and a message comes up on the screen that driverless mode selected. And so the car makes its way out of the car park and across the city streets, sometimes abiding by the rules of the road and at other times driving recklessly, at speed, and weaving in and out of other cars. The vehicle passes an alleyway in which two thugs and violently beating up someone who is slumped on the ground. The car comes to a halt metres away from the pair who at first continue pummelling their victim. One of the thugs looks up and into the glare of the headlights and pulls a gun pointing it at the car. The car then lurches forward and mows down the thug and then reverses back over him. The second thug makes a bolt for it on foot and eventually comes to a chained gate, as the car comes to a halt just a few meters away. Eddie pleads with William to stop, but William is relentless and eventually crushes the thug to death against the heavily padlocked wire gate.

The car then drives to a multi-storey carpark and up to the roof top and parks beside another black vehicle. A shadowy figure gets out of the other vehicle and approaches the SUV winding down the drivers side window just one-third of the way down. He introduces himself as William (Anthony Hopkins), and gives Eddie a bottle of water to drink which he downs in one gulp. He then hands Eddie a cable tie and tells him to secure himself to the bar located under the seat. Eddie complies with this request and secures both his hands to the bar, so that he is bent down awkwardly with his head at the same level as the fascia panel above the glove box. 

William gets into the drivers seat and drives off, telling Eddie to prepare himself for a long journey. On the journey Eddie goads William asking him what his plans are for him, and how he's going to dispose of his body; and also asking him what happened to his family. William says that his daughter Amy was killed by an unknown assailant who shot Amy in the neck and she died in his arms, and the Police never actively pursued the case, which is in part the reason why he lost all faith in law enforcement. After a while of conversational toing and froing, Eddie is able to manipulate a vehicle kill switch located under the glove box with his foot (having taken a photo of the fuse box days earlier with his mobile phone). This cuts all power to the vehicle. In the ensuing fracas William fires off a round at Eddie, but as the SUV hits a rock on a tight corner in the road, the shot goes astray and the bullet hits the front windscreen, ricochets off to the passenger side window, then the rear window before ricocheting back in the direction of William's front seat, through that and into William's upper back. The car tumbles end over end down a deep ravine and comes to rest right side up at the bottom. William is barely conscious, and Eddie's face is battered, bruised and bloodied having come into contact with the fascia panel on numerous occasions. He is able to cut himself free from the cable ties, just as the engine catches fire. He scrambles to the back and smashes away at the rear window with the tyre wrench eventually breaking the glass allowing him to escape as the flames engulf the car completely. 

It is now Wednesday morning and the sun is rising. His phone rings and its his daughter Sarah, asking him if he'll collect her from school today at 2:15pm. Hardly able to speak and dog tired Eddie says yes of course, he'll be there. He scrambles back up to the road and waits for a passing vehicle, which arrives shortly after, and offers him a lift and a thick heavy jacket to keep him warm. Earlier Eddie had removed a partially scratched scratch card from his pocket revealing two $500 numbers. He scrapes away at the other two numbers to reveal a third $500 number. He has won $500 enough to clear his debt to the garage and get his van back in time for him to collect Sarah as planned at 2:15pm. At the auto shop at 2:05pm the shop owner says that he can collect his van but its parked in out back and will take about half an hour. Eddie can't wait that long. Meanwhile 2:15pm comes and Sarah (Ashley Cartwright) is waiting patiently outside the school gates for her Dad. Eddie comes bounding down the street on a kids bike that he saw in the auto repair shop, jumps off and the pair embrace. 

With 'Locked', Director David Yarovesky has delivered us a movie shot largely in a single location that serves to up the ante on the claustrophobia and the tension evident in the actions and reactions of the man trapped inside the limited confines of a souped up SUV. In this respect the film works well, and Bill Skarsgard delivers a solid enough performance to make his role convincing, ably supported by the always dependable Anthony Hopkins as the ageing and dying sociopath determined to serve up a slice of retribution as only he knows how. The mid-section meanders along a bit and gets a little repetitive at times, but at a fairly brisk 93 minute run time, this film will hold your interest and is worth the price of your ticket to see these two actors go head to head in an emotional and at times violent thrill ride. 

'Locked' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

ONE LIFE : Tuesday 2nd January 2024.

I saw the PG Rated 'ONE LIFE' earlier this week, and this British biographical drama film is Directed by James Hawes in his feature film debut, although he has been Directing both single and multiple episodes of TV series for a number of years taking in the likes of 'Doctor Who', 'Merlin', 'Penny Dreadful', 'Black Mirror', 'The Alienist', 'Snowpiercer' and 'Slow Horses' most recently. This film is based on the book 'If It’s Not Impossible…The Life of Sir Nicholas Winton' by Barbara Winton, and it had its World Premiere screening at the Toronto International Film Festival on 9th September last year, was released in the UK on 1st January, and has garnered generally favourable critical reviews.

The film opens up in the suburbs of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England in 1987 with an ageing Nicholas Winton (Anthony Hopkins) pulling up to his house in h car and walking into his home with two handfuls of charity collection boxes, which he empties on the kitchen bench and begins sorting and counting the coin donations. He is interrupted by his wife Grete (Lena Olin) who chastises him for the amount of storage boxes, files and paraphernalia he has stacked up in the lounge room and his home office. She once again reminds him that after fifty years it is time he has a clean out and a de-clutter, especially considering that his pregnant daughter is expected home for Christmas and that they'll need the room. In his office, she pulls on a drawer of his desk to reveal a leather briefcase with the initials T.C. in faded gold lettering, saying that it is about time too that he did something about that, to which he promptly closes the drawer.

We then flashback to 1938 and a young Nicholas Winton (Johnny Flynn) is working as a stockbroker in London, but is wracked by a sense of duty to lend whatever support and aid he can to the groups of largely Jewish children in the recently Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia, just before the beginning of WWII. He visits Prague for a week, having been allowed time off work to do so, to see first hand the extent of the task he has vowed to undertake. There he meets Trevor Chadwick (Alex Sharp), Martin Blake (Ziggy Heath) and Doreen Warriner (Romola Garai) of the British Committee for Refugees from Czechoslovakia. Shocked by the what he witnessed in Prague in the makeshift camps housing countless displaced men, women and children, he telegrams his office to say he needs more time. 

Winton then calls his mother Babi Winton (Helena Bonham Carter) in London to enlist her assistance in lobbying the House of Commons to approve the entry of child refugees. Eventually, the House agrees upon the provision that younger than 17 years of age are permitted entry, provided they had a place to stay, a warranty of £50 was deposited per person for their eventual return to their own country, plus a handful of other conditions, and that all the necessary accompanying paperwork was in order. 

Back in 1987 and Grete is off on a short break to Europe, leaving Nicholas at home to begin the arduous task of clearing and de-cluttering their lounge room and study, which he does successfully, by burning many of the storage boxes in his back garden, much to Grete's very pleasant surprise when she arrives back home. On his desk rests the leather briefcase which it is revealed contains a scrapbook containing photographs and lists of the children, including their parents' names and the names and addresses of the families that took them in. Nicholas has lunch with Martin Blake (Jonathan Pryce) who says that the scrapbook is testimony to his determination in bringing back so many children and that he has a connection with Robert Maxwell who would be very interested in sighting it. And so Nicholas receives a call from Elisabeth Maxwell (Marthe Keller), a Holocaust researcher and wife of media magnate Robert Maxwell, and is stunned to learn that Winton was involved in the rescue and relocation of 669 children from Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia in 1938/39. 

Back in early 1939 Winton is in London with Babi waiting track side for the arrival of trainloads of children over the course of several months with eight trains successfully making the journey across to London, and being successfully relocated with foster parents. However, the ninth train bringing 250 children across was scheduled to leave Prague on 1st September 1939, but was unable to depart, with Hitler's invasion of Poland on the same day the Second World War had begun. What became of those 250 children remains unknown but in all likelihood they perished in the Nazi concentration camps. 

Thanks to Robert Maxwell, the wider world found out about his work in February 1988 during an episode of the BBC television programme 'That's Life!' when he was invited as a member of the audience. At one point, Winton's scrapbook was shown and his achievements were explained. The host of the programme, Esther Rantzen (Samantha Spiro), introduced Winton to children he had helped to rescue live on air. 

In a follow-up programme of 'That's Life!' a week later at which Winton was again in the audience with his wife by his side this time, Rantzen asked whether anybody in the audience was among the children who owed their lives to Winton, and if so, to stand. At which, the entire audience rose to its feet surrounding Winton and applauded, with those closest embracing him. 

In a closing scene Nicholas and Grete are seen entertaining a family of a now adult rescued child and her family including several grandchildren at their home as they all make their way down to his swimming pool. In the closing credits actual footage of those now adult refugees is seen, together with Winton who in the 1983 Birthday Honours, was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), and in the 2003 New Year Honours, he was knighted for services to humanity, in recognition of his work on the Czech Kindertransport. He died in 2015 at the age of 106.

With 'One Life' here first time feature film Director James Hawes has delivered us a film that will resonate with WWII historians and those being introduced to the story of Nicholas Winton for the first time. This story of how a small group of people made such an impactful difference to the lives of 669 children, and how Winton only gained recognition for his efforts some fifty years after the fact is a story that needed to be told, and in weaving the timelines between 1938/39 and 1987/88 Director Hawes has eeked out a thought provoking and emotional biographical drama, paired with strong performances from Hopkins, Bonham Carter and Flynn that is unlikely to leave barely a dry eye in the house by the time the end credits roll.

'One Life' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THOR : RAGNAROK - Tuesday 31st October 2017.

'THOR : RAGNAROK' which I saw earlier this week, is the third film in the 'Thor' franchise and the seventeenth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and has been much hyped, keenly awaited and highly anticipated since the first trailers were released and New Zealander Taika Waititi was announced for Directing duties. With a production budget of US$180M and filmed largely at Australia's Gold Coast film studios, the film has already received largely positive press, hailing it the best of the three so far, ahead of its US release in early November, and its Australian release last week. The first two films in the series, 2011's 'Thor' and 2013's 'Thor : The Dark World' were made for a combined US$303M and grossed between them close to US$1.1B, so expectations are running high for this instalment. The film has so far taken US$109M.

By way of a lesson into Norse mythology, Ragnarok is a series of future events, including a great battle, foretold to ultimately result in the death of a number of major figures (including the gods Odin, Thor and Loki), the occurrence of various natural disasters, and the subsequent submersion of the world in water. Following such a cataclysmic event, the world will resurface afresh, renewed and fertile, the surviving and returning gods will meet, and the world will be repopulated by two human survivors. This film then, is set four years after the events of 'Thor: The Dark World', and two years following on from 'Avengers: Age of Ultron'. As the film opens we find Thor wrapped in chains imprisoned on some far away planet by the fire demon Surtur (voiced by Clancy Brown and acted in MoCap by Taika Waititi) having unsuccessfully scoured the four corners of the universe for the Infinity Stones. In a comical opening scene we see Thor dangling by a chain deep within a cavernous cave taunting Surtur who tells him that his father Odin, has abandoned Asgard and that the realm will soon be destroyed in a foretold Ragnarok as soon as he is able to unite himself with The Eternal Flame that burns beneath the city of Asgard. Using his mighty hammer, Mjolnir, Thor is able to defeat Surtur and remove his crown, so preventing the apocalyptic Ragnarok . . . or so he thinks. Thor returns to Asgard.

On Asgard, Thor arrives to find Loki (Tom Hiddleston) posing as Odin (Anthony Hopkins) and therefore ruling over all of Asgard. Thor can see over Loki's ruse, and reveals his true identity to the people of Asgard. He also convinces Loki to help find his father. They travel to Earth and with the help of Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) they locate Odin hanging out in Norway. Odin explains to his sons that he is dying and has little time left. He further explains that with his passing, this will allow his first born daughter Hela, the Goddess of Death (Cate Blanchett) to be freed from prison where she was exiled to long long ago. Hela has at one time back in the dim and distant past been the leader of Asgard's almighty armies and with Odin they conquered the Nine Realms, and built Asgard to be the mighty civilisation it now is. But Hela got too big for her boots and became over ambitious, hence her imprisonment and being written out of the family history, to the extent that she was not even known of by Thor or Loki.

Odin dies and almost immediately Hela arrives. Hela commands that Thor and Loki kneel before her, but they refuse. Thor goes into battle mode determined to wipe his older sister from the face of the Earth, but she'll have none of it, for Hela is all powerful and in a show of strength stops Mjolnir at arms length and crushes it as though it were glass. Thor's hammer falls to the floor shattered into several chunks with Thor looking on in disbelief. At this Thor and Loki decide its time to get outta Dodge and summons the Bifrost Bridge to return them to Asgard. Hela pursues them and chases them through the wormhole overpowering them and causing the two brothers into space to supposedly perish and die, while she continues onto Asgard. She quickly asserts her power and single handedly wipes out the Asgardian army, resurrects the ancient dead with whom she once fought and who are buried deep within a secret vault below the castle, and appoints the new sentry of the Bifrost Bridge, Skurge (Karl Urban) as her new executioner. While Hela and Skurge are otherwise pre-occupied stamping their mark on Asgard, Heimdall (Idris Elba) who is in self imposed exile during Loki's reign, scales the mountainside and steals the sword that controls the Bridge, to prevent Hela from using the Bridge for her own empire building gain.

Meanwhile, Thor lands on the garbage planet Sakaar, and is immediately picked up by locals who are then overpowered by a lone mercenary and bounty hunter called Scrapper 142 (Tessa Thompson). She in turn overpowers Thor and drags him off to meet the planets immortal ruler, Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum) who runs a gladiator arena for the sport of the local population.

Grandmaster determines that Thor should fight in his Contest of Champions against his so far unbeaten champion prize fighter. After a brief introduction, a lesson in all things Sakaar, getting his golden locks shorn off by a Stan Lee cameo appearance and befriending a stone being named Korg (a laugh out loud Taika Waititi performance rendered in MoCap) as his only ally on the garbage planet, Thor is thrust into the arena to await his fate up against an all conquering foe that he does not yet know. Meanwhile, Loki has emerged too and has ingratiated himself to the Grandmaster and is living the free and easy life, unlike his now captive brother who tries to reason with him so that he can be set free too. But, Loki will have none of it!

As Thor readies himself under the spotlights of the arena, so he comes face to face with old buddy 'from work', Hulk (Mark Ruffalo). The pair clash in a brutal battle with Thor gaining the upper hand and almost defeating his old friend, before Grandmaster fixes the fight to guarantee Hulk's victory and to save face. Still held in captivity at the mercy of Grandmaster, Thor and Hulk, begin to reconcile their differences. Thor needs a plan and a Team to get back to Asgard, before Hela unleashes more death and destruction on Asgard and the Realms.

Thor tries to convince Hulk and Scrapper 142 to join forces and help him save Asgard and defeat Hela. They are not interested, even though he recognises Scrapper 142 as being one of the Valkyrie, a legendary force of female fighters who were all but wiped out trying to defend Asgard from Hela in days long since gone by. So Thor decides to go it alone using the Quinjet that bought Hulk to Sakaar two years previously. He breaks out of the Grandmaster's palace and gets to the Quinjet. Hulk follows behind where a recorded message on a monitor from Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) is the catalyst for Hulk turning back into Bruce Banner for the first time since the incidents at Sokovia two years previously.

Grandmaster orders that Scrapper 142 and Loki join forces to hunt down Thor and Banner, but the pair are hardly a match made in Heaven, and ultimately Scrapper 142 has a change of heart, takes Loki prisoner and agrees to join forces with the other two. Loki is however, reluctant to be left behind on the garbage planet now that he is a wanted man, and so he provides the group with the means to commandeer one of Grandmasters ships. They then set free the other gladiators led by Korg who stage a revolution.

Loki, being one not to be trusted, attempts to betray his brother but Thor can see through this, and immobilises him and leaves him behind. However, he is soon picked up by an unsuspecting Korg and the revolutionaries. Thor, Banner and Scrapper 142 escape through a giant wormhole known affectionately as the Devil's Anus, and arrive back on Asgard.

Upon arrival the three are confronted by Heimdall and the citizens of Asgard who are under siege by Hela, Skurge, their undead forces and a giant man eating hound that Hela has at her command. Banner transforms into Hulk again and with Scrapper 142 they fight Skurge and his forces, while Thor is off to see to unfinished business with Hela. Loki, Korg and the gladiators arrive aboard a giant ship having come through the Devil's Anus too. They join in the fight while the fleeing citizens of Asgard board the giant ship that will take them to someplace else, safe!

In his fight with Hela, Thor is overpowered and suffers stabbings, slashing and the loss of an eye. But theses mere scrapes do not deter him from the end game. In a moment of clarity, Thor has a vision of Odin, his father, that makes him see that only Ragnarok can defeat Hela. While Thor, Hulk and Scrapper 142 keep Hela distracted in battle, Loki sets off to retrieve the crown of Surtur and thrust it into the Eternal Flame, so resurrecting the fire demon bringing on Ragnarok to engulf all of Asgard and destroy Hela.

Thor and his crew board the giant ship with the now safe citizens of Asgard. Thor is crowned King, and when asked by Korg where to, he replies Earth, where perhaps he intends to rebuild Asgard. Watch out for the mid-credits scene and if you can wait it out until the final credits have rolled, there is a closing sequence featuring Grandmaster. The film also stars cameo performances from Matt Damon, Sam Neill and Liam Hemsworth (brother of Chris).

It is hardly surprising that Critics have heaped praise upon 'Thor : Ragnarok'. Whilst the film takes the 'Thor' movie franchise off in a new direction, and the MCU for that matter, the film retains many of the Thor touchstones including the action, the spectacle and the characterisation but freshens them up with a deadpan sense of humour, sarcasm, a wild ride and fun that is not out of place. For a hitherto little known New Zealand Director, Writer and Actor, Taika Waititi (whose previous credits include 'Boy', 'What We Do In The Shadows' and 'Hunt for the Wilderpeople'), what he has achieved here in his first big budget epic scale Hollywood picture is reinvigorate the Thor character and those around him, but reenergise the series and reestablish our faith in the MCU. Solid performances (if a little tongue in cheek at times), a good story, epic battles that are always preposterous but entertaining nonetheless, bold Direction and endless fun from start to finish - catch it on the big screen, and you won't be disappointed.

-Steve, at Odeon Online- 

THOR : archive from 14th May 2011.

The fourth film in the Marvel Universe hit our big screens this week with the arrival of 'THOR'. Contained within an all star cast and an accomplished Actor/Director at the helm, and with the backing of a solid comic book storyline and a solid Studio. I must admit I went into this not expecting much, but came out pleasantly surprised! With a budget of US$150M Ken Branagh has crafted a solid rendering of the Marvel Comic Book which subsequently went on to generate US$450M at the global Box Office and give us the sequel 'Thor : The Dark World' in late 2013 with 'Thor : Ragnarok' now due for a late 2017 release. 'Thor' has had a troubled history going back as far as 1991 when Sam Raimi developed a concept for a big screen adaptation. After kicking around in film development hell, it went to various studios and Matthew Vaughn over the successive years before landing at the feet of Kenneth Branagh . . . and the rest, as they say, is history!

With Australia's Chris Hemsworth as our Viking God like hero Thor, the story kicks off on a land far far away in Asgard where Odin (Sir Anthony Hopkins) is about to give his throne to his son, & heir Thor. But, the celebrations are interrupted by an attack from The Frost Giants who seek to retrieve the long held 'Casket of Ancient Winters' from the Asgardians and return it to their own realm. Thor goes in hot pursuit despite the wishes of Odin to Jotunheim to retrieve the casket and confront their ruler. Thor, his brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and three others are outnumbered and outmatched by the mighty Frost Giants, until Odin arrives and brings things to heel.

Returning to Asgard, Odin is none too pleased and banishes Thor for his disobedience to the third rock from the sun, AKA Midgard AKA Earth, now stripped of his Godly powers to live as a mere mortal joined only by his hammer, Mjolnir, with which to protect and defend himself. Travelling through a wormhole he descends to Earth landing in New Mexico where he eventually teams up with travelling astrophysicist Dr. Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) and her small entourage of Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings) and Dr. Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard).

When Mjolnir is found by the locals protruding out of a crater in the nearby desert, S.H.I.E.L.D Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) is dispatched to investigate. When Thor locates his magical hammer (which only he can wield) he seeks to retrieve it but discovers he is unable to lift it, having seemingly lost his former powers. He is captured, manages to escape, resigns himself to life as an Earthling and settles down to a romance with Jane Foster.

Back on Asgard other forces are at work conspiring against Odin, and Thor back on Planet Earth. Loki has discovered that in fact he is not Thor's brother but is Odin's adopted son, and in fact his father is Laufey - King of the Frost Giants. In all his rage Loki offers Laufey a deal in exchange for his ascension to the throne of Asgard, while Odin has been sent into a deep sleep, and Thor is in exile in some other far away place. When a number of Odin's loyal followers get wind of this plan, they hatch their own plan to alert Thor but must travel through the 'Bifrost' - an intergalactic bridge that connects two worlds - that is guarded by the all-seeing all-hearing Heimdall (Idris Elba).

Loki though gets word of the plan and sends a giant killing robot like machine to dispense with Thor and those that have followed, and so back in sleepy Hicksville, New Mexico a battle royal breaks out between Thor, his returned mates from Asgard, and Loki's killing machine - mayhem and wanton destruction ensues, including Thor being taken out and subsequently knocking on death's door. At this though his powers return and he is able to wield the necessary forces over Mjolnir as his strength returns and thwart the robotic killing machine sent by Loki.

As Thor and his buddies return to Asgard through the Bifrost, Loki dispenses with Laufey and puts a spin on recent events to convince Odin that he is a worthy successor to the throne - especially now that Thor is out of the way . . . or so he thinks! As Thor & Loki clash back on Asgard, Odin eventually intervenes saving Thor, as Loki falls into an abyss caused by the destruction of the Bifrost which he had intended to use to destroy Jotunheim. Thor reconciles with Odin, but comes to terms with the fact that he is not yet ready for the throne, while back on Earth love interest Jane Foster, seeks a way to open up the portal to Asgard.

Also starring Renee Russo (as Odin's wife and Thor's mother Frigga) and uncredited cameo's by Samuel L. Jackson (as Nick Fury of course), Jeremy Renner (as Clint Barton AKA Hawkeye) and watch out for the obligatory appearance of Stan Lee. A solid first instalment for this superhero and future 'Avenger' and worth a look on DVD & BluRay now, if you missed it on the big screen.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-