Thor - Triple Play (Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy) [2011] [Region Free]

Great.

For the uninitiated, that's the Thor. God of thunder from the Norse pantheon. Son of Odin. And in comics oft sent to Earth to learn humility in a human alter ego and occasionally do battle with duplicitious sibling Loki.And be a member of superhero team the Avengers.As we'll see next year...In the meantime, Thor, like Iron Man did three years ago, takes the character and gives him an origin movie.Director Kenneth Branagh tackles the problem of how to mix Norse gods and real world on screen by remembering Clarke's first law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Thus the norse gods living in Asgard here are basically super advanced aliens who once came to Earth long ago to do battle with the Frost Giants - nasty and not quite so advanced aliens - when they attacked tenth century Norway.Their worlds are connected by a shimmering bridge which is guarded by a gatekeeper. A bridge that in our technology might also be referred to as a stargate or a wormhole.But that's all exposition we get after a brief opening when astrophysicist Jane Foster and two friends are investigating strange readings in the sky and promptly knock down a man who comes out of nowhere.Jumping back to the exposition shows that this is Thor. And that he and his brother Loki were raised by father Odin who hasn't been to war since he beat the frost giants. And that Thor is a bit more impetuous and up for a fight than Loki is.When the opportunity for that comes going against his fathers wishes seem him banished to Earth, and his hammer Mjolnir dropped into the desert [what you saw in that post credits scene in Iron Man Two].Can Jane and her friends help Thor in his quest to get home?Is Loki up to no good? [yes but not just for the sake of it. He is given some very believable motivation]And what are SHIELD up to?As three worlds collide, people's lives will change forever.The exposition is involving but once you get past it and into the character drama this does rather click, thanks to the efforts of a pretty good cast.Natalie Portman does very well with the role of Jane, turning what could have been a rather thankless part into something decent, and stopping Kat Dennings as her friend Darcy from running away with all the attention, as looks might happen early on.Tom Hiddleston has just the right voice to play a trickster god, and his Loki is a subtle and dangerous villain.For a wise old king, you can't do much better than Anthony Hopkins, and he thus makes Odin a memorable turn. Despite the plot rather limiting his screen time for a lot of it.Chris Hemsworth - best known for his brief appearance in Star Trek as Kirk's doomed father - takes the lead role and does make the most of it. Handling both fish out of water comedy and battle scenes with equal aplomb.And Idris Elba makes the gatekeeper of Asgard into an appealing individual with a nice sense of honour and loyalty.Mixing the character moments with fight scenes it does use it's budget judiciously - you never see too many people in asgard and most of the action takes place either in the desert or in a sall town - but that doesn't really seem to matter too much.As a franchise opener it's a fine introduction to the character. Although it does have a rather open ended conclusion the end credits assure us, in a way they haven't done in movies since older Bonds, that Thor will return. And he will. But more on that later.Whereas Iron Man two attracted some criticism as being a trailer for the avengers this avoids that - despite the end assurance that thor will be in it - but for those who know their marvel comices:Watch out for cameos from two former Thor writers. Stan Lee of course, but also another more recent one.Listen for references to a scientist and a billionaire.Watch for a sniper who appears in one single scene and has a certain weapon of choice.And as ever stay till the very end of the credits for an extra scene, that gives some indication of what will happen in the avengers movie. Which on this basis of this, could be quite a big scale event.The dvd has the following language and subtitle options:Languages: English, Hindi.Subtitles: English, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Hindi, Norwegian, Swedish.The disc begins with a few trailers that you can skip over by using the next button on the dvd remote.The only special features are:A commentary from the director.Four deleted scenes. These run from ninety seconds to two minutes each [approx] and can be watched all in a row or one at a time. Either with or without a commentary on them from the director. They're all quite good little characters moments.There's also a short promotional piece for the aforementioned Avengers movie. Mostly clips from the introductory movies for each character, coupled with footage from the 2010 San Diego Comic Con appearances of the actors to promote the film. And a few short clips involving writer/director Joss Whedon. Epileptics beware some flashing images in the middle of all this. It runs for a mere two minutes.

After Marvel Studios had great success in bringing Iron Man, a character perceived to be only popular in the comics, to the big screen, they began working on other solo hero projects with the overall aim to produce The Avengers; the first time a movie would be made using multiple characters from individual movies to share one universe. The Avengers movie is out now as I write this, so it prompted me to watch one of the earlier movies to see how the two link together.Thor is another one of Marvel's lesser-known characters outside the comic-books, compared to the likes of Spider-Man and Wolverine. Based loosely on the Norse legends, which are referenced in the movie as being inspired by the fictional Asgardian race, which is a nice bit of confusing 'chicken and the egg' theorem. Thor lives in Asgard with his father, Odin and brother, Loki, and acts as protectors of the nine realms across more insidious races such as the Frost Giants, but when the fragile truce between the Asgardians and Frost Giants of Jotunheim is threatened by Thor's strong-minded techniques, the Asgardian prince is banished to Midgard, better known to me and you as Earth.I was unsure whether I would like the Norse mythology aspects to the story, but the film manages to make it seem convincing by portraying the Asgardians as otherworldly gods that inhabit another 'realm' as opposed to being spiritual. The mixture of magic and technology that is showcased in the frankly stunning CGI city of Asgard helps us identify with the characters and grounds them nicely into our world, explaining that the more primitive humans in the past had to explain their technology away as being Gods, which created our myths and legends.The action scenes were very entertaining, and there was a healthy sense of humour to the proceedings too, which made the film very enjoyable. The 'fish out of water' scenes with Thor on Earth were handled well, but it was the sequences on Asgard that were the most visually and dramatically stunning. While I understand that the film needed to be set on Earth to both help the audience identify with the storyline, and secondly set up the forthcoming Avengers film, I do wish there had been more sequences in the fantastical Asgardian worlds. Perhaps a sequel would explore this area more, since it is something seldom shown in comic-book movies, which are so determined to set things in 'our universe'.The cast is really strong, with great performances from Chris Hemsworth (Thor) who manages to start the film as brash and impatient, but evolves into a charming and thoughtful character. I also liked the calculating and sly Loki, played by Tom Middleston, who is so subtle in his performance that those watching the film unaware of the characters histories would not expect him to change allegiances throughout the movie. He also plays Loki much more complicated than I would have expected.As a relatively novice to Thor (but not to comics), I really enjoyed this and found that it didn't require any prior knowledge from the comics, as it explained all of the characters well, and their relationship with each other. The robotic villian known as The Destroyer was actually quite threatening, despite looking too similar to Iron Man (something that is poked fun at in the dialogue, when The Destroyer first appears) and the Ice Giants didn't look quite as visually interesting as they could have been, so for any sequels, I would appreciate more varied designs for the enemies drawing on the fantastical elements of Thor's mythology once more.I watched this film on the 3D Blu-Ray version, and whilst the high-definition special effects were amazing, I did not find too much awe in the setpieces, and even forgot that I was experiencing it in 3D at one point. Whereas some movies, particularly animated ones, benefit from the 3D effect, this was not one of these and could easily be enjoyed in a plain Blu-Ray format.There were some neat special features, such as the special mini-movie, "The Consultant" which focused on Agent Coulson, the cameo SHIELD agent who has appeared in both Iron Man films and now, Thor. With Coulson said to be appearing in the Avengers movie too, along with Nick Fury, it was fun to see this short video delving into his history and tying the Marvel Cinematic Universe together.There was also a Digital Copy with my Blu-Ray, which unfortunately crashed on my PC, but through previous experiences they are very simple to install, especially using iTunes, but unfortunately because my disc had some smudges on the rim, it would not install the digital copy, and typically I cannot find the receipt. But for less clumsy disc handlers, I'm sure the digital copy installs perfectly and easily, then is able to be viewed on iPod, iPads or iPhones at ease.