This forgettable piece of junk had one bright moment - the ebullient Stan Lee in a cameo as a truck driver. Now on to the bad stuff: everything else.

STORY: Probably solid as conceived by J Michael Straczynski. Definitely ruined by the credited scripters. Because ...

SCRIPT: Anyone who talks or writes knows to get your point across in as few words as necessary. Early on, Odin instructs his sons that although they do not seek war, "we have to be ready for it". A more regal, adult response would have been: "we have to be prepared". Odin words sounded like they were written by (or for) 10-year-olds. Sorry if this sounds nitpicky, but it was an indicator of the wretched mess of dialogue for the next two hours.

ACTING: Tom Hiddleston(Loki) seemed to try a bit; everyone else phoned it in. There is not a drop of emotion in evidence anywhere.

ART DIRECTION: Fake-looking all around - from the New Mexico town to Asgard and beyond. The Frost Giants and Destroyer were no better executed than what you find in a movie-of-the-week on the ScyFy Channel, maybe worse. And whose idea was it to make Bifrost, the Rainbow Bridge, a pavement of fiber-optic Lucite?!! Unbelievably bad. Only one person can take credit for that, and he is ...

KENNETH BRANAUGH (DIRECTOR): He has to be the weak link here. Too bad because he seems like a nice guy.

FINAL COMMENT: The story draws on Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's origin of THOR (Marvel version, of course) from 1968 - issues #158 and #159. The two comic greats had applied their cookie-cutter morality play to THOR, as they had to their other creations - Spiderman, Iron Man, Dr Strange to name a few - that of a self-absorbed individual gaining a conscience and becoming a hero. As usual, it was done to perfection every time. I still get a lump in my throat every time I re-read Spiderman's or Thor's origin. (And all done in 20-pages or less!) Reprints of these comic books are out there and I encourage everyone to read them and see why movies like THOR are being made 40 years later.

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