Freeview film of the day: Thor
Banished by his father and stitched up by his brother, it looks like some serious hammer time is in store for the flaxen-haired Norse God.
![135761.ce1717b5-eb90-46a3-aacd-718d52dfa885](https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2017/04/135761.ce1717b5-eb90-46a3-aacd-718d52dfa885.jpg?quality=90&resize=980,654)
Thor ★★★
6.50-9.00pm C4
How sweet to think that Thor was only the fourth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. At the time of its 2011 release, the first Avengers assembly was still a year away,and Kenneth Branagh seemed a counterintuitive choice for director. But it worked. The leap from declamatory Shakespearean drama to the mythic world of Norse gods proved not insurmountable, and Ken brought not just scale and seriousness, but a good ear for humour and a swirling score by his regular Scottish collaborator Patrick Doyle. Once the Game of Thrones-style backstory is established — nine realms, Frost Giants, Asgard, Tom Hiddleston’s evil sibling Loki — we get on with the fish-out-of-water fun, as Chris Hemsworth’s po-faced, hammer-wielding hunk crash- lands into astrophysicist Natalie Portman’s experiments in New Mexico... and things quickly get loud and preposterous. Way better than its sequel, I maintain.
For more of today’s free-to-air films, see our TV listings
![116417 116417](https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2017/08/116417.jpg?quality=90&fit=307,205)
Order your copy of the Radio Times Guide to Films 2017