Thor

In Marvel Comics’ neo-mythology, Thor, Odin and other figures of the Norse pantheon are real beings inhabiting their own “realm.” King Odin of Asgard maintains a long, tenuous truce with another race and realm, the Frost Giants of Jotunheim, keeping their hunger for universal domination in check. When Odin’s impetuous son Thor leads a failed raid on Jotunheim in an effort to destroy the Frost Giants once and for all, an angry Odin disowns his son, banishing him from Asgard. This is how Thor (Chris Hemsworth) ends up on Earth in the company of two scientists engaged in some vague but very important kind of astrophysical research in the high desert of New Mexico. Also banished is Thor’s invincible weapon, the hammer Mjolnir, which falls to Earth like a meteor and becomes embedded like the Sword in the Stone, there to remain until Thor is once more worthy to wield it. It’s to the credit of Thor’s committee of writers (and to director Kenneth Branagh, who has fun with the material) that this stew of Götterdämmerung myth and Area 51 UFOlogy doesn’t dissolve into utter nonsense. Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas and Paradise Cinema 7. Rated PG-13