★★★★

Goddess of Death, Hela (Cate Blanchett), makes her return from exile to take the throne of Asgard, destroying Thor’s (Chris Hemsworth) hammer like it was glass, sending him to the fighting pits of Sakaar where he is delivered to the Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum) and told his only way out is to fight the champion and win. Based on the storyline of comic Planet Hulk, Thor is forced into becoming a gladiator alongside old buddy the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo).

All Thor cares about however is getting home to Asgard to prevent Ragnarok,  visions of which have plagued his dreams for a long time now and it looks like he will have to recruit bruce banner to do so, along with new found Asgardian Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson).

Thor: Ragnarok is the third instalment in Marvel Studios’ Thor franchise, following Kenneth Branagh’s Thor and Alan Taylor’s Thor: The Dark World, it is also the fifth film the God of Thunder has appeared in. Marvel Studios was taking a chance by bringing in a director more well known for comedies but Taika Waititi’s Thor is a funny one, that is obvious from the start, with an all too comical prologue and humorous Thor and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) skit awaiting Thor when he returns from his missions to Asgard.

This could quite possibly be Marvels most bold entry so far, it is wild and wacky and succeeds in hitting all the right spots. It gives all the old characters real personal growth and introduces some new funny ones like Korg, voiced by Waititi himself, a revolutionary gladiatorial slave.

There is a much different feel to Thor: Ragnarok brought to us in part by the costumes and set design of Sakaar, with its colourful rubbish dump atmosphere as well as the Willy Wonker style of the Grandmaster.

This movie blends space ships, lasers and wormholes with mythological creatures, demons and zombies and does so wonderfully as if those things have always belonged together and although this film is a comedy more then an action movie there is no shortage of CGI fight scenes if thats your thing!