Alien at the Movies

It's "Gladiator" meets "Guardians of the Galaxy" when Ragnarok, the fate of the gods, occurs.  Odin (Anthony Hopkins) is in exile & dying. Thor (Chris Hemsworth) & Loki (Tom Hiddleston) must stop Hela (Cate Blanchette), the Goddess of Death, from destroying Asgard. Along the way, Thor is forced into the Grandmaster's (Jeff Goldblum) Contest of Champions to fight against an old friend from work, the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo). Look for Idris Elba, Karl Urban, Tessa Thompson, some surprise cameos, & the now standard Marvel appearance of Stan Lee. Blanchette is always terrific & quite a unrecognizable chameleon of an actress. This third film of the Thor series leans more heavily to the comedic side as this adventure takes us to a junk planet & Thor's home world of Asgard. Spectacular special effects & some significant losses are featured. Look for two final clips at the end of this film.

Alien gives it 3 "slapstick superheroes" stars out of 4.