Games

A powerful device called the Tesseract has been studied by the American intelligence organisation SHIELD for the past few decades, who believe it can be used to unlock the secret of creating infinitely renewable energy sources. Loki, a powerful entity from the world of Asgard, steals the cube and plans to use it to open a dimensional portal to allow an alien race to invade the planet. SHIELD calls in its top agents (including Clint 'Hawkeye' Barton and Natasha 'Black Widow' Romanoff) and most powerful allies to answer the threat. Leading the fight are the recently-revived Steve Rogers (Captain America), the billionaire industrialist Tony Stark (Iron Man) and the mild-mannered Bruce Banner (the Hulk). The Asgardians, aware of the extent of Loki's threat, also dispatch Thor to aid in his containment. The result is mayhem as the two sides clash in the streets of New York City, with the fate of the Earth (and potentially many other worlds) at stake. The Avengers is the...

In the realm of Asgard dwell a race of aliens who inspired the Norse myths. A millennia ago, they fought a war against the frost giants, defeating them and forging an uneasy peace. When a frost giant raiding party attacks Asgard, Odin dismisses it as a one-off incident whilst his son Thor demands a warrior's response. When he disobeys his father's command and launches a counter-raid on the frost giant homeworld, Thor is stripped of his powers and exiled to Earth, leaving his brother Loki free to rise to power in Asgard... Of the Marvel superheroes headed for the big screen, Thor was always going to be the hardest sell. Whilst the other Marvel heroes are (mostly) humans who have gained their power through science, technology or mutations, Thor is an alien from another world who dresses up like a Lord of the Rings character, intones rather than speaks and whose answer to everything is overwhelming violence. Marvel made an excellent choice in bringing in Kenneth Branagh to direct...