Thor: Ragnarok

Essential, and the most complete reinvention of a character the franchise has managed. Two previous Thor films had been solemn and no one liked them much; Taika Waititi threw out the register entirely and made a bright, improvised comedy with a synthesiser score, and it is the funniest film Marvel has released.

The looseness is real. Waititi has described large amounts of improvisation, and several of the best exchanges were invented on the day, including most of the material between Thor and the Hulk. Chris Hemsworth is a far better comic performer than three previous films had allowed, and the whole cast adjusts to it.

Underneath the jokes it is unusually destructive. Mjolnir is destroyed in the first act, Thor loses an eye, Odin dies, and Asgard is deliberately annihilated by its own people on the grounds that it was never a place. The film's actual argument, that a kingdom built on conquest it had painted over does not deserve to survive, is more pointed than its tone suggests.

Cate Blanchett is having an enormous amount of fun. Jeff Goldblum is playing himself. The gladiator sequence set to Led Zeppelin is the best use of a needle drop in the franchise, and the Valkyrie flashback is the best-looking shot.