Pitting Hemsworth's Thor and Tom Hiddleston's Loki against one another as larger than life, Shakespearean-esque figures helps place these mythological figures in a context in which we can understand them. Branagh's take on the story of the Asgardian God of Thunder embraces the far-fetched, silly elements of the mythology and world and plays them 100% earnestly. While many think the character of Thor, as played by Chris Hemsworth, did not get particularly interesting until his third solo entry in Thor: Ragnarok from Taika Waititi, Kenneth Branagh's 2011 film Thor possesses just as much fun as Waititi's film without the need to comment on or apologize for what it is. RELATED: New 'Belfast' Trailer Shows a Family at a Crossroads in Kenneth Branagh’s Latest Movie Here, let's look back at the career of the British director and count down his ten best films. The man embodies the phrase "go big or go home" more than a lot of filmmakers in scale of production, performance and tone.
That being said, his "one for you" films do feel like they easily could be "one for me" ones in a intellectual property safe space for studios. Every time he comes out with a new film, you never know what you are going to get, especially as he has moved somewhat into a "one for you, one for me" mode of filmmaking. Making sense of Kenneth Branagh's filmography certainly poses its challenges. Winning the People's Choice Award at this year's Toronto International Film Festival, Belfast looks to play a major part in the upcoming awards race, as every winner of that award has been nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars the last nine years. Branagh, on the other hand, has made a directorial career of everything from the lavish Shakespeare adaptations to superhero films to big swing genre pieces to his eighteenth and most recent film Belfast, a semi-autobiographical accounting of his childhood in Northern Ireland during The Troubles. Olivier only directed five features over the course of his career, three of them Shakespeare adaptations, all of which are mostly stately, stage bound productions.
When Kenneth Branagh burst onto the film scene in 1989 with his adaptation of William Shakespeare's Henry V, many saw him as the natural successor to Laurence Olivier, who also made his directorial debut with the same play.