Thor and the shield of Captain America in 3D

It's official: The hammer of Thor and the shield of Captain America will fly straight at moviegoers in 3-D, which is really no surprise considering the current stereoscopic craze on the studios lots of Hollywood. What is unusual is the eagerness of each film's director to take his case for 3-D directly to the fans at Comic-Con International.‬‪

On Saturday, July 24, Marvel Studios has the final studio presentation in the expo's biggest room, Hall H, and "Thor" director Kenneth Branagh will use that climactic slot not just to introduce some of his cast -- a cast that includes Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman and Anthony Hopkins, but it's unlikely that all three will be in San Diego -- but also to persuade skeptical fans that 3-D will add new dimensions to the 2011 blockbuster, and not just in the obvious way.

"We came to feel that in our case 3-D could be the very good friend of story and character for a different kind of experience," Branagh said, taking a break from post-production. The filmmaker said the terminology of the 3-D process initially made him cringe  -- at first, it was "math and physics and way over my head," he said with a chuckle -- but then he started to pulse with the unexpected artistic opportunities.

"It's another draft of the story that can reveal itself in a different way," he said. "I had a healthy degree of skepticism up front ... I've become somebody extremely excited about working with possibilities of doing it this way."

"Thor" is a version of the old Norse myths that's been heavily processed by the cosmic dream factory known as the Marvel Comics universe.