Pun Salad

True confession: although I was once a pretty serious comic book fan, I never much got into Thor. Didn't like his stilted speech, didn't like his stupid hammer, didn't care for his long flowing blond locks. And how can I empathize with the problems of a god of a religion even my ancestors stopped believing centuries ago?

Also, from the little I read, he had no sense of humor.

Which reminds me of this classic bit:

Dr. Doom: They don't call me the most dangerous man alive for nothing.

Daredevil: You mean they pay you?

Where was I?… Oh, yeah: Thor. It's an origin story, which seems to be SOP for first movies. How the God of Thunder got tossed out of Asgard as punishment for his arrogance. How Loki got to be his primary adversary. How he met his mortal sweetie, Jane Foster. Etc. It's not without fun, but… eh.

Thor is played by Captain Kirk's dad, Chris Hemsworth. He's OK. He's backed up by some very respectable actors: Natalie Portman, Anthony Hopkins, Stellan Skarsgård, Rene Russo (in way too small a role for Rene Russo), and the phenomenal Clark Gregg.

Idris Elba plays Heimdall—I didn't know that until I watched the credits, because his face is nearly completely covered by his helmet for the entire movie. (Watching Luther made me a huge Idris Elba fan.)

An actress named Kat Dennings has a decent-size role as comic relief. I've seen her in a lot of stuff, including the premiere of her sitcom, 2 Broke Girls, the previous evening. And I didn't make the connection at all. Does this perhaps imply we're suffering from a glut of interchangeable young actresses? Maybe!

One last bit of trivia: an uncredited Jeremy Renner shows up with a bow and arrow in one scene. Aha, that's Hawkeye! Yay! I always liked Hawkeye.