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As a matter of fact, every problem DOES look like a nail.

Marvel seems to have hit its stride when it comes to comic book movies. While DC is busy rebooting Superman and wrapping up the Dark Knight trilogy, Marvel has been gleefully churning out one superhero flick after another, gradually building a connected narrative between the films that seemed like a pipe dream only ten years ago. Best of all, they seemed to have learned their lessons from the pretentious failure that was Ang Lee’s Hulk and the plodding introspection of DC’s aimless, self-indulgent Superman Returns. Witness Thor, a movie devoid of political commentary or heavy thematic ambitions: it’s a movie about a Norse God who has a hammer, flies, and hits people. Really hard.

The movie opens with some Anthony Hopkins narration, detailing the war between the mythical realm of Asgard and the frozen plane of Jotunheim. Jotunheim is inhabited by the frost giants, an evil race of craggy blue guys who just won’t turn off the air conditioning. A fragile peace exists between Asgard and the frost giants, until impetuous heir to the Asgardian throne Thor (Chris Hemsworth), being something of a nitwit, gets hoodwinked by his clever-ambitious-and-therefore-a-villain brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) into jaunting over to Jotunheim and slaughtering frost giants until they change their minds about the whole peace thing. Odin (Hopkins) gets irritated and so banishes Thor to Earth, where he will become a mortal man and learn of this thing humans call love, and also boilermakers. That dastardly Loki takes the throne of Asgard, and we’re off to a good old-fashioned comic book adventure.

When this scene came up, my wife said "Oh, MY, hello!" Five minutes later, she said "We should really own this movie."

Most of Thor‘s appeal comes straight from the casting, most notably Chris Hemsworth, who charms the socks right off this movie. Hemsworth briefly played George Kirk in the 2009 Star Trek reboot (“we’ll call our baby James T. Kirk-AAAARGH!”), and he plays his role with an infectious, affable glee. The always-winsome Natalie Portman plays Jane Foster, an astrophysicist who cautiously falls for the Norse god, and miraculously manages to go the entire runtime of the film without being captured or even meaningfully threatened. Hopkins does a decent job of roaring, mumbling, then falling dutifully into a coma for the last half of the film. (And his performance isn’t bad either! Rimshot!) Bonus points for including Ray Stevenson (Rome’s Titus Pullo) and Idris Elba as Heimdall, whose basso profundo voice is rivaled only by that of Laufey (Colm Feore).

Natalie Portman as Jane Foster. Still mostly a love interest, but at least she's not screaming non-stop for the last thirty minutes of the movie.

Like its Marvel movie cousins, the plot of Thor is refreshingly straightforward. Loki’s jealous of Thor, and so orchestrates Thor’s banning from Asgard. Thor falls to earth, learns the delight of diner coffee, and Stellan Skarsgård teaches him baseball and how to laugh. Jane is warned not to fall for Thor, and so does precisely that. Stinky old Loki wants to make sure he doesn’t lose his grip on the throne, and so sends a town-stomping monster to take care of business and mash Thor into paste. Meanwhile, there’s an Excalibur-esque subplot with Thor coming to grips with his own flaws and learning to be worthy of his own weapon. It’s pretty obvious how that will turn out, but it’s fun to watch anyway.

By the way, if you want to make a drinking game out of Thor, it’s easy. Just take a drink every time you see a Dutch angle. Branagh apparently loves the Dutch angle. Loves it.

Thor is not a complicated film. The title character’s transformation from brash, reckless warrior to brash, reckless warrior with a slightly more coherent moral center isn’t profound or revelatory, but it’s enough to get by while Thor whales on some frost giants and hops between dimensions. There’s no heavy-handed political satire or shoegazing meditation on the nature of heroism — just a guy in a cape and his hammer. Much as its predecessors, Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, traded in thematic resonance for high-octane action, Thor makes do with being a brightly-colored blast of adventure — and that’s enough.

"My son, we've really got to work on your impulse control issues."