ET does puff piece on Thor, makes tentpole movie look stupid and cheap.

Leaving aside the obnoxious questions, all of which centered on how big, tall, and ripped star Chris Hemsworth has made himself in order to play a warrior God, I have to wonder what the hell Paramount was thinking. Yes, I've said before that Paramount should use its uncommonly hot cast as a selling point, but I wasn't referring to childish tittering. Everyone interviewed (Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, director Kenneth Branagh) came off like childish idiots, and the footage shown basically made the film look like a CW Roswell spin-off. Yes, you got a few brief glimpses of Hemsworth in his official Thor costume, as well as a momentary glance of Anthony Hopkins as Odin and Idris Elba as Heimdall. But the big chunk of footage basically had Chris Hemsworth running around in blue T-shirt and jeans and half-heartedly beating up black-suited men (Shield agents?). Your first live-action look at a bazillion-dollar Marvel comic book epic, and it's plainclothes Hemsworth, Portman, Kat Dennings (wearing a snow hat, as required by law for all movies featuring Kat Dennings), and I believe Stellan Skarsgard running down a random small-town street as if they were shooting a mid-season Smallville episode. When the best thing you can say about the film so far is that Natalie Portman looks awfully pretty as Jane Foster, that means it's not quite time to show off footage. First impressions people, they sting.

Scott Mendelson