Portman to play "Thor" love interest

For whatever reason, stars have always been attracted to play roles in superhero movies. And it isn’t just a recent fade as "Batman Returns" was loaded with a bankable cast. Why? I don't know, but the trend continues as Oscar nominated Natalie Portman joins the cast of "Thor". She will play Jane Foster, the love interest of the Norse god-superhero Thor. Well if Portman is doing the movie, then it can’t be that bad, right? Here’s the premise: Thor is the Norse God of Thunder who is sent to Earth as punishment for a dishonor to his father, Odin. In the process Thor is stripped of his memory and his power and is placed into the body and memory of a disabled medical student, Donald Blake. Thus he is unaware of his godliness and lives amongst humans with the appearance of a mortal. Unfortunately, his God enemies follow him to earth and do some bad guy stuff. Donald is unable to protect his planet and must watch helplessly as it is attacked …unless… It is only when Donald discovers Thor's hammer (which harnesses his powers) that Donald learns to transform into his God form and is capable of fighting evil. Though not of the human race, Thor fights for a planet that he calls home.

To make matters slightly worse, Chris Hemsworth is the actor chosen for the role. Who is Hemsworth you ask. This is Hemsworth:

Sigh. Do you guys remember when Kevin McKidd was in consideration for the role? That was such a good time. His role as Lucius Vorenus in the TV series “Rome” convinced me that he would be all kinds of bad @$$ as a Norse God with a hammer. He would have been owning evil left and right. But I guess we get the heart-throb kid instead. I suppose it's a good marketing strategy for the movie to get a larger target audience…boo teenage girls.

Another potential problem with this movie is director Kenneth Branagh. Who’s that? Yeah, I didn’t know either, but a quick trip to IMDb tells me that he loves doing Shakespeare. Sigh. Oh well.

I'm not sure what I think about Thor. In general, I'm a sucker for superhero movies; and though Natalie is great, even Connelly couldn't save the first "Hulk", Mendez couldn't save "Ghost Rider", and Alba in underwear never came close to making "Fantastic Four" great. I guess we can only hope. But what are the odds, Marvel is 7 for 18...

But don’t worry, we won’t have to suffer this movie until May 20, 2011. We got some time to mentally prepare.

What do you think?