Waititi’s deft comedic touch is unmistakable here, which is better artistic representation than most “auteurs” manage when submitting themselves to the Marvel machine. And to be fair, my kid, seeing it for the first time, was cackling riotously. But if you’re looking for anything more substantial (or surprising), the unrelenting jokes get tiresome before too long. At some point, the movie’s willingness to not take itself too seriously becomes an unwillingness to take _anything_ seriously at all. That's just less than the audience deserves, though it's indicative of how well the MCU has lowered all of our expectations. Still, the wall-to-wall jokes are preferable to the last act where it's just more fighting and some other action-y stuff that bored me to tears so much I can't even remember what it was.

Added a half-star for the beautiful homages to Jack Kirby in the production design.