So I saw The Avengers

[cleolinda]

Short version: I liked it (my mother loved it), but (for me) it wasn't the hot fudge sundae of film, although I understand why it might have been for someone else.

SPOILERS:

Comments

[nuranar]

I have to say I loved it. And seeing Thor beforehand, though, added a huge amount. Thor alone changed SO much in the course of that one - it's hard to imagine not knowing so much more about him. And that's aside from all the action with Loki. It's pretty key for understanding what's going on there. Yes, it's easy to follow this movie, but it's not nearly so straightforward in Thor.

[marlowe1]

I think I would have to recommend Thor as the superhero movie in the Marvel universe that everyone should check out. I think it's possibly Branagh's best movie since Much Ado About NOthing.

[profbutters]

Oh, totally agree. It's the most epic and most Shakespearean of the movies, and it's not really the plot that does it: it's the characters and the huge canvas, and --blah, you get it, I loved Thor.

[cleolinda]

Well, I know what happens in it, and about the discovery of Loki's real father, he thinks he should be the real king of Asgard because of that, and a number of the themes about Thor's feelings towards Earth, his initial arrogance, etc. I think it's possible to enjoy The Avengers without having to necessarily do the homework, and I feel like they did it that way on purpose rather than depend on people seeing all five or six movies. That is to say, I don't think I had problems with the movie because I didn't see Thor.

[marlowe1]

I attribute the most beloved moments in the movie to Whedon knowing how to cater to expectations and subvert them as well. As a whole the movie was a very simple structure of heroes getting together/fighting/working out their differences in time to go after the bad guys but the major bits in which Tony Stark is snarking and the whole operation is run by plutocrats who prefer to sit in darkened rooms (or have bad cameras) but aren't really as powerful as they think was pure Whedon

[marlowe1]

Actually scratch that. The shwarma scene is my favorite part because it's a total slap to all the post-credit scenes we've come to expect from Marvel movies in that it had absolutely nothing to do with any movie that would follow. Oh sure, they did the Thantos scene for that, but still I can only hope that the next Avengers movie will be a My Dinner with Andre movie with all of them just in the shwarma place.

[iczer6]

Can I state how much I loved the Thantos scene? Mind I have a soft spot for the guy but that smile just tells you all you need to know about the character.

[pariahsdream]

I was literally the only one in the theater who squeed at that.

[glass_radical]

I've been rooting for Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner ever since they announced him at Comic Con, because of my unrealistic media crush on him, and I have been SCORNED AND LAUGHED AT FOR TWO YEARS, and basically have just been the smuggest jerk about it ever since.

But seriously, the fan community owes that guy like $10 because a.) They were so mean and b.) He was that good.

(And I have to say, my favorite part of the film was Stark and Banner becoming super science BFFs within 5 seconds of meeting each other.)

[cleolinda]

He was! And I really enjoyed that relationship. I think he needs a friend like that.

[glass_radical]

It was even better because I expected them to butt heads, because scientists! egos clashing! battle of the intellects! but this was so much better and I basically spent the entirety of their heart-to-heart wibbling gently.

[greyduck]

There's a "probably reading more into it than was actually deliberately put into the movie" write-up on Tumblr which I rather enjoyed and (mostly) agree with (again, "reading more into it").

Have I mentioned that Bruce Banner was my surprise favorite character in the whole big damned movie? Yeah.

[dramallamaorama]

Actually Black Widow does have some sort of super power; I believe she was genetically modified to be able to do the stuff she does as some sort of sooper seekrit Russian experiment.

[cleolinda]

I can't decide if I want to pretend I didn't hear that or if that makes the whole thing make a ton more sense.

[notemily]

My roommate and I were talking about how Black Widow's backstory doesn't make any sense anymore, because originally she was a spy for the KGB and they did experiments on her and brainwashed her and stuff, and now it's like they're trying to keep the effects of that without actually saying that she's old enough to have been involved in the Cold War.

I liked ScarJo a lot in the movie, especially the "interrogation" scenes. She deserves her own movie... maybe one with a realistic backstory?

[cleolinda]

She's actually going to get one, based on what I saw on Twitter yesterday. I wonder if Jeremy Renner will also be in it?

[jaseroque]

I was quite happy to realize that although Black Widow does show a little bit of cleavage, if you think about it she's pretty much in exactly the same outfit as Hawkeye, and if I had to choose a character the camera was emphasising the physique of, it'd have to be Captain America.

Also, oh my god, Samuel L. Jackson's twitter feed is now my new favourite thing. I like "mughfughquahs". It's the 'q'. It makes it hilarious.

[cleolinda]

I knoooooow. At one point I'm pretty sure he spelled it "mufuqqas" as well, which might have been my favorite.

[jaseroque]

(Also, how annoyed am I that we didn't get the shawarma scene over here in Australia-land? Very annoyed, that's how annoyed.)

[cleolinda]

I still don't get how that happened, but it's like they premiered it overseas and then THAT NIGHT said, "We're gonna go film a secret scene now." Seriously, they said that. I don't know why you'd film a new scene AFTER the movie's gone to theaters, but there you are.

(There is no dialogue. It's literally just them chewing on pitas, and then Thor chomps down on his, and that's basically it. I mean, I thought it was funny, but just seeing the pictures will go a long way.)