Avengers movie

[dc20willsave]

I doubt it. It's not like the Infinity Gauntlet was in the first Thor.

Oh wait, never mind.

[Dan]

I need a Hulk. I need a Hulk right now.

[Dread]

It was alright, but not mindblowing in any way. In fact, it was a very safe movie.

[Venneh]

That was fun, and quite satisfying. Expect more thoughts later.

[Venneh]

Overall, really liked this. Black Widow and Hulk got their time to shine here, which both kind of needed. Hulk especially blew it out of the water, and since Ruffalo's got the six film deal now, I do hope that the same writers get a chance to write a solo film for him.

Hulk smashing Loki around got some of the biggest laughs out of my showing, along with the Space Invaders gig on the Helicarrier.

The film was a good balance between comedy and solid action pieces, with the occasional strong emotional bit.

Called the bit with Agent Coulson dying, especially with him being set up as the huge fanboy.

Also? Loved the ending teasers. THANOS. Also, sorry England, we got the better end credit scene.

All in all, worth waiting four years for.

[JasonC]

The film was a good balance between comedy and solid action pieces, with the occasional strong emotional bit.

Called the bit with Agent Coulson dying, especially with him being set up as the huge fanboy.

Also? Loved the ending teasers. THANOS. Also, sorry England, we got the better end credit scene.

All in all, worth waiting four years for.

Yeah, we didn't get the second one I have heard about. Dammit.

[Dan]

If anything, this movie proved to me beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Hulk works best in small doses. He was PERFECT for what they had him doing here.

[KnightWing]

It was alright, but not mindblowing in any way. In fact, it was a very safe movie.

Are you on, like, anti-crack or something? Where mind-blowing things become lame instead of the other way around?

[dc20willsave]

I see Des's argument actually. Avengers is a very fun movie. That said, it follows a formula. Personally, nothing, and I mean nothing, surprised me the entire movie and I kept myself rather spoiler free and the spoilers I did read were stuff I could see coming then.

Agent Coulson starts acting the fanboy who believes in the Avengers? He's dead. Natasha starts breaking down? So an act. Something mysterious keeps on getting referred to by Fury and his shadowy government overseers? It's a weapon and the team is going to find out about it before Fury has a chance to explain leading to overreactions all around! Hawkeye's brainwashed and crazy? Widow is going to fight him and either she's going to talk him back to sanity or she's going to give him the knockout punch of making the head better. It follows the formula of Act 1: Gather the team, establish that most of them don't like each other. Act 2: The team fights, after something big and climatic, they go their separate ways. The villain has seemingly won. Act 3: Something happens to draw the group back together and, together, they beat a seemingly impossible foe while showcasing what makes each of them special. One of them will seemingly die but turn out to be alright.

That said, I still enjoyed the film greatly, just, well, it's not going to be remembered for trying anything new with the genre which is a real shame after so many of the preceding films in the franchise have.

Dear god, I just realized: A large amount of The Avengers's plot formula is kinda similar to the formula for the end of Buffy Season 4.

[Stavros]

I'm fine with a safe non-mindblowing movie. Last time someone tried to make something visually groundbreaking in a blockbuster it was Transformers 3. No thank you, sometimes tried and true is that for a reason. I wouldn't want random stupid plot twists or an hour of unintelligible action, I'm fine with a few fights, good humour and the heroes working like a team. That's fine by me.

[Aaron Robinson]

In what way did they try to make Transformers 3 visually groundbreaking? I'm genuinely curious, since I have no intention of watching anything more from Michael Bay.

I totally agree that Avengers played it safe, but I also assumed that would be a given. What was the last blockbuster that didn't play things safe? I guess you could make the case for Inception, but I can't think of much else.

[Delete]

If anything, this movie proved to me beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Hulk works best in small doses. He was PERFECT for what they had him doing here.

I was about to come in here and say the same thing in regard to the idea of another Hulk movie being too much Hulk

[Stavros]

In what way did they try to make Transformers 3 visually groundbreaking? I'm genuinely curious, since I have no intention of watching anything more from Michael Bay.

Just by turning Michael Bay's filter completely off. It's actually pretty astounding from a technical POV but it's also incredibly hard to watch. There are no movies that look like Bay's Transformers films, at least not nearly as extreme.

[SuaveStar]

Also, sorry England, we got the better end credit scene

You just broke a Scotsman's heart

[James D.]

I marked for the Thanos reveal in the credits, but at the same time, I had to wonder, "Are they really going with Thanos already???" It seems odd that they would have the team fight an intergalactic demi-god in just the second movie--assuming he will be in the second movie.

[dc20willsave]

They're making that fatal mistake with scaling. After fighting a mad space god, what is there left outside of Galactus who they don't have the rights to. Personally, I was kinda hoping for Masters of Evil for the next movie. That said, I did kinda glee at Thanos so not trying to be a complete Debbie Downer on that ending.

[SuaveStar]

They're making that fatal mistake with scaling. After fighting a mad space god, what is there left outside of Galactus who they don't have the rights to. Personally, I was kinda hoping for Masters of Evil for the next movie. That said, I did kinda glee at Thanos so not trying to be a complete Debbie Downer on that ending.

Well, it's not like he's going to be the villain for around 3 years at least, which will give them plenty of time to set him up as a proper villain for the Avengers. So, if it was straight away going to Thanos, then yeah, it'd be a bit much, but they have all those sequels to work with, and now that all the characters are set up, they can afford to give ten minutes at the end of each film to feature Thanos setting his plans up.

[Stavros]

They're making that fatal mistake with scaling. After fighting a mad space god, what is there left outside of Galactus who they don't have the rights to. Personally, I was kinda hoping for Masters of Evil for the next movie. That said, I did kinda glee at Thanos so not trying to be a complete Debbie Downer on that ending.

I do see where you're coming from but Marvel doesn't lack for big villains, and personal threats can mean more in the long run. You could have a villain team in the third Avengers. Marvel's even hinting that they'll just replace actors and have this continuity for many years to come, so there's no shortage of stories to tell. I could totally see Loki putting together an injustice league/Dark Avengers team, provided that at that stage there was a Norman Osbourne equivalent in Marvel's Movieverse.

[SuaveStar]

They're making that fatal mistake with scaling. After fighting a mad space god, what is there left outside of Galactus who they don't have the rights to. Personally, I was kinda hoping for Masters of Evil for the next movie. That said, I did kinda glee at Thanos so not trying to be a complete Debbie Downer on that ending.

I could totally see Loki putting together an injustice league/Dark Avengers team, provided that at that stage there was a Norman Osbourne equivalent in Marvel's Movieverse.

Justin Hammer. After his comments at the end of Iron Man 2 to Pepper, about this not being over, I was hoping he'd be in The Avengers. He tweaked the War Machine armour, so he'll have a rough idea of how Stark's Iron Man armour works.

[dc20willsave]

Avengers had a domestic take of $200.3 million this weekend and is up to over $640 million worldwide. This is easily on it's way of over-taking Avatar as the highest grossing film of all time considering I don't see Dark Shadows upsetting it next weekend. Weekend after is Battleship and the Dictator so there's a chance but the Battleship trailer before Avengers had everyone laughing in all the wrong places. I would almost say that Men in Black 3 might be the only movie capable of upsetting it until Prometheus.

[Missy]

We don't need the spoiler tags anymore. Anyone coming into this thread at this point has probably seen it.

[KnightWing]

Avengers is a very fun movie. That said, it follows a formula. Personally, nothing, and I mean nothing, surprised me the entire movie and I kept myself rather spoiler free and the spoilers I did read were stuff I could see coming then.

I think the thing is that even though the actual plot is very traditional, straightforward superhero stuff, this movie is anything but "safe." Having a legitimate superhero team-up movie where they never stop and say "no, that's too much for the audience to believe" or "no, that's going too far" is a huge achievement in itself. Just the fact that the Avengers can exist on screen is something monumental, but the fact that they held nothing back and actually showed us what's only been in comic books for decades is absolutely insane.

To say it's not mindblowing in terms of intricate plot is like saying "sure, you ran an olympic marathon and got the gold medal, but did you do it while walking on your hands and/or doing cartwheels?"

[D-Man]

Dread, could you elaborate on what you mean by a safe movie? See below for my preconceived notions of what you mean but I need clarification.

For myself, I only had one prerequisite for AVENGERS. Fun, and I had a ton of it. The good far outweighed my small reservations. I mean, yeah, Captain America got severely short changed in favor of making this basically Iron Man 3 with guest stars but look at the picture as a whole. So much cool, awesome, hilarious shit happens in this movie that my jaw was hanging open for most of the run time, either in laughter or in awe at the awesomeness on display.

And yeah, the dramatic stakes could have been higher, with meaningful sacrifices and ominous overtones but I seriously feel that going that way could have actually hurt the film. The playful, spectacular, summer popcorn tone was, by far, the best way to envision these characters together. Trying to darken the proceedings with adult style drama could have sucked the fun right out of the movie.

Having said that let me say a few words about an AVENGERS sequel (and you can be damn sure there will be a sequel). The sequel will be the place to heighten the dramatic stakes. In fact, I feel it's the only direction for an Avengers sequel to go in to be successful. Now that the first film has cemented the friendships and the camaraderie and the fun of saving the world together it will be time to explore how deep a sacrifice these heroes are willing to make for the team. I would even go so far as to say it will be time for one of the heroes to fall in battle. It should probably be the Hulk. Banner is the most sympathetic character and Hulk is the most powerful. It makes sense that he should make the largest sacrifice since the very nature of his superpowers basically dooms him anyways. Death may actually be a welcome release for Banner. On the spectacle side of that equation, I can't help but wonder what it would take to kill the Hulk. His sacrifice would have to be huge, epic in scope. Moving a planet, saving the galaxy, going toe to toe with Galactus or something crazy like that. I would love to see something like that get invested with real pathos. A balance of the epic with the intimate similar to Spock's exquisite death in Wrath of Khan.

But enough speculation. Back to the film at hand. After all the spectacle and fun what's the main job this film accomplishes? It makes us like these characters. It makes want to follow along on this wild, improbable adventure because we enjoy seeing them interact. That's job #1. To make us feel like part of the gang. Saving the world should be fun, otherwise, what's the point? Having amazing super powers should be awesome! Hanging around with other super heroes should be awesome. And this movie explores that theme better than any other super hero film. The only other one that comes close for me was the animated JUSTICE LEAGUE: THE NEW FRONTIER. The job of showcasing a crowd of egocentric super beings and making it make sense is a monumental task. By all rights, AVENGERS should have played like a dog's breakfast. All mixed up. The fact that it at it at least tricks you into thinking it's coherent is a brilliant plate spinning act. I've got to hand it to Joss Whedon for that one. He is the super glue that keeps this thing together. His ability to balance effective character acting with spectacular special effects will serve him very well in future projects. It's a skill set we've been looking for in a director for a long time. Despite what Hollywood execs may believe, we have high standards for our summer movies. Avengers met those standards for the most part. It's a huge success in my mind and may even be a game changer for the super hero genre.

Nuff' said.

P.S. Bring on Thanos! Fuck yeah! I just about shit when he smiled at the camera.

[NightAngle04]

Very good movie. The thumb is up. The nitpick I had was the reason for Thor being back on earth. It reminded me of the times where they had to fit Worf in the Trek movies.

[Dread]

To say it's not mindblowing in terms of intricate plot is like saying "sure, you ran an olympic marathon and got the gold medal, but did you do it while walking on your hands and/or doing cartwheels?"

Never said it had to be intricate. In fact, any attempt at intricacy (the whole shadowy council thing) was ham-fisted and cliched, like much of the film.

There was no daring in this film. IN fact, there was barely a story.

Dread, could you elaborate on what you mean by a safe movie? See below for my preconceived notions of what you mean but I need clarification.

Okey doke.

What is the marker of a good story? Any writer or filmmaker will tell you, it's all about character. And while, for the most part, character interaction was good in the movie, there was ZERO attempt to change a character. You can go character by character and there is no development whatsoever on behalf of any of them. Besides Coulson's all of a sudden fanboyism. Character change is an essential part of a story.

They set Cap up at the beginning to make this his film and then completely disregard him for most of the movie except for about three minutes at the end.

Iron Man is an asshole in this movie. Sorry, but Joss Whedon does not understand the character. He was better portrayed in IM2 and I thought he was even a little over the top in that one. Even when they give IM his moment at the end, there are no consequences. Except of course for pissing off Thanos, but hey, why would we try and resolve something in a Marvel Studios movie? Can't do that, they're too busy teasing other movies.

The closest they get is Black Widow, but they keep it so subtle that you're not even sure.

As far as doing something daring with the plot, they could have done it very easily. They could have made things breathtaking with IM at the end. They could have propelled Cap to take him on like they teased the whole movie and prove why he deserves to be on the team other than being from the 40s which is basically the only reason. If you're going to make a 2 hour and 20 minute movie, why not have another 10 minutes to really mix shit up? It was safe, that's why.

Ultimately, this movie was a big crossover rather than a story. They get all the big guns together to have some fun, but there is no attempt at making a statement.

That said, I don't dislike it. I'm just monumentally underwhelmed. After pumping hundreds upon hundreds of millions of dollars into teasing this movie for the past four years, it does not live up to the hype.

It still sits in the top 3 of Marvel Studios films, but that is far from a glorious list.

1. Iron Man

2. Captain America

a sizable gap

3. The Avengers

4. Everything else with Thor at the bottom. (I haven't seen Incredible Hulk, but I kind of want to after watching this)