So, Saturday night, I had the privilege of seeing what I believe is one of the best movies I have seen in quite sometime. No jokes - The Avengers really is that good. There are very few things you need to know about the characters' prior movies except: Thor fights Loki, Captain America was frozen, the Hulk is green, and Iron Man is awesome.
In the interest of full disclosure, I love movies with explosions and huge rule the earth type scenarios. Particularly key in these types of movies is the destruction of cities such as Washington D.C., Los Angeles, New York, and Paris. The movie Independence Day was the innovator at this in the movies. Armageddon had some of it. Then the various movies kept up the tradition. As superhero movies advanced, the focus become one particular city getting demolished. The Avengers movie leaves New York City completely leveled. I like that. I do not mean like a couple buildings explode, but rather like every building gets shattered and flattened.
Several movies occurred prior to this release to already introduce the characters that would join together for ths story. It is hard to tell if the writers overall wrote the movies for Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and Hulk with the Avengers in mind, as the intertwined stories came to a head as well as advancing the timeline of each character.
So, now that I have really revealed nothing about the movie, let me describe a little about each major character:
The Hulk: Played by Mark Ruffalo rather than Ed Norton, his character is the only one to be played by somebody new. I thought he did great, and making Ruffalo's face the base for the Hulk was more realistic. However, Bruce Banner always looked like he was about to crack up every second. This incarnation of the Hulk was incredible. No pun intended. His destruction of Loki was both painful and hilarious. The Hulk only appears twice, but each time is epic and for a long period of time.
Ironman: Just like Iron Man 2, Tony Stark has matured and realized he needs to be part of the greater good. The capabilities of Iron Man are awesome and he has become, in my opinion, the most realistic superhero of all of them. Even his remote controlled suit to attach to him while he is falling was pretty cool and realistic (for a movie about alien armies and gods).
Thor: I thought the Thor movie was awesome. He was pretty awesome as a team player and his fight with Iron Man was indeed epic. He was the only character whose hair actually appeared to get messed up during the couple day long span the movie occurred over, you know, while fighting an alien invasion. When he throws the hammer at the Hulk it basically traps him to ground and was a pretty cool movie scene. I like his medievil speak too.
Captain America: His movie was my least favorite, just because I was not too fond of the World War II era fights. He crashes a plain and buries an energy source with him. However, in this movie, his innocent mind and 1940s language was a good bit of comic relief.
Black Widow: Meh. I don't really even think she is as hot as everybody says she is. She is a good actress and plays a decent super spy. She actually has a pretty decent role in the movie and is responsible for bringing one of the key characters into the mix. Her character held her own.
Hawkeye: The Lamest of all the Heroes. However, he is crucial to the movie as one of Loki's serveants. It took till almost the end of the movie, but the man finally ran out of arrows. I am all for a guy with a great skill being a superhero, but does he have to fight with this bow as well? It is just weird and I wouldn't think it would be anything painful.
Other Characters:
Samuel L. Jackson was great and didn't even have to curse. Nick Fury'seye has some veins coming out of it, but his condition has never been explained in a movie as far as I know. That SHIELD agent who is in every one of these movies so far - Fury calls him creepy, he is a big fan of Captain America, he stands up to Loki, and actually shows some personality beyond dry humor. Some taller woman with shortly cropped black hair is Nick Fury's right hand woman, and I really don't think she was anything crucial to the movie.
Loki was way better of a villain in this movie than in Thor. I liked his philosophical speeches on humanity and why it should be ruled. It was not cheesy dialog for the sake of dialog. His army was pretty awesome, too. His defeat at the hands of the Hulk was one of the funniest things in the movie. It made total sense that the Hulk would ultimately flatten Loki.
If I have not spoiled the movie enough for you, then let me tell you the five best scenes, in no particular order:
1. The second Hulk scene during the battle in New York. The Hulk appears earlier when he is in a confused state, fighting a bunch of people in a confused rage. However, his second appearance is crucial to the movie and actually kind of dramatic for a green freak of nature. He turns the tide, that's all I will say.
2. Hulk and Thor work together to destroy everything in New York. After they have defeated the last enemy in their way, the heroes walk side by side until something hilarious and unexpected happens.
3. Iron Man Vs. Captain America Vs. Thor. When the group has had enough of each other, Iron Man and Thor beat the crap out of each other until Captain America does his best to calm things down. The forrest they are in gets flattened, and everybody hugs it out at the end.
4. Loki Tricks Thor - How do I say any of this without giving ANYTHING away? Well, somehow Loki takes Thor as prisoner and proceeds to drop him to a certain death. The effects and camera angles of Thor falling and ultimately his way out were pretty unique. Cool scene.
5. The final battle. I thought the last hour of the third Transformers movie had the best final battle scene. This was right there, possible better. I would need to spend a loser of a Saturday watching both to determine this. When all the Avengers bond together, and the unexpected heros step, the expected happens, and the destruction and computer animation dominates the screen, you will love it all.
If you don't like nerdy, cynical jerkoffs talking during your movie experience, then wait maybe another week or two to see this. The smarmy teenagers sitting behind me thinking they were hilarious by saying "lol" at different parts of the previews got old quick. I was ready to turn around and ask the virgins to be quiet, but Kim calmed me and told me to not worry about it. I do think somebody behind me had seen it before, and every time something felt like it was about to happen the kid would say "watch this". No shit. Of course I'm going to watch this. I'm here. It was $11.50 per person.
Overall, I loved this movie. It was one of those once in a long time, if not once in a life time, movie. There is room for a second one, and if it is only half as good as this one, that will be great. There were more surprises than a Russian presidential election (i.e, no surprise) - which makes no sense. I am not a comic book fan, but I will read up about the characters in a movie prior to seeing it as far as superheroes are concerned. This movie set a bar for ensemble cast, special effects, action movies, and the entire superhero genre. If Jesus were a movie, then he would be the Dark Knight. God would be the Avengers. And the X-men would be like the other guy on the other cross.
Movies do not get better than this.
Thor: I thought the Thor movie was awesome. He was pretty awesome as a team player and his fight with Iron Man was indeed epic. He was the only character whose hair actually appeared to get messed up during the couple day long span the movie occurred over, you know, while fighting an alien invasion. When he throws the hammer at the Hulk it basically traps him to ground and was a pretty cool movie scene. I like his medievil speak too.
Captain America: His movie was my least favorite, just because I was not too fond of the World War II era fights. He crashes a plain and buries an energy source with him. However, in this movie, his innocent mind and 1940s language was a good bit of comic relief.
Black Widow: Meh. I don't really even think she is as hot as everybody says she is. She is a good actress and plays a decent super spy. She actually has a pretty decent role in the movie and is responsible for bringing one of the key characters into the mix. Her character held her own.
Hawkeye: The Lamest of all the Heroes. However, he is crucial to the movie as one of Loki's serveants. It took till almost the end of the movie, but the man finally ran out of arrows. I am all for a guy with a great skill being a superhero, but does he have to fight with this bow as well? It is just weird and I wouldn't think it would be anything painful.
Other Characters:
Samuel L. Jackson was great and didn't even have to curse. Nick Fury's
Loki was way better of a villain in this movie than in Thor. I liked his philosophical speeches on humanity and why it should be ruled. It was not cheesy dialog for the sake of dialog. His army was pretty awesome, too. His defeat at the hands of the Hulk was one of the funniest things in the movie. It made total sense that the Hulk would ultimately flatten Loki.
If I have not spoiled the movie enough for you, then let me tell you the five best scenes, in no particular order:
1. The second Hulk scene during the battle in New York. The Hulk appears earlier when he is in a confused state, fighting a bunch of people in a confused rage. However, his second appearance is crucial to the movie and actually kind of dramatic for a green freak of nature. He turns the tide, that's all I will say.
2. Hulk and Thor work together to destroy everything in New York. After they have defeated the last enemy in their way, the heroes walk side by side until something hilarious and unexpected happens.
3. Iron Man Vs. Captain America Vs. Thor. When the group has had enough of each other, Iron Man and Thor beat the crap out of each other until Captain America does his best to calm things down. The forrest they are in gets flattened, and everybody hugs it out at the end.
4. Loki Tricks Thor - How do I say any of this without giving ANYTHING away? Well, somehow Loki takes Thor as prisoner and proceeds to drop him to a certain death. The effects and camera angles of Thor falling and ultimately his way out were pretty unique. Cool scene.
5. The final battle. I thought the last hour of the third Transformers movie had the best final battle scene. This was right there, possible better. I would need to spend a loser of a Saturday watching both to determine this. When all the Avengers bond together, and the unexpected heros step, the expected happens, and the destruction and computer animation dominates the screen, you will love it all.
If you don't like nerdy, cynical jerkoffs talking during your movie experience, then wait maybe another week or two to see this. The smarmy teenagers sitting behind me thinking they were hilarious by saying "lol" at different parts of the previews got old quick. I was ready to turn around and ask the virgins to be quiet, but Kim calmed me and told me to not worry about it. I do think somebody behind me had seen it before, and every time something felt like it was about to happen the kid would say "watch this". No shit. Of course I'm going to watch this. I'm here. It was $11.50 per person.
Overall, I loved this movie. It was one of those once in a long time, if not once in a life time, movie. There is room for a second one, and if it is only half as good as this one, that will be great. There were more surprises than a Russian presidential election (i.e, no surprise) - which makes no sense. I am not a comic book fan, but I will read up about the characters in a movie prior to seeing it as far as superheroes are concerned. This movie set a bar for ensemble cast, special effects, action movies, and the entire superhero genre. If Jesus were a movie, then he would be the Dark Knight. God would be the Avengers. And the X-men would be like the other guy on the other cross.
Movies do not get better than this.
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