i see'd the avengers! and i liked it! so now i'll talk about it!
it was not, i repeat, NOT the make-fuck-happy perfection fest that i was promised. it was, however, really very fun. with "fun" being a very key word.
while i'm obviously nintendo-biased, batman begins and dark knight are definitively better movies. better acting, better pacing, better plot, yadda yadda. but i wouldn't call either one of them a "fun" movie, if that makes any sense. i'm not dying to rewatch the film immediately after the credits roll. i'm just smoke-a-cigarette and hit-the-lights satisfied.
i found avengers to be a different adventure, with a mediocre plot, some good acting and some bad acting, some pretty slow parts, but some pretty awesomely fast parts. and, most differently, i did feel i could watch it again and again right away. that factor made avengers much more of a "superhero" film to me than the batflicks, which are just entrenching dark operas. and, really, i wanted a superhero film!
the strong parts:
1) seeing super heroes fight. awesome. so very, very awesome. the closest prior to this was... what, the two robots fighting in iron man 2? which was poo. avengers had iron man vs. thor, thor vs. cap, thor vs. hulk (geez, thor is a dick), black widow vs. hawkeye, and [a teaser of] iron man vs. cap. that's a lot of pretty big moments crammed into 2.5 hours - none of which were the final scene. i remember seeing one the first mortal kombat movie in theaters and having the same "whoa!" type reaction; just thinking how cool it was to see all the non-stop, who-cares-about-story fights. this one point outweighs any of the badpoints, enhances all the other good points, and is worth the price of (re)admission.
2) the hulk. the best parts of the film. hulk3 character was great, the cg model never looked better, and finally giving the guy the "just go and fuck everything up" opportunity has been long over due. through in his dismissal of loki, reviving iron man, the iron man "save", and... well, pretty much total dominance of both heroes and villains in the movie.
3) RDJ. RDJ is better than iron man / tony stark. he's beyond well-suited for the role; he makes the character better than the character deserves to be.
4) sam jackson. honestly, i was expecting his nick fury to be mother fucking waaay over the mother fucking top. but i thought he played the character as cool and collected as he deserved.
the boo parts:
1) hawkeye. seriously, what the fuck. premise-wise, he's already the silliest character of the group. a super soldier, a robot-man, a monster, a god, a hot chick with big thingies and... an archer. you're a shit, get out of here. oh, but wait, lets pile on! in the first 20 seconds, you're defeated by the bad guy, made to turn on your whole team, and then beat up by a girl. congrats, you're a dick.
2) loki. i just don't find him intimidating. i can see accepting the role as just part of the cog, so's they could introduce and focus on the rest of the team - and to that extent, he filled the job. but otherwise... meh. even in comics, i hate when one character's villain is somehow powerful enough to take on 10 more characters. how come the guy who always defeats him can't do it this time? why is he dragging his baggage into everyone else's problems? why did loki spend half the time captured? why did he go to germany? why is he such a tool?
3) stan lee's cameo. i actually like the stan lee moments in marvel films, but i thought this one was lame. was i supposed to enjoy the irony of him saying all these things he created couldn't be heroes in new york...? cuz i didn't. this was his chance to mark out!
4) captain america. i think evans is decent in the role, but the character is just not good. its a pale version of millar's ultimates cap. there's no toughness or militant kick-your-assness about him. his suit is also a bit too super heroey when compared to the rest of the group, and the universe they've provided. and, for whatever reason (and this was true in the cap film, as well) all the special effects that have him jumping higher or running faster just seem not well done. like, somehow, it looks more realistic to have the thunder god fly to the top of the chrysler building than to have this soldier leap over two cars.
