I just got back from watching it with my wife this evening, and what can I say – I have to talk about it because it’s not often that a movie actually lives up to all of the hype, especially one like The Avengers that’s technically been getting hyped ever since we saw the first Iron Man movie back in 2008!
So anyways, I’ll try to do it without spoilers, but no promises … although the movie has already been out for a few weeks so if you’re like me and have already put off seeing it this long, it’s kind of your fault at this point!!! 🙄
That said … where to begin???
I was really happy to see how Cobie Smulders’ character turned out – wasn’t quite sure what to expect, considering I mainly only know her from How I Met Your Mother – but she seemed to hold her own quite well.
Still not really all that impressed with Hawkeye…
…or Black Widow, either, though her introductory scene with the phone call was hilarious!
I found myself thinking that a lot throughout the movie, actually – it ended up being a lot funnier than I was kind of expecting, which I really enjoyed because it’d have been a much different tone if they took themselves too seriously.
Of course, Tony Stark pretty much makes that angle a non-issue anyways! His intro was even more hilarious – loved the soundtrack – and just as the trailer hinted, he had some of the best dialog in the entire film.
Seeing how huge the Hellicarrier was kinda caught me off-guard … I’m not super familiar with the comics, so I had no idea that was coming, but it definitely seemed worthy to be a flying fortress for a collection of superheroes!
Believe it or not, if I had to pick a favorite character from this one, I think it would actually have to be Captain America … I liked how it was able to expand on each of the four main heroes and it makes me want to go back and re-watch Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America all over again, but I especially enjoyed the Cap’n because he didn’t end up being quite as stiff as the trailer may have hinted.
I definitely thought that Tom Hiddleston played an outstanding villain with Loki, as proven by the fact that I absolutely hated him by the time the movie was over! I remember a hint of sympathy for the character throughout most of Thor because he was the adopted child and all, always second-best to the king’s true son, but here … let’s just say he does a good job of letting loose all of that anger that’s bottled up inside of him!
I was sad to see Agent Coulson die (spoiler? well, this whole post is basically a spoiler, so…), but it made sense that somebody had to die in the epic battle of all battles to save the world, I suppose! Still, the character was fun and has been with us for a while now, plus I just like Clark Gregg the actor because I have fond memories of his appearance in the final episodes of Sports Night as the mysterious savior who buys the network and decides to keep the show running after all… 😛
Let’s see … what else???
Captain America’s directions to the team at the beginning of the huge battle were awesome, mainly due to his simple order for the Hulk – I wanted to cheer out loud when I heard that line, but I didn’t!
On the other hand, my heart did sink a little when Tony tried to call Pepper Potts on the phone just moments before his big finale and she didn’t pick up… 🙁
Unfortunately, I ended up having to pee like the dickens for the last 20 minutes of the film, so I pretty much shot out the door after the first teaser played during the credits … but luckily thanks to the powers of the Internet, I caught a very garbled camcorder clip of the final final scene and in retrospect I was probably ok missing a little shawarma to avoid peeing my pants, anyways!
So in summary – I thought The Avengers ended up being a very good movie … lots of fun, plenty of action, great lines, and familiar faces, and I really hope that the franchise can continue on and prosper from here. I was a little hesitant of how this one would end up after building on it for so long … sequels typically haven’t been great for superhero movies as of late, and the concept of just throwing lots of big names up on the screen could’ve gone either way, but I think the story was executed very well and it ended up really being worth the wait!
Now whether Thor 2 and Captain America 2 … and even Iron Man 3, really … will fair on their own leading up to the next Avengers movie several years on down the road, I guess the skeptic in me is still a little doubtful because I didn’t love Iron Man 2 nearly as much as the original, but then again, they already managed to pull it off with The Avengers, so who knows?!
TL;DR – Go see the movie.