The Avengers

[isis]

I earned a free ticket from the theater that I go to, so I checked out Avengers again yesterday. It's not perfect by far, but I enjoyed it a second time around.

[nemarsde]

Originally Posted by J A Eyers

That's the problem, Raptor... There's no sense of threat at all.

This is my main gripe with the film. I'm going to sound like a complete twit saying this, but it's too comic book for my taste.

It is spot on to the flavour of the source material though (which isn't really my taste either tbh), and I broadly enjoyed the film in spite of this.

Far from greatness, but not the disaster I was expecting. Surprisingly Captain America was my favourite character. He seemed like a genuinely nice bloke.

[Salvage Guy]

Originally Posted by J A Eyers

She's barely in it.

How Much Screen Time did Each of the AVENGERS�Get? - News - GeekTyrant


Out of everyone, she had the third-most amount of screentime

[J A Eyers]

The amount of time she's on screen doesn't really have anything to do with it. Being out of focus in the background whilst other characters are hogging the limelight doesn't make you a star of the movie, it just makes you a glorified extra. Her role in the film, her importance to the plot, is far less than Banner's/Hulk's, even if he's more camera shy.

[Derek237]

I agree the movie is such bullshit.

[Salvage Guy]

Originally Posted by J A Eyers

The amount of time she's on screen doesn't really have anything to do with it. Being out of focus in the background whilst other characters are hogging the limelight doesn't make you a star of the movie, it just makes you a glorified extra. Her role in the film, her importance to the plot, is far less than Banner's/Hulk's, even if he's more camera shy.

I didn't think her screen presence nor acting credentials were being discussed. She was likely to be on-screen enough for PsyKore to vinegar up.

I don't understand the ripping of a comic-book movie. It's fairly well-paced, utilises all the Avengers characters to appease the fan-boys and actually offers some depth to their characters compared to the previous respective episodes, has a half-decent script and chemistry between most of the characters and big booms. I'll put most of the criticism down to irreverence and don't-wanna-be-part-of-the-hype but I don't really care, it was enjoyable at best if not suffering from a huge case of over-hype.

But I can count on certain members of GG to over-analyse and bellow out their chest-beating disappointment to which noone will listen as per usual.

[Injektilo]

it peaks when hulk punches thor out of frame. should've just cut to the credits.

[Gladiator]

Originally Posted by J A Eyers

Well, I saw this yesterday, and the cinema was packed, and so packed that for the first time in about 15 years we couldn't get tickets to the screening we wanted to because it was sold out.

God knows why. Actually, he's probably as baffled as I am.

In the ranks of comic book movies this sits somewhere between Daredevil and Batman and Robin. I suppose the era of dark and semi-realistic comic book movies that started with the first X Men will reach its end with The Dark Knight Rises. If this piece of fluff has been more successful than all of them then I suspect we'll see more in this vein going forward. Adam West may yet get to come back as Batman after Christian Bale leaves.

It's by far the campest movie I have seen since the turn of the millennium. I didn't know that anyone thought you could still get away with having a baddie that shouts "Kneel before me!" to a group of puny humans before laughing maniacally, whilst wearing a silly hat and shaking a silly stick. I would have just laughed at him if he appeared before me in the real world and did that, just as I laughed when he did it in the film. Inappropriately.

Here is a summary of my thoughts as they happened:
0:01 actors putting on low pitched gravelly voices... they must be the bad guys
0:02 oh and they're wearing dodgy alien masks that look like leftovers from Power Rangers, so I must be right
0:04 gee, this looks cheap - takes 30 seconds before I realise two extras running past with a box is meant to be a military base evacuation scene
0:05 everything looks like it was made for TV, from the sets to the staging to the self-conscious extras who don't know what to do and the camera angles
0:07 am I supposed to know who the bow and arrow guy is?
0:10 cool collapsing mountain - reminds me of the Buffy finale... coincidence!
0:15 even Austin Powers couldn't make Russian stereotypes this funny
0:20 actually, I like this guy playing Banner... I bet they ruin it when they turn him into Hulk
0:30 why are these two fighting? Aren't they both Avengers?
0:35 now why are these two fighting too?! Aren't they both on the same side? Meanwhile Loki is left completely unguarded...
0:40 why is the aircraft carrier flying? I bet it gets attacked and the Avengers have to save it from crashing or something
0:50 nothing has happened for 10 minutes
1:00 Jesus Christ, everyone is still just standing around being all emo
1:05 okay, something has to happen soon because all the kids in here are bored and they're starting to piss me off
1:10 he's adopted! Ho ho ho! The first time the audience has actually laughed because it's an intended joke. A shit one - Thor was defending his brother for being of Asgard a second ago, now he's disowning him for a cheap laugh... typical Whedon
1:15 has Robert Downey Jr ever been this hammy?
1:20 fucking hell, will someone please blow up the flying invisible aircraft carrier soon or I'll take a pair of scissors to the screen!
1:25 thank you, bow and arrow man
1:35 Hulk is not bad, looks a bit like Lou Ferrigno
1:40 well, that was entirely pointless... they've just spent the better part of an hour on the invisible flying aircraft carrier for no reason, doing nothing. Making it fly served no discernible purpose other than to set up the entirely predictable scene where they have to save it from crashing - why didn't they just stay on the water and avoid that?
1:45 oh noes, Loki is going to attack New York!!1! Why is everyone shocked or behaving like it's the end of the world? Isn't that what every sub-standard camp supervillain does?
1:50 insert final act plot arc Option 12 here: everyone must get together to close the magic space portal
1:55 why are these aliens only attacking in groups of five or six? Worst. Invasion. Ever.
2:00 Hulk killed the last of the six, here come the next five - ooh, this time accompanied by magic flying snake thing!
2:10 why is Stellan Skarsgaard now a goodie? Did I miss something?
2:20 oh, so they close the magic space portal and all of a sudden all the hundreds of invading aliens (which we didn't see beforehand) just collapse dead instantly - holy cop-out ending, Batman! What is this shit? Star Trek Voyager?

Avoid.

QFT. Just saw it the other day and to say I was unimpressed is an understatement. Awful film, truly.

LOL love your comment at 1:50.

This is literally what someone at work said when they saw Avengers:

Her: It was awesome
Me: Why
Her: Because it was just like, I mean like, I don't usually watch action movies but like it was like there was something going on the whole time...
Me: Erm...What do you mean
Her: It was like funny, the Downey guy was like fighting with Thor n' shit and said thoze yo mom's drapes!! The movie Id' see again definitely

This might have been the most overhyped film I've seen in my entire life.

[nemarsde]

It may not have been my cup of tea, but I enjoyed it more than both Nolan Batman films combined, and I give the film-makers credit, I can't imagine a better Avengers film could be made whilst remaining faithful to the source and its fans.

For me, I had the same feeling I had throughout Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin; the acute feeling that I was watching a film broadly aimed at a universal audience. I don't think there's anything wrong with that per se, and I'm not surprised that a universal film should fail to grip more jaded adult audiences like myself.

[Herne the hunter]

Originally Posted by J A Eyers

Well, I saw this yesterday, and the cinema was packed, and so packed that for the first time in about 15 years we couldn't get tickets to the screening we wanted to because it was sold out.

God knows why. Actually, he's probably as baffled as I am.

Lol wut?

Maybe you have to be a comicbook nerd to enjoy it or something. I for one thought it was the best superhero movie I've ever seen. And like Nemarsde, I include both of the more popular Batmans in that.

The action was good without being too Michael Bayish, the comedy moments were laugh-out-loud funny (Robert Downey Jr was particularly awesome in his performance), and unlike a lot of comicbook adaptations nowadays it didn't take itself too seriously to the point of being pretentious.

IMO it is the very epitome of what a superhero movie should be. I look forward to the inevitable sequel.

[J A Eyers]

Yeah, when it comes to appreciating comic book adaptations, I'm very much at the dark 'n' gritty end of the spectrum. I liked the Nolan Batman films more than the Schumacher Batman films, I liked X Men and X2 more than Fantastic Four and I didn't think Spiderman 3 was as terrible as everyone said it was.

Of course, I'm not a reader of comic books, so when I go into one of these films, I usually have no pre-knowledge whatsoever. Everything I know about Hulk is from the 70s TV show. I don't know a thing about Captain America. And I still don't know who bow 'n' arrows guy in the Avengers movie was!

That said, I did like Iron Man (haven't seen the sequel yet) which sits probably halfway between dark and fun and worked very well there. The character didn't work quite so well in a film that sits on the same shelf as Daredevil and Catwoman.

[Injektilo]

iron man 2 gets some unfair comparisons to the original. I actually slightly prefer it - if only by the absolute brilliance of sam rockwell.

[Gladiator]

Originally Posted by Herne the hunter

Lol wut?

Maybe you have to be a comicbook nerd to enjoy it or something. I for one thought it was the best superhero movie I've ever seen. And like Nemarsde, I include both of the more popular Batmans in that.

The action was good without being too Michael Bayish, the comedy moments were laugh-out-loud funny (Robert Downey Jr was particularly awesome in his performance), and unlike a lot of comicbook adaptations nowadays it didn't take itself too seriously to the point of being pretentious.

IMO it is the very epitome of what a superhero movie should be. I look forward to the inevitable sequel.

Wow really? What made it so compelling? I understand its a superhero film, its meant to be a popcorn entertainment fun flick blah blah blah....but what is it exactly?

The jokes weren't that funny to be honest. But everyone loves to get on Downey's nuts for some reason, so I can see that.

I mean it could be that I just don't like the Avengers material. With that said, I'll take Nolan's Batman anyday. The Dark Knight was a far superior film and its sequel will be better, of that I have no doubt. Avengers was terrible, sorry.

[Herne the hunter]

Originally Posted by Gladiator

Avengers was terrible, sorry.

Box office figures suggest otherwise.

When I saw it the whole theatre was laughing quite loudly at the funny parts, and not just at Iron Man's dry one-liners. Two other instances that spring to mind were the Hulk knocking a panting Thor off screen after having just defeated a legion of griblies with him, and Loki's big rant about gods and insects which ended with the Hulk smashing him repeatedly about the floor like a rag doll. Come on, that was funny.

As for what made it so compelling; it would have been difficult to pen a story with so many main characters without focusing largely on one or two and letting the rest sit on the back benches but Avengers managed it quite successfully. Whilst Iron man was undoubtedly the star of the show, I felt that each character got his or her fair share of story and screen time.

Don't get me wrong, I like Dark Knight. That's more due to Ledger's performance than Bale's (although as a Joker fan he's still not my ideal depiction of what a live action Joker should be like, but that's another thread entirely). But if I have two gripes with Nolan's universe they're that 1) it is too dark and serious. We're talking about a man who dresses as a bat and fights crime. The concept is ridiculous and because of that it's hard to take the film as seriously as intended, and 2) you never get the feeling that Batman is ever in any real jeopardy. Fuck it, I'll just come out and say it; he's a Mary Sue. No matter what happens he has an App for that. I'm pretty certain that if in the next film Bane plans to take over Gotham by incapacitating Batman with a gun that fires magical testicle-munching imps, Batman would simply pull an imp-proof crotch guard out of his belt that he just happened to have developed years ago for just this occassion. In the Avengers I think every character had at least one moment where the audience felt they were in imminent mortal danger (save perhaps for Thor who isn't mortal, and Hulk who no longer is).

And with that lengthy diatribe over, I conclude by reiterating my previous explanation: it had the perfect mix of action, comedy, and campy comicbook light heartedness.

[J A Eyers]

I never felt like any of the characters were in mortal danger. That was only partly due to the fact that by their very nature they have script immunity, and mostly to do with the fact that Loki is such a weak non-entity of a supervillain.

And if box office figures are anything to go by, that means the only films better than the Avengers are Avatar and Titanic. No, it simply means it has enough to appeal to the lowest common denominator.

Whedon's jokes in Alien: Resurrection were funnier. The funniest joke (Thor's adoption one) was at the expense of the reality the film was establishing. And most of the audience I was with missed it because the cinema was full of restless kids and teenagers too busy chatting or playing with their mobile phones because nothing had happened on screen for about 20 minutes by that point and they were bored.

[Herne the hunter]

To each his own. I was asked why I found it compelling, there is my answer.

[nemarsde]

I'm hoping that the Loki/Thor story arc reaches a conclusion in the next Thor film. As much as I like Loki as a classic Iago-type villain, he did kill Agent Coulson and needs to pay, not just by being roughed up by Hulk (though that was a great moment).

I know they never kill any character in the Marvel comics, which frankly gets on my moobs, and I know Loki is the reoccurring Thor villain. But this is film. Drop him screaming off of the cathedral already. (And make sure there isn't a worm hole at the bottom this time!)

[Herne the hunter]

Originally Posted by nemarsde

I know they never kill any character in the Marvel comics

Are you kidding? Someone dies every other week in the marvel universe. Captain America died just last year. Thor the year before that. I'm fairly sure Spider-man's died at least twice.

They're all mysteriously somehow alive again within a few months of course, but still... Jesus ain't got shit on Marvel characters.

[nemarsde]

Exactly. I consider that merely side-tracked as opposed to killed. Ironically, they did kill off one of my favourite characters, who I read as a youth; Night Thrasher (sort of a cross between Batman and the Punisher). Of course, they brought him back recently, but it turns out it's actually his twin brother, who's also a genius mutant.

[J A Eyers]

Originally Posted by Herne the hunter

Are you kidding? Someone dies every other week in the marvel universe. Captain America died just last year. Thor the year before that. I'm fairly sure Spider-man's died at least twice.

They're all mysteriously somehow alive again within a few months of course, but still... Jesus ain't got shit on Marvel characters.

That's why I got bored of that Heroes show. Everyone kept dying but kept on coming back. No dramatic tension.

[Herne the hunter]

I never got into Heroes, but given that it was a TV series with a finite number of episodes rather than a comic book franchise that has lasted more than half a century I'm going to assume that constantly resurrecting characters was more a commentary on the genre than anything else.

Oh and Nema, I just remembered that both Cyclops and Jean Grey died permanently (so far) in X-Men 3.

[Injektilo]

did you write this jon?

How The Avengers Should Have Ended

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[nemarsde]

Originally Posted by Herne the hunter

Oh and Nema, I just remembered that both Cyclops and Jean Grey died permanently (so far) in X-Men 3.

Aye, films can't get away with the same conventions as comic books, even when they're using them as source material. It's a bit like Spandex and wearing underpants on the outside.

[Gladiator]

Man Avengers was awesome because I felt like any one superhero was gonna die at any time because the villains were so awesome! Yeah! Hulk and Iron Man sure were in danger!! Man I hope Nolan doesn't direct the sequel and try to add realistic elements because fuck, "box office figures don't lie" and man do we want our popcorn films...oh wait, I must be a Nolan fanboy, better get outta this thread.

[Herne the hunter]

Originally Posted by nemarsde

Aye, films can't get away with the same conventions as comic books, even when they're using them as source material. It's a bit like Spandex and wearing underpants on the outside.

Hey it worked in Super.

[Shataan]

I don`t mind the Hero movies in small doses. It is when they have them in 1 movie in large numbers where I zone out. Avengers was not my kind of flick.

[nemarsde]

Originally Posted by Herne the hunter

Hey it worked in Super.

Holy mackerel, that is one disturbing film!

What kind of effed up mind must I have!? I found the auto-caesarian in Prometheus deliciously entertaining, but Ellen Page talking about being "all gushy" and forcing herself on that schizo made me want to puke.

Weird.

Super was a powerful film in that respect though. Worth watching, aye.

[Herne the hunter]

Lol, I had the exact same reaction!

I only watched it a few nights ago thinking it was gonna be a run of the mill comedy. I wasn't expecting a female-on-male rape scene, Page with half her face blown off, a depressing ending, and corndog brainsauce tentacles.

Good film though.

[nemarsde]

And how's the ending go?

"Killing you might not change anything... But I won't know - unless I try!" **Stab stab stab** Freaked me out.

[Injektilo]