Less a review and more an opinion exorcism at this point
thelovemafia asked about my Avengers feelings. The short version is simply ':D', but the longer response doesn't fit in a comment so it can be a post. Chris, don't actually read all this. My thoughts, all in a giant blur:
I don't know if I have a favourite? Well, it's probably the two I mentioned first up there, but I really did love everyone. Even Tony Stark, which is a feat - but apparently the way to my heart is to punch Thor on the mountainous bicep and call him "Point Break". I DIED. "Shakespeare in the Park" had already started my downfall. And can I just say that all the actors played their parts really well? Turns out the casting was perfect, which is a word I'm trying to avoid using loosely, but these people sold their characters.
Loki was ... not quite what I expected. Less in control, I think. But that was also kind of cool and made sense, especially considering he spent a fair amount of time falling screaming through space and then hanging out with aggro bony fish people. (And as an example of the great casting, Tom Hiddleston in the opening scenes - that was definitely a dude who'd be called "liesmith". He talks pretty.)
Anyway, Loki's supposed to be chaos! And had his world view gutted relatively recently and is lashing out in a most horrific case of good girl gone bad. (He never was very good but he did have to spend his whole life pretending very well that he was, enough to trust most of the time.) So while it was unexpected to see him on the brink of - well WOW, who even knows - on the brink of everything, including himself - it was also interesting and appropriately creepy. There's one point where he tells Thor that things can't be stopped now, it's beyond control. I like my villains to own their terribleness, but Loki looked like he was half in love with the idea of uncontrollable horrors raining down for funsies. What's wrong with you dude. So many things. That's awesome.
It is however PERPLEXING why Thor is all over Loki to the extent that he is, despite how clearly angry and betrayed he feels and the extremely good reasons he has for that. It gives me the same feeling I got from the Thor movie - there needs to be slow-paced, devastating TV series detailing the tragic story of the Asgardian royal family. Comics AU Game of Thrones kind of thing.
It also gives me the feeling that Thor should be all over Loki generally, you know how it is. They keep touchinnnnggg, and "Are you ever not going to fall for that?" and Loki stabbing Thor with the tiniest knife in the least lethal way. At the very end, for some reason it kills me to see Thor giving Loki a look and Loki's just like 'oh fine' and they simultaneously activate the device that takes them home. They know each other up and down and are irreparably locked together. Because they want to be. And don't want to be. HELP.
My other ship is Natasha/Clint. It's not oversold or undersold for purpose of building up some tsuntsun deredere, and it avoids the trope of Cold-Hearted Professional is Melted by Love - they're just two ludicrously competent, relatively normal people holding their own on a team of gods and monsters without any trace of doubt, who happen to work together seamlessly. And HISTORY. all the implied HISTORY. So delicious. I like that Fury just mentions Clint's name and Natasha's in - but Natasha's line about the debt she owes rings true throughout her and Clint's interactions. They love each other, somehow and some way, but it's paredn down to the simplest form. (PS just want to mention that I love how Loki did get to her with his "red in the ledger" line, since she mentioned it later to Clint - she beat Loki during that confrontation, but he knows where to put the words so they hurt.)
Otherwise I ship ... it's sort of complicated ... Pepper Potts holding dinner parties with all the Avengers - I'm including Fury here - and probably Coulson, shut up I want him there, and also Maria Hill - and they all banter charmingly, play beer pong, use their powers in ill-advised ways, and at last have a sleepover in a cushion-&-blanket fort. I love the team, is what I'm saying. The difficulty in getting the Avengers together and the way they started working together when circumstances demanded it was good to watch, realistic and fun and satisfying.
- HULK;
- NATASHA;
- I LOVE EVERYBODY;
- Well, Loki and Thor have been face-to-face for approximately five seconds and it is desperately obvious why I keep seeing people go "I didn't like Loki/Thor at all. Then I watched Avengers and internally screamed NOW KISS the whole time!" (Now kiss) (Why don't they kiss) (oh god someone give me fanfic I MUST RAID CHRIS'S TUMBLR WHEN I GET HOME);
- If Maria Hill isn't literally Robin Scherbatsky from How I Met Your Mother, having quit her newscaster job and joined SHIELD, then I don't want to know about it;
- Dang I was really expecting this movie to be overhyped and to sit in the theatre like a grump. Now look at me, I'm nearly on the floor laughing. It's decently coherent and dramatic, what's going on;
- Loki vs. Hulk: All right, Joss Whedon, you win this round. I will give you that one wholeheartedly;
- That classical music + Loki scene in Germany strikes me as pretty Whedon as too, now that I think of it, and I liked that a lot too. (I keep listening to that music now, actually.) The movie didn't strike me as overly Whedon, though, which was a good thing considering that fandom has given me bad associations with his work;
- This Thanos business at the end really makes me want the next movie now, deeply. My comics knowledge doesn't even extend to Thanos, but he's called Thanos and is all "Hmm, that would be like courting death. :D". Clearly that's going to be fun;
- Also is there fic about a scientific inquiry into why Banner's trousers turn purplish every time he hulks out;
- Seriously.
I don't know if I have a favourite? Well, it's probably the two I mentioned first up there, but I really did love everyone. Even Tony Stark, which is a feat - but apparently the way to my heart is to punch Thor on the mountainous bicep and call him "Point Break". I DIED. "Shakespeare in the Park" had already started my downfall. And can I just say that all the actors played their parts really well? Turns out the casting was perfect, which is a word I'm trying to avoid using loosely, but these people sold their characters.
Loki was ... not quite what I expected. Less in control, I think. But that was also kind of cool and made sense, especially considering he spent a fair amount of time falling screaming through space and then hanging out with aggro bony fish people. (And as an example of the great casting, Tom Hiddleston in the opening scenes - that was definitely a dude who'd be called "liesmith". He talks pretty.)
Anyway, Loki's supposed to be chaos! And had his world view gutted relatively recently and is lashing out in a most horrific case of good girl gone bad. (He never was very good but he did have to spend his whole life pretending very well that he was, enough to trust most of the time.) So while it was unexpected to see him on the brink of - well WOW, who even knows - on the brink of everything, including himself - it was also interesting and appropriately creepy. There's one point where he tells Thor that things can't be stopped now, it's beyond control. I like my villains to own their terribleness, but Loki looked like he was half in love with the idea of uncontrollable horrors raining down for funsies. What's wrong with you dude. So many things. That's awesome.
It is however PERPLEXING why Thor is all over Loki to the extent that he is, despite how clearly angry and betrayed he feels and the extremely good reasons he has for that. It gives me the same feeling I got from the Thor movie - there needs to be slow-paced, devastating TV series detailing the tragic story of the Asgardian royal family. Comics AU Game of Thrones kind of thing.
It also gives me the feeling that Thor should be all over Loki generally, you know how it is. They keep touchinnnnggg, and "Are you ever not going to fall for that?" and Loki stabbing Thor with the tiniest knife in the least lethal way. At the very end, for some reason it kills me to see Thor giving Loki a look and Loki's just like 'oh fine' and they simultaneously activate the device that takes them home. They know each other up and down and are irreparably locked together. Because they want to be. And don't want to be. HELP.
My other ship is Natasha/Clint. It's not oversold or undersold for purpose of building up some tsuntsun deredere, and it avoids the trope of Cold-Hearted Professional is Melted by Love - they're just two ludicrously competent, relatively normal people holding their own on a team of gods and monsters without any trace of doubt, who happen to work together seamlessly. And HISTORY. all the implied HISTORY. So delicious. I like that Fury just mentions Clint's name and Natasha's in - but Natasha's line about the debt she owes rings true throughout her and Clint's interactions. They love each other, somehow and some way, but it's paredn down to the simplest form. (PS just want to mention that I love how Loki did get to her with his "red in the ledger" line, since she mentioned it later to Clint - she beat Loki during that confrontation, but he knows where to put the words so they hurt.)
Otherwise I ship ... it's sort of complicated ... Pepper Potts holding dinner parties with all the Avengers - I'm including Fury here - and probably Coulson, shut up I want him there, and also Maria Hill - and they all banter charmingly, play beer pong, use their powers in ill-advised ways, and at last have a sleepover in a cushion-&-blanket fort. I love the team, is what I'm saying. The difficulty in getting the Avengers together and the way they started working together when circumstances demanded it was good to watch, realistic and fun and satisfying.