AVENGERS ASSEMBLE
So, Avengers! It's 3:20am, so this is but the most disjointed of reactions, but first I need to get one thing out of my system:
GOD DAMN YOU TO HELL, JOSS WHEDON. DO YOU HAVE SOME KIND OF FETISH ABOUT IMPALING BELOVED CHARACTERS THROUGH THE CHEST? IS THIS A PHALLIC THING? DO I NEED TO SEND YOU TO THERAPY? BECAUSE GOD DAMN IT STOP KILLING THE CHARACTERS I LOVE.
Ahem. Now that that's out of the way (P.S. IN COMICS, NO BODY NO DEATH, AND I'M STICKING TO THAT) . . . honestly, basically everything else about this movie was a giant pile of AMAZINGNESS.
Coulson fanboying Captain America shamelessly and adorably!
Steve and Tony and DEAR GOD THE TENSION, WHY DID THEY NOT JUST MAKE OUT ALREADY, and then the way that they just dropped everything and worked together so smoothly and beautifully and eeee.
Tony and Bruce geeking out together, and Tony drawing Bruce out of his shell and appreciating his brain, and is it sad that I would basically watch a whole movie of the two of them playing with technology and bouncing ideas off each other? Jane Foster can co-star!
Captain America being so very HIM, brave and honest and with so many delicious buttons to push.
Natascha! Dear God, everything about Natascha! The way that every time she started to act out the "I am REALLY JUST A VULNERABLE GIRL INSIDE" heroine cliches, it soon became clear that no, in fact she was completely bad-ass and in control and exploiting how easy it is to read those cliches onto women! Her complete pragmatism (oh, how nice, Barton appears to be back to himself; you STILL knock him out and get him restrained)! Her quiet bemusement at everything! Natascha!
And Hawkeye. (Legolas! :-D) I did not expect to love Hawkeye as much as this film made me love him. Partly it's that competence is fucking sexy, and while Tony and Bruce had the genius, he had every action and ability honed to perfection; the only reason he got taken down was because he's best at a distance. I really liked the friendly hum of his relationship with Nat (loved how he had his heels up on her chair in the post-credits scene); while I can completely see them fucking a few times to get it out of their system, their friendship/partnership was just fabulous to watch. And, um, listening to him tell Loki/Fury/Coulson "sir" makes my brain go deliciously wicked places.
Tony Stark, it's very adorable with you playing all mature boyfriend with Pepper (and yes, I love Pepper immensely), but you're even more engaging when you're a beautiful mess, saving the world despite your alcoholism, narcissism, and insatiable geekiness. Introduce some better relational conflict into Iron Man 3, mkay?
Hulk. Maria Hill. Loki. Nick Fury. Thor. So much love.
THE POST-CREDITS SCENE. PERFECTION AND ALSO SCHWARMA.
So. Avengers, tomorrow night, anyone?