Back from The Avengers
Just got back from The Avengers. It was pretty much exactly what I had expected, which means I kind of enjoyed myself but probably won't see it again - possibly some parts of it.
As I had braced myself for, it was pretty much all fanservice, and I'm not that kind of fan. By which I mean both that I'm not a previous fan of the characters, and that what I like about superheroes is the clash of the fantastic and the mundane. One of the first things that drew me into superheroes was a panel of Spider-man washing his costume and trying to figure how to get the stains out. Another was Lois & Clark, which, inbetween the fighting time-travelers and frog-eating clones, is really about two people trying to make a connection despite pretty unusual circumstances.
The Avengers had about half an hour of material I found genuinely interesting. That's not half bad - it's about twenty minutes more than Wolverine did. (In general, I'd say this film is not quite as entertaining as Thor, much better than X-men: The Last Stand.)
My favourite bits include Black Widow's introduction, anything involving Bruce Banner as himself (and I got to admit, Hulk's whipping around of Loki was pretty damned funny), some of the more low-key moments between the other characters, and... yeah, that's it. Oh, and some of the oneliners (Cap's excitement at recognizing a pop culture reference, SO CUTE I can't even! <3), even though it annoyed me that 90% of the dialogue was in service of oneliners. Jesus Christ, Joss, it wouldn't kill you to stop quipping for ONE SECOND and consider what people might actually say, rather than what would look good on a T-shirt.
The characters were all pretty nice. I wouldn't mind getting to know them better, in a context where they were allowed to interact more, rather than have random battles because of Rule of Cool. The way I see it, my inner conversation with Joss Whedon goes something like this:
"Why is Thor fighting Iron Man?"
"Because they both want dibs on stopping Loki."
"Can't they just stop him together?"
"They'll come to that conclusion, in about ten minutes."
"Why not now?"
"Because the fight is FREAKING AWESOME!!!!"
*sigh* "Whatever."
"Why is Hulk fighting Black Widow and Thor?"
"Because he's Hulk. He fights things."
"Okay, but the final battle is pretty dependent on Hulk knowing friend from foe, so how come he doesn't know it now?"
"Because this is SO MUCH MORE AWESOME!"
*sigh* "Whatever."
And then we get the end, where hordes of intergalactic orcs riding nightmare A'Tuin come through the portal in the sky, and I went, Oh goodie, I forgot, we have to have a battle with intergalactic orcs, because I am required to CARE LESS ABOUT THIS SHIT.
I don't know if there's any point in complaining about the plot. I mean, it is what it is. Loki steals the macguffin (yes, I know, tesseract, don't remind me of A Wrinkle in Time while boring me, please) to rule the earth and makes a pact with the orc hordes who want to rule everywhere else. It's the kind of plot you have when you don't give a fuck about the plot. (I was going to say, "this from the guy who brought us the Darla arc," but looking at credits over at buffyworld, it seems most of that was written by other people, so never mind.) Bonus for sneaking in Alexis Denisof, though, even if it only caused me a "yay" in the credits since I didn't actually recognize him. And second bonus for Robin from How I Met Your Mother, whom I did recognize and enjoyed seeing, even if she didn't actually get much characterization.
This post may make it seem like I hated it, and I didn't. Like I said, there was about half an hour of good stuff, and it was spread out evenly enough that I found it okay. I just wanted to sit everyone down, make them take off their costumes and behave like people towards each other. Superpowered people, but people. Like that sports scene in the first X-men movie. That's my kind of fanservice.
*eyes icon* Well that, and pretty people licking things. Which I'm including here just because.
This entry was originally posted at http://katta.dreamwidth.org/576875.html and has
comments there.
As I had braced myself for, it was pretty much all fanservice, and I'm not that kind of fan. By which I mean both that I'm not a previous fan of the characters, and that what I like about superheroes is the clash of the fantastic and the mundane. One of the first things that drew me into superheroes was a panel of Spider-man washing his costume and trying to figure how to get the stains out. Another was Lois & Clark, which, inbetween the fighting time-travelers and frog-eating clones, is really about two people trying to make a connection despite pretty unusual circumstances.
The Avengers had about half an hour of material I found genuinely interesting. That's not half bad - it's about twenty minutes more than Wolverine did. (In general, I'd say this film is not quite as entertaining as Thor, much better than X-men: The Last Stand.)
My favourite bits include Black Widow's introduction, anything involving Bruce Banner as himself (and I got to admit, Hulk's whipping around of Loki was pretty damned funny), some of the more low-key moments between the other characters, and... yeah, that's it. Oh, and some of the oneliners (Cap's excitement at recognizing a pop culture reference, SO CUTE I can't even! <3), even though it annoyed me that 90% of the dialogue was in service of oneliners. Jesus Christ, Joss, it wouldn't kill you to stop quipping for ONE SECOND and consider what people might actually say, rather than what would look good on a T-shirt.
The characters were all pretty nice. I wouldn't mind getting to know them better, in a context where they were allowed to interact more, rather than have random battles because of Rule of Cool. The way I see it, my inner conversation with Joss Whedon goes something like this:
"Why is Thor fighting Iron Man?"
"Because they both want dibs on stopping Loki."
"Can't they just stop him together?"
"They'll come to that conclusion, in about ten minutes."
"Why not now?"
"Because the fight is FREAKING AWESOME!!!!"
*sigh* "Whatever."
"Why is Hulk fighting Black Widow and Thor?"
"Because he's Hulk. He fights things."
"Okay, but the final battle is pretty dependent on Hulk knowing friend from foe, so how come he doesn't know it now?"
"Because this is SO MUCH MORE AWESOME!"
*sigh* "Whatever."
And then we get the end, where hordes of intergalactic orcs riding nightmare A'Tuin come through the portal in the sky, and I went, Oh goodie, I forgot, we have to have a battle with intergalactic orcs, because I am required to CARE LESS ABOUT THIS SHIT.
I don't know if there's any point in complaining about the plot. I mean, it is what it is. Loki steals the macguffin (yes, I know, tesseract, don't remind me of A Wrinkle in Time while boring me, please) to rule the earth and makes a pact with the orc hordes who want to rule everywhere else. It's the kind of plot you have when you don't give a fuck about the plot. (I was going to say, "this from the guy who brought us the Darla arc," but looking at credits over at buffyworld, it seems most of that was written by other people, so never mind.) Bonus for sneaking in Alexis Denisof, though, even if it only caused me a "yay" in the credits since I didn't actually recognize him. And second bonus for Robin from How I Met Your Mother, whom I did recognize and enjoyed seeing, even if she didn't actually get much characterization.
This post may make it seem like I hated it, and I didn't. Like I said, there was about half an hour of good stuff, and it was spread out evenly enough that I found it okay. I just wanted to sit everyone down, make them take off their costumes and behave like people towards each other. Superpowered people, but people. Like that sports scene in the first X-men movie. That's my kind of fanservice.
*eyes icon* Well that, and pretty people licking things. Which I'm including here just because.
This entry was originally posted at http://katta.dreamwidth.org/576875.html and has
comments there.