AVENGEEEEEERS!!! (spoilers)
I saw The Avengers this morning in IMAX 3D, which was pretty awesome, but I'm going to try seeing it again in a regular theatre. The 3D glasses are a bit tricky since I already have glasses, and this time around I'd like to focus less on the action-scenes and big visuals and more on the dialogue and the "smaller" visuals. (Or whatever they're called--I'm sure there's a technical term in cinematography.)
SPOILERS FOR AVENGERS!
S
P
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I
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Yes, I did the old school spoiler-space trick.
Three minor quibbles and then straight on to the squee:
1) Cap's comment about there being only one God and him not dressing like that. Now, I'm a Christian and I can totally buy a Steve Rogers who is either Protestant or Catholic (I'm not picky on which) but that line felt rather shoehorned in. It didn't really read like a Joss line, you know? Maybe I'm wrong, but I wonder if it was mandated from higher up. Like, if the movie was going to have Thor and Loki running around, declaring themselves gods, then they needed a sop to certain religious factions?
2) Pepper's presence. Granted, this movie did more to convince me that the Tony/Pepper romance is not doomed to utter failure than the two Iron Man movies, but having Pepper in The Avengers kind of unbalanced the ensemble, IMHO. And I say this despite Tony being my favourite and always wanting more of him. There was almost... too much Tony? I get that RDJ has top billing and that he argued vehemently for Paltrow/Pepper to be included, but now I understand Joss' comment (or was it RDJ?) that the movie was starting to edge over into Iron Man 3 territory. Honestly, I could have done with more Steve and slightly less Tony.
(On a costuming front, who on earth put Pepper Potts in jean shorts? Yoga pants! Tony's boxers, if you really have to show off her legs! Or even a cute little denim skirt if denim is somehow key to the scene! But my brain kinda screeched on the brakes when I saw those shorts and bare feet. Is she going to a rodeo?)
3) I kinda wish budgets and actors' schedules didn't dictate casting, because I think Jane Foster would have been so much more awesome in Erik's role. It would've gone a long way to balancing out Pepper being in this movie when none of the other Avengers brought their significant others along. Obviously Thor would have been much more emotional and torn with Jane in Loki's control than with Erik, but I don't think it would have necessarily changed the plot much. And I would have dearly loved to see Natasha and Jane work together to shut down the tesseract. I get that Natalie Portman was never going to happen, but in my heart-of-hearts? Well, I reject your reality and I substitute my own.
Now for ten things to squee about!
1) OMIGOD BRUCE BANNER. Okay, I've put off seeing the two Hulk movies and now I'll be disappointed because they're not Ruffalo!Hulk. ♥Ruffalo!Hulk♥ This is a character that I hadn't been able to fully embrace because, well, honestly? When I heard he'd been included in the line-up for the Avengers movie, my first thought was, "Do we really need another white male superhero?" We already had Tony, Steve, Thor, and Clint, not to mention Coulson. (I was also the person who said we didn't need a Captain America movie, or that if we had to have a Cap movie, it should be with Isaiah Bradley. I still stand by these opinions, despite loving both Chris Evans!Cap and Ruffalo!Banner.)
But Bruce was this incredibly layered and psychologically twisty character. Like, I could spend a long, long time dissecting him--mentally and emotionally, I mean, not like a lab rat--to find out what makes him tick, where his buttons are, where his head's at. He's a very closed-in character in a different way than Natasha and Clint are closed in. Like, he's closed in but there's a really big part of him that doesn't want to be, that just wants to let the other guy rampage. I mean, I'm probably just stating the obvious to anyone who knows the Hulk, but I really enjoyed how Ruffalo conveyed that throughout the movie.
2) Tony & Bruce = Science Bros! I adore their friendliness and mutual respect, especially in comparison to Tony's much more abrasive relationship with Steve and Bruce's with Natasha. As
blackeyedgirl said in her own review, I started shipping Tony/Bruce based solely on their fantastic chemistry in the trailers and it was great to see it borne out in the movie: when we finally got to see Hulk catch Tony and then roar at him to wake up, it was the culmination of a lovely little friendship arc. Wow, I never thought I'd hardcore-ship a pairing outside of Steve/Tony, but I really, really like Tony/Bruce. I love that he drives off with Tony at the end of the movie, and that Tony invited him to play in the Stark Tower labs. Honestly, I was rather amazed at how much Tony opened up to this guy--way more than he opened up to anyone else on the team, even Steve. Tony saw something of himself in Bruce, I think, and while Bruce didn't quite see himself in Tony, he responded very strongly to the faith Tony had in him. They bonded! Like, like. I dunno. Two geeks at science camp who trade horror stories of what it's like to be the smartest kid at school, and when the summer is over they promise to be pen pals and they keep writing even though it's kinda lame to have a pen pal, it's not like they're little kids any more, but they do it anyway because no one else understaaaaands. *g*
(IS THERE FIC YET???? *bats eyelashes in the general direction of the UK*)
3) Steve Rogers is completely adorable. N'aww, look at him punch a body-bag off its chain! And he's got, like, ten more waiting to replace the busted one! I love that little old Jewish man in Germany, refusing to bow down to Loki, and Steve stepping in to protect him. I mean, yeah, it's heavy-handed but it's the kind of heavy-handed that's just right, you know? That kind of righteousness and purity of purpose that comes from knowing your cause is just. (Which is why the God crack really doesn't fit, IMHO, because it's a kind of pettiness that doesn't fit Steve. I mean, he can be petty about Tony, that's one thing, but he wouldn't be petty about God. Especially not if he was a genuine believer.)
butterfly made the observation that Steve seemed to respond more strongly to Tony by the end of the movie than vice versa, which is interesting, because most fic tends to have the reverse dynamic. But it makes sense, considering Tony's currently got a very busy and relationship-filled life whereas Steve is lacking those connections right now.
A great Cap moment: when Steve saves the people in the subway (or wherever that was, the scene where he got unmasked) and he's landed hard and is obviously getting worn. And he and Thor are fighting, managing to hold their own, and then he gets knocked down again and Thor helps him to his feet, and you can just sense exhaustion rolling off him. I half expected him to say, "Nah, I can do this all day."
Really love his awkward little face when Coulson fanboys him. Oh so hilarious! I'll go into Coulson later, but wow, talk about AWK-WARD. Love that Tony and Bruce challenging him to question Fury pushes him to go off and investigate on his own. When I mentioned above that I wanted more Steve, mostly I would've loved more of Steve confronting Fury about the Hydra weapons, further explication of their different ways of waging war.
I love that Steve partners with Black Widow for most of the fighting. Honestly, I was already shipping them a little because of (don't hit me) The Nanny Diaries and because the trailers hinted that she'd be introducing him to Banner and presumably the rest of the team. It struck me as wonderfully poetic if the Russian ex-spy had the task of getting Captain America up to speed on 70 years of world history. I'd started writing it, in fact, a "Steve acclimates to 2012" fic in which Steve and Natasha traded off POV. It's unlikely to be finished now, alas.
4) NATASHA NATASHA NATASHA. God, I love her so much. I already loved her in IM2 and was prepared to be blown away because (okay, I'll be honest) I think Scarlett is smoking hot. Also, because the few non-spoilery interviews I'd read/watched gave me the hope that she wouldn't be objectified. And honestly, skin-tight uniform and cleavage-y black dress aside, it wasn't as bad as I'd feared. She was way less objectified than Pepper, I felt, which was a very, very interesting reversal to IM2.
I kinda want to see Natasha go up against fandom's grifters and cons. Like, say, the Leverage crew or the gang in Smith. Because her "interrogation technique"? A thing of beauty and a joy forever. :D I love the way she and Clint talk about debt, and guilt, as a ledger, a question of numbers, how many lives saved and how many lives lost. "We were never trained for this." Letting Clint off the hook, even as she claims to be in the red herself. Love the references to "red". It was just pointed enough without being anvil-y.
And as I mentioned, I love that she partners up with Cap--her ally-oop onto the alien skidoo (heh) was fantastic teamwork.
Other things that I find interesting about Natasha: That her first words when she found Erik on the ledge was to talk him down, thinking he was suicidal. That she has this fond little smile when Tony comes blaring in with his own soundtrack. That she's afraid of the Hulk. She's fearless in all other respects, so what is it about the Hulk? Is it that she can't manipulate him the way she can manipulate normal humans? There's nothing to read, no tricks or hidden agendas with the Hulk--whatever he's thinking or feeling is right out there, in the open. And she can't physically control him, either. Will have to ponder this one further.
5) NICK FURY, BADASS MOFO. This movie surprised me in ways I wouldn't have expected to be surprised. I mean, I was completely unspoiled for Coulson's death, but once it actually happened and I remembered that this was a Joss Whedon movie, it made perfect sense. But Fury? Hell, I was NOT expecting Fury to be as fleshed out as he was. From what people are telling me, he's even more of a gloriously manipulative bastard in the comics (I haven't read anything with him yet) but I think this is the perfect ratio of heroic:bastard for the movies.
Not sure why I didn't expect him. If you're going to get Samuel L. Jackson in your movie, it'd be a total waste not to use him as much as possible, right? But I guess it was stuck in my head that this was an Avengers movie and the main characters would be the Avengers. But now I want alllll the Fury fic, with young Nick Fury getting recruited by Peggy and Howard, and Fury doing missions with Coulson and Hill, Fury with Natasha and Clint. Even Fury playing politics, because you know that would be some really good shit.
6) I might as well talk about Coulson now. So, okay. I was not spoiled for his death. It came as a complete shock to me. And yet, once it happened? I was like, "Ooooh, got it. This is a Joss movie." (TWENTY YEARS I've known Joss, since the Buffy movie, and I still get surprised when he kills off characters. I'm like Charlie Brown with the football.) I've mentioned more than once that I like Coulson, but kind of resented his presence in the movie because his lines could have gone to Fury or Hill and argued that we didn't need yet another white male character cluttering up an already huge ensemble.
But now I understand why it was Coulson who was the Captain America fanboy, and why he got a scene with Pepper in the beginning to remind us of how much history (relatively speaking) Coulson has in this franchise. I mean, you can debate the merit of Joss killing off a character mid-movie to drive home the emotional consequences of all these people dying, but if anyone was going to die, it was going to be either Coulson or Erik Selvig. Or maaaaybe Clint. (If it had been Maria Hill, I would have written Joss an angry letter--and I'm not even a comics!Maria fan.)
In terms of a traditional hero's journey, though, I can see why Joss felt the death was necessary. Coulson's death is a shock to everyone. It forces them to stop and think, instead of continuing to stumble blindly down their previous path. Tony has to confront the death of an ally, something he hasn't done before except once, with Yinsen. Steve has to step up and be a soldier again--and more, be a commander. (And here's where my Tamora Pierce background kicks in, because being a commander is a whole different skill-set than being a knight errant.) Natasha and Clint need a moment to heal, Fury and Maria have to consider their losses. (Cobie Smulders was fantastic, btw. I don't have a lot to say about her, but she did so much with her relatively small role.) Thor and Bruce are scattered and have to work their way back to the fight.
And Coulson becomes the fallen comrade that they fight for, he's Fury's call to battle, he's Tony's war cry.
I mean, it really works for me but I know it probably doesn't for a lot of other people. My sincere sympathies! Joss-related trauma can scar you for life, but OTOH, it's not like death ever stopped people from ficcing or ret-conning, right? And who knows, maybe Fury is playing us all and Coulson's not really dead.
"You lack conviction." Yup, you tell him, Phil.
7) Clint got the least amount of character development, though there's great potential for post-movie fic/meta re his guilt over being mind-controlled. I really like the hints of Natasha-Clint (or maybe Natasha/Clint) backstory that we got--the banter about Budapest and how Natasha and Clint seem to remember it very differently reminded me a LOT of Duncan MacLeod and Amanda from Highlander. Old friends and old lovers, with so much history between them that they'll never run out of "Remember when?" stories.
8) Thor and Loki. Okay, I'll say straight-up that I have a love/hate thing with Loki. What I mean is, I think he's a fascinating, complicated character and that you could interpret his actions and motivations a dozen different ways and still find canon support for your arguments. Tom Hiddleson does a tremendous job showing the vulnerability and longing beneath all that bitterness and hate and jealousy. My problem is that I get a little impatient with some of the fannish reactions I've seen and then I end up hating the character. But that's entirely on me, I'm the one with the problem--I'm not trying to pin the blame on anyone else.
Anyway, I really liked the Thor-Loki confrontation in the woods. Oh, prodigal sons! You can't ever earn love, or conquer it--you can only accept it when it is freely given. This is what Loki can't understand, doesn't want to understand. He thinks he wants something else--power, respect, control. But those are poor substitutes for his true desire, which is love and acceptance from his family. Detour into the DCU for a moment: I've grown much fonder of Jason Todd in the past year, mostly because I've been reading a lot of fic that skips the whole "killing lots of people" phase of his crime-fighting in Gotham. I mean, if Jason truly and honestly believes that Bruce's method of crime-fighting is flawed and that his way is better, more power to him. I think he's totally wrong, but I support his right as a fictional character to disagree with another fictional character. You know? But dragging in the personal betrayal is always going to make me lose sympathy for you. Like, either give me the personal betrayal or give me the ideological incompatibility, but don't pretend one is the other. I will see through it and be annoyed with you. So, while I get that it's asking too much of Loki, who is kind of messed up about love, to understand what it is he's doing, I have no sympathy once he tries to "logic" his personal vendetta. He invents this complicated narrative to justify his actions! People were made to be ruled, humans want to be subjugated, etc, etc. It's like that little old Jewish guy said: Bull. Shit. That's a nice little fantasy you've got working for you, buddy, but it's nothing approaching reality. Why couldn't Loki just, you know, say straight out, "Dad! Thor! I'm really really pissed at you guys and I'm going to come over there and let you have it!" Noooo, he has to drag in all these other innocent people! Really? What did Midgard ever do to him??
Anyway. Heh. This makes it sound like I didn't enjoy Loki in the movie, but that's not actually true. I mean, he's FRUSTRATING. You kinda want to shake him until he sees sense. And I love how hard Thor tries to get through to him. I love that Thor wants him to come home, and that Loki is just too stubborn and, well, hardhearted (God hardened Pharoah's heart) to accept what Thor is offering him. He's not a god to lose gracefully, is Loki. I really enjoy that Thor and Loki are such brothers. (I'm doing my best to avoid an incest-y place with them, because it's just not my thing.) I love that Thor is torn between wanting his brother back without further damage to their relationship and knowing his brother deserves to get his ass handed to him.
9) HULK SMASH LOKI. The whole theatre burst out laughing at that scene! I mean, I felt kind of bad for Loki? Poor guy, he's all stunned and broken on the floor! And yet? SOOOO AWESOME! :D :D :D And he finally wakes up and tries to get out, and the whole team is gathered around him with the most fantastic pissed-off expressions ever. :D :D :D
10) Tony I left for last because--and I'm surprised to be writing this--there was almost, not quite, but almost too much Tony in this movie. I hope to go again on Sunday and maybe I'll feel differently after a second viewing, but this first time around I kept thinking they could have shaved some of those reaction shots. OTOH, every time I started to get impatient with the guy, he said or did something that made me squeal with glee. Like, "His first name is Agent!" Or being a big ol' attention-whore on the Helicarrier bridge, and it turning out to be an act so he could upload JARVIS into the Hellicarrier's mainframe. Or the camera lingering on him after Coulson's death being followed up by his rant about not being a soldier and then figuring out where Loki is headed next because he shares those same diva qualities. And then the suicide mission to send the nuke through the wormhole--which I need to see again with more appreciation for the look of the shot--I knew of course he wasn't dead. He's got another movie coming out, come on, of course he's not dead. So here I'm waiting impatiently for him to wake up already, and then Hulk ROARS and Tony goes, WHOA, and then feebly cheers, "Good work, team. Let's go for shawarma." I mean!!! *flails* He's so goddamn annoying! And yet he manages to win me back every time!! You kinda want to slap him and then hug him. What the hell, Tony!
So, wow, this turned out longer than I expected. :D
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SPOILERS FOR AVENGERS!
S
P
O
I
L
E
R
S
Yes, I did the old school spoiler-space trick.
Three minor quibbles and then straight on to the squee:
1) Cap's comment about there being only one God and him not dressing like that. Now, I'm a Christian and I can totally buy a Steve Rogers who is either Protestant or Catholic (I'm not picky on which) but that line felt rather shoehorned in. It didn't really read like a Joss line, you know? Maybe I'm wrong, but I wonder if it was mandated from higher up. Like, if the movie was going to have Thor and Loki running around, declaring themselves gods, then they needed a sop to certain religious factions?
2) Pepper's presence. Granted, this movie did more to convince me that the Tony/Pepper romance is not doomed to utter failure than the two Iron Man movies, but having Pepper in The Avengers kind of unbalanced the ensemble, IMHO. And I say this despite Tony being my favourite and always wanting more of him. There was almost... too much Tony? I get that RDJ has top billing and that he argued vehemently for Paltrow/Pepper to be included, but now I understand Joss' comment (or was it RDJ?) that the movie was starting to edge over into Iron Man 3 territory. Honestly, I could have done with more Steve and slightly less Tony.
(On a costuming front, who on earth put Pepper Potts in jean shorts? Yoga pants! Tony's boxers, if you really have to show off her legs! Or even a cute little denim skirt if denim is somehow key to the scene! But my brain kinda screeched on the brakes when I saw those shorts and bare feet. Is she going to a rodeo?)
3) I kinda wish budgets and actors' schedules didn't dictate casting, because I think Jane Foster would have been so much more awesome in Erik's role. It would've gone a long way to balancing out Pepper being in this movie when none of the other Avengers brought their significant others along. Obviously Thor would have been much more emotional and torn with Jane in Loki's control than with Erik, but I don't think it would have necessarily changed the plot much. And I would have dearly loved to see Natasha and Jane work together to shut down the tesseract. I get that Natalie Portman was never going to happen, but in my heart-of-hearts? Well, I reject your reality and I substitute my own.
Now for ten things to squee about!
1) OMIGOD BRUCE BANNER. Okay, I've put off seeing the two Hulk movies and now I'll be disappointed because they're not Ruffalo!Hulk. ♥Ruffalo!Hulk♥ This is a character that I hadn't been able to fully embrace because, well, honestly? When I heard he'd been included in the line-up for the Avengers movie, my first thought was, "Do we really need another white male superhero?" We already had Tony, Steve, Thor, and Clint, not to mention Coulson. (I was also the person who said we didn't need a Captain America movie, or that if we had to have a Cap movie, it should be with Isaiah Bradley. I still stand by these opinions, despite loving both Chris Evans!Cap and Ruffalo!Banner.)
But Bruce was this incredibly layered and psychologically twisty character. Like, I could spend a long, long time dissecting him--mentally and emotionally, I mean, not like a lab rat--to find out what makes him tick, where his buttons are, where his head's at. He's a very closed-in character in a different way than Natasha and Clint are closed in. Like, he's closed in but there's a really big part of him that doesn't want to be, that just wants to let the other guy rampage. I mean, I'm probably just stating the obvious to anyone who knows the Hulk, but I really enjoyed how Ruffalo conveyed that throughout the movie.
2) Tony & Bruce = Science Bros! I adore their friendliness and mutual respect, especially in comparison to Tony's much more abrasive relationship with Steve and Bruce's with Natasha. As
blackeyedgirl said in her own review, I started shipping Tony/Bruce based solely on their fantastic chemistry in the trailers and it was great to see it borne out in the movie: when we finally got to see Hulk catch Tony and then roar at him to wake up, it was the culmination of a lovely little friendship arc. Wow, I never thought I'd hardcore-ship a pairing outside of Steve/Tony, but I really, really like Tony/Bruce. I love that he drives off with Tony at the end of the movie, and that Tony invited him to play in the Stark Tower labs. Honestly, I was rather amazed at how much Tony opened up to this guy--way more than he opened up to anyone else on the team, even Steve. Tony saw something of himself in Bruce, I think, and while Bruce didn't quite see himself in Tony, he responded very strongly to the faith Tony had in him. They bonded! Like, like. I dunno. Two geeks at science camp who trade horror stories of what it's like to be the smartest kid at school, and when the summer is over they promise to be pen pals and they keep writing even though it's kinda lame to have a pen pal, it's not like they're little kids any more, but they do it anyway because no one else understaaaaands. *g*
(IS THERE FIC YET???? *bats eyelashes in the general direction of the UK*)
3) Steve Rogers is completely adorable. N'aww, look at him punch a body-bag off its chain! And he's got, like, ten more waiting to replace the busted one! I love that little old Jewish man in Germany, refusing to bow down to Loki, and Steve stepping in to protect him. I mean, yeah, it's heavy-handed but it's the kind of heavy-handed that's just right, you know? That kind of righteousness and purity of purpose that comes from knowing your cause is just. (Which is why the God crack really doesn't fit, IMHO, because it's a kind of pettiness that doesn't fit Steve. I mean, he can be petty about Tony, that's one thing, but he wouldn't be petty about God. Especially not if he was a genuine believer.)
butterfly made the observation that Steve seemed to respond more strongly to Tony by the end of the movie than vice versa, which is interesting, because most fic tends to have the reverse dynamic. But it makes sense, considering Tony's currently got a very busy and relationship-filled life whereas Steve is lacking those connections right now.
A great Cap moment: when Steve saves the people in the subway (or wherever that was, the scene where he got unmasked) and he's landed hard and is obviously getting worn. And he and Thor are fighting, managing to hold their own, and then he gets knocked down again and Thor helps him to his feet, and you can just sense exhaustion rolling off him. I half expected him to say, "Nah, I can do this all day."
Really love his awkward little face when Coulson fanboys him. Oh so hilarious! I'll go into Coulson later, but wow, talk about AWK-WARD. Love that Tony and Bruce challenging him to question Fury pushes him to go off and investigate on his own. When I mentioned above that I wanted more Steve, mostly I would've loved more of Steve confronting Fury about the Hydra weapons, further explication of their different ways of waging war.
I love that Steve partners with Black Widow for most of the fighting. Honestly, I was already shipping them a little because of (don't hit me) The Nanny Diaries and because the trailers hinted that she'd be introducing him to Banner and presumably the rest of the team. It struck me as wonderfully poetic if the Russian ex-spy had the task of getting Captain America up to speed on 70 years of world history. I'd started writing it, in fact, a "Steve acclimates to 2012" fic in which Steve and Natasha traded off POV. It's unlikely to be finished now, alas.
4) NATASHA NATASHA NATASHA. God, I love her so much. I already loved her in IM2 and was prepared to be blown away because (okay, I'll be honest) I think Scarlett is smoking hot. Also, because the few non-spoilery interviews I'd read/watched gave me the hope that she wouldn't be objectified. And honestly, skin-tight uniform and cleavage-y black dress aside, it wasn't as bad as I'd feared. She was way less objectified than Pepper, I felt, which was a very, very interesting reversal to IM2.
I kinda want to see Natasha go up against fandom's grifters and cons. Like, say, the Leverage crew or the gang in Smith. Because her "interrogation technique"? A thing of beauty and a joy forever. :D I love the way she and Clint talk about debt, and guilt, as a ledger, a question of numbers, how many lives saved and how many lives lost. "We were never trained for this." Letting Clint off the hook, even as she claims to be in the red herself. Love the references to "red". It was just pointed enough without being anvil-y.
And as I mentioned, I love that she partners up with Cap--her ally-oop onto the alien skidoo (heh) was fantastic teamwork.
Other things that I find interesting about Natasha: That her first words when she found Erik on the ledge was to talk him down, thinking he was suicidal. That she has this fond little smile when Tony comes blaring in with his own soundtrack. That she's afraid of the Hulk. She's fearless in all other respects, so what is it about the Hulk? Is it that she can't manipulate him the way she can manipulate normal humans? There's nothing to read, no tricks or hidden agendas with the Hulk--whatever he's thinking or feeling is right out there, in the open. And she can't physically control him, either. Will have to ponder this one further.
5) NICK FURY, BADASS MOFO. This movie surprised me in ways I wouldn't have expected to be surprised. I mean, I was completely unspoiled for Coulson's death, but once it actually happened and I remembered that this was a Joss Whedon movie, it made perfect sense. But Fury? Hell, I was NOT expecting Fury to be as fleshed out as he was. From what people are telling me, he's even more of a gloriously manipulative bastard in the comics (I haven't read anything with him yet) but I think this is the perfect ratio of heroic:bastard for the movies.
Not sure why I didn't expect him. If you're going to get Samuel L. Jackson in your movie, it'd be a total waste not to use him as much as possible, right? But I guess it was stuck in my head that this was an Avengers movie and the main characters would be the Avengers. But now I want alllll the Fury fic, with young Nick Fury getting recruited by Peggy and Howard, and Fury doing missions with Coulson and Hill, Fury with Natasha and Clint. Even Fury playing politics, because you know that would be some really good shit.
6) I might as well talk about Coulson now. So, okay. I was not spoiled for his death. It came as a complete shock to me. And yet, once it happened? I was like, "Ooooh, got it. This is a Joss movie." (TWENTY YEARS I've known Joss, since the Buffy movie, and I still get surprised when he kills off characters. I'm like Charlie Brown with the football.) I've mentioned more than once that I like Coulson, but kind of resented his presence in the movie because his lines could have gone to Fury or Hill and argued that we didn't need yet another white male character cluttering up an already huge ensemble.
But now I understand why it was Coulson who was the Captain America fanboy, and why he got a scene with Pepper in the beginning to remind us of how much history (relatively speaking) Coulson has in this franchise. I mean, you can debate the merit of Joss killing off a character mid-movie to drive home the emotional consequences of all these people dying, but if anyone was going to die, it was going to be either Coulson or Erik Selvig. Or maaaaybe Clint. (If it had been Maria Hill, I would have written Joss an angry letter--and I'm not even a comics!Maria fan.)
In terms of a traditional hero's journey, though, I can see why Joss felt the death was necessary. Coulson's death is a shock to everyone. It forces them to stop and think, instead of continuing to stumble blindly down their previous path. Tony has to confront the death of an ally, something he hasn't done before except once, with Yinsen. Steve has to step up and be a soldier again--and more, be a commander. (And here's where my Tamora Pierce background kicks in, because being a commander is a whole different skill-set than being a knight errant.) Natasha and Clint need a moment to heal, Fury and Maria have to consider their losses. (Cobie Smulders was fantastic, btw. I don't have a lot to say about her, but she did so much with her relatively small role.) Thor and Bruce are scattered and have to work their way back to the fight.
And Coulson becomes the fallen comrade that they fight for, he's Fury's call to battle, he's Tony's war cry.
I mean, it really works for me but I know it probably doesn't for a lot of other people. My sincere sympathies! Joss-related trauma can scar you for life, but OTOH, it's not like death ever stopped people from ficcing or ret-conning, right? And who knows, maybe Fury is playing us all and Coulson's not really dead.
"You lack conviction." Yup, you tell him, Phil.
7) Clint got the least amount of character development, though there's great potential for post-movie fic/meta re his guilt over being mind-controlled. I really like the hints of Natasha-Clint (or maybe Natasha/Clint) backstory that we got--the banter about Budapest and how Natasha and Clint seem to remember it very differently reminded me a LOT of Duncan MacLeod and Amanda from Highlander. Old friends and old lovers, with so much history between them that they'll never run out of "Remember when?" stories.
8) Thor and Loki. Okay, I'll say straight-up that I have a love/hate thing with Loki. What I mean is, I think he's a fascinating, complicated character and that you could interpret his actions and motivations a dozen different ways and still find canon support for your arguments. Tom Hiddleson does a tremendous job showing the vulnerability and longing beneath all that bitterness and hate and jealousy. My problem is that I get a little impatient with some of the fannish reactions I've seen and then I end up hating the character. But that's entirely on me, I'm the one with the problem--I'm not trying to pin the blame on anyone else.
Anyway, I really liked the Thor-Loki confrontation in the woods. Oh, prodigal sons! You can't ever earn love, or conquer it--you can only accept it when it is freely given. This is what Loki can't understand, doesn't want to understand. He thinks he wants something else--power, respect, control. But those are poor substitutes for his true desire, which is love and acceptance from his family. Detour into the DCU for a moment: I've grown much fonder of Jason Todd in the past year, mostly because I've been reading a lot of fic that skips the whole "killing lots of people" phase of his crime-fighting in Gotham. I mean, if Jason truly and honestly believes that Bruce's method of crime-fighting is flawed and that his way is better, more power to him. I think he's totally wrong, but I support his right as a fictional character to disagree with another fictional character. You know? But dragging in the personal betrayal is always going to make me lose sympathy for you. Like, either give me the personal betrayal or give me the ideological incompatibility, but don't pretend one is the other. I will see through it and be annoyed with you. So, while I get that it's asking too much of Loki, who is kind of messed up about love, to understand what it is he's doing, I have no sympathy once he tries to "logic" his personal vendetta. He invents this complicated narrative to justify his actions! People were made to be ruled, humans want to be subjugated, etc, etc. It's like that little old Jewish guy said: Bull. Shit. That's a nice little fantasy you've got working for you, buddy, but it's nothing approaching reality. Why couldn't Loki just, you know, say straight out, "Dad! Thor! I'm really really pissed at you guys and I'm going to come over there and let you have it!" Noooo, he has to drag in all these other innocent people! Really? What did Midgard ever do to him??
Anyway. Heh. This makes it sound like I didn't enjoy Loki in the movie, but that's not actually true. I mean, he's FRUSTRATING. You kinda want to shake him until he sees sense. And I love how hard Thor tries to get through to him. I love that Thor wants him to come home, and that Loki is just too stubborn and, well, hardhearted (God hardened Pharoah's heart) to accept what Thor is offering him. He's not a god to lose gracefully, is Loki. I really enjoy that Thor and Loki are such brothers. (I'm doing my best to avoid an incest-y place with them, because it's just not my thing.) I love that Thor is torn between wanting his brother back without further damage to their relationship and knowing his brother deserves to get his ass handed to him.
9) HULK SMASH LOKI. The whole theatre burst out laughing at that scene! I mean, I felt kind of bad for Loki? Poor guy, he's all stunned and broken on the floor! And yet? SOOOO AWESOME! :D :D :D And he finally wakes up and tries to get out, and the whole team is gathered around him with the most fantastic pissed-off expressions ever. :D :D :D
10) Tony I left for last because--and I'm surprised to be writing this--there was almost, not quite, but almost too much Tony in this movie. I hope to go again on Sunday and maybe I'll feel differently after a second viewing, but this first time around I kept thinking they could have shaved some of those reaction shots. OTOH, every time I started to get impatient with the guy, he said or did something that made me squeal with glee. Like, "His first name is Agent!" Or being a big ol' attention-whore on the Helicarrier bridge, and it turning out to be an act so he could upload JARVIS into the Hellicarrier's mainframe. Or the camera lingering on him after Coulson's death being followed up by his rant about not being a soldier and then figuring out where Loki is headed next because he shares those same diva qualities. And then the suicide mission to send the nuke through the wormhole--which I need to see again with more appreciation for the look of the shot--I knew of course he wasn't dead. He's got another movie coming out, come on, of course he's not dead. So here I'm waiting impatiently for him to wake up already, and then Hulk ROARS and Tony goes, WHOA, and then feebly cheers, "Good work, team. Let's go for shawarma." I mean!!! *flails* He's so goddamn annoying! And yet he manages to win me back every time!! You kinda want to slap him and then hug him. What the hell, Tony!
So, wow, this turned out longer than I expected. :D
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