movie thoughts: "The Avengers"
Okay, so I've finally seen Joss Whedon's Avengers. It was good. Enjoyable. I think I'd like to go see it again to get a better feeling for everything that's going on all at once. And maybe I'd squee more about it the second time? Or, possibly, I'd just enjoy it for the candy.
I don't know what it was about this movie - maybe it's just that I'm growing cynical about movies and the tricks they use to pull your heartstrings. Maybe it was that there were only two or three major female characters (as in: had significant lines and any kind of personality) and none of them got anything even vaguely resembling character development - not even Natasha - although she kicked ass pretty awesomely, even when Loki was trying to mind screw her over.
Anyway, maybe it was just that some of the scenes were patently gratuitous: that fight scene after Thor steals Loki? Pretty much an excuse for Thor and Tony and Cap to get their dicks out and measure whose was biggest, while Loki sniggers in the background. It served no real plot point, gave us nothing that we saw used later in the movie. I'd have allowed it if we'd seen Thor supercharge Iron Man in the final battle, or if we had Thor's Hammer tossed at Cap's Shield to flatten a bunch of the techno-organic space aliens flying around New York. But, really? It was just "a cool fight scene" to emphasise the personality conflicts - which came were perfectly depicted in almost all their other interactions.
Also: Joss is a bastard. Even after the "I am a leaf on the wind, watch how I--" moment in Serenity, Agent Coulson's death caught me by surprise. BASTARD. Also: I do hope Coulson is actually dead - not because I don't like the guy: Coulson had this wonderful serene-yet-snarky, composed-yet-secretly-fannish personality that definitely grew on me through the course of the movies I've seen him in, but because (unlike Wash's death which was pretty much an audience mindscrew just when we thought the Serenity crew were safe-ish) Coulson's death is the lynchpin for the assembly of the Avengers. Bringing him back cheapens that, IMO. So, much as I want Phil back ("His first name is ‘Agent'") I say: "let the dead remain dead, please!"
Things I did like: that the use of the Tesseract began as a search for clean fuel and turned into an arms race, that Cap went looking for answers on his own while Tony's programs were hacking the SHIELD hovership, that Black Widow still took Hawkeye out after he started to come to and was totally empathetic in the aftermath while not being syrupy, that Agent Hill drove a jeep backwards through a collapsing tunnel while firing at another jeep in an attempt to stop Loki getting away with the Tesseract, that Fury told the Council Of Mysterious Faces On Video that he wasn't going to follow their stupid-ass orders, that Bruce Banner is always angry...
Over all, it was an enjoyable and fun ride. But it's pretty much brain candy watching - okay, so all the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies are brain candy watching, but this one is particularly so. Which, again, hello Joss Whedon, so really not a surprise.
I liked it, but it's on the Thor or Iron Man 2 rewatch list, not the Iron Man or Captain America list. All of which fall short of The Dark Knight, although Iron Man is slightly higher than Batman Begins. And even The Dark Knight tends to tie with Nolan's Inception because that movie is a mindscrew par excellence.
Next up, watching MIB3, as per saramund's instructions because she can't talk the time travel over with her hubs, 'cos he won't get into those kinds of discussions with her. Ah, the joys of geekery!
I don't know what it was about this movie - maybe it's just that I'm growing cynical about movies and the tricks they use to pull your heartstrings. Maybe it was that there were only two or three major female characters (as in: had significant lines and any kind of personality) and none of them got anything even vaguely resembling character development - not even Natasha - although she kicked ass pretty awesomely, even when Loki was trying to mind screw her over.
Anyway, maybe it was just that some of the scenes were patently gratuitous: that fight scene after Thor steals Loki? Pretty much an excuse for Thor and Tony and Cap to get their dicks out and measure whose was biggest, while Loki sniggers in the background. It served no real plot point, gave us nothing that we saw used later in the movie. I'd have allowed it if we'd seen Thor supercharge Iron Man in the final battle, or if we had Thor's Hammer tossed at Cap's Shield to flatten a bunch of the techno-organic space aliens flying around New York. But, really? It was just "a cool fight scene" to emphasise the personality conflicts - which came were perfectly depicted in almost all their other interactions.
Also: Joss is a bastard. Even after the "I am a leaf on the wind, watch how I--" moment in Serenity, Agent Coulson's death caught me by surprise. BASTARD. Also: I do hope Coulson is actually dead - not because I don't like the guy: Coulson had this wonderful serene-yet-snarky, composed-yet-secretly-fannish personality that definitely grew on me through the course of the movies I've seen him in, but because (unlike Wash's death which was pretty much an audience mindscrew just when we thought the Serenity crew were safe-ish) Coulson's death is the lynchpin for the assembly of the Avengers. Bringing him back cheapens that, IMO. So, much as I want Phil back ("His first name is ‘Agent'") I say: "let the dead remain dead, please!"
Things I did like: that the use of the Tesseract began as a search for clean fuel and turned into an arms race, that Cap went looking for answers on his own while Tony's programs were hacking the SHIELD hovership, that Black Widow still took Hawkeye out after he started to come to and was totally empathetic in the aftermath while not being syrupy, that Agent Hill drove a jeep backwards through a collapsing tunnel while firing at another jeep in an attempt to stop Loki getting away with the Tesseract, that Fury told the Council Of Mysterious Faces On Video that he wasn't going to follow their stupid-ass orders, that Bruce Banner is always angry...
Over all, it was an enjoyable and fun ride. But it's pretty much brain candy watching - okay, so all the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies are brain candy watching, but this one is particularly so. Which, again, hello Joss Whedon, so really not a surprise.
I liked it, but it's on the Thor or Iron Man 2 rewatch list, not the Iron Man or Captain America list. All of which fall short of The Dark Knight, although Iron Man is slightly higher than Batman Begins. And even The Dark Knight tends to tie with Nolan's Inception because that movie is a mindscrew par excellence.
Next up, watching MIB3, as per saramund's instructions because she can't talk the time travel over with her hubs, 'cos he won't get into those kinds of discussions with her. Ah, the joys of geekery!