Tom Smith

Haven't seen it myself, as yet, but some of the family went last night and came back bubbling that it was fabulous and they really enjoyed themselves. I understand it was epic Joss Whedon snark FTW.

The first teaser at the end of the movie was showing Thanatos, easily the most powerful villain in any superhero movie and a personal favorite. He's a cosmic level villain that nearly transcends the notion of evil. My concern is how well it's going to work in the next movie. The only other cosmic level antagonist was Galactus in the second FF movie and we all know how well THAT one went.

But totally awesome movie. Hulk really shined from his one line to that big grin when Cap said, "Hulk .... smash" to punching Thor casually after they downed one of those wyrm/troop transport things because there was nothing left to hit.

Absolutely top of the pops for the New Marvel Film Universe. I thought Captain America was amazing, and this blew it away. Beautiful three act structure, witty dialogue, predictable but not tiresome tropes (like when the ST and RK get knocked off the Stark building so that they can have a big A for Avengers in the closing credits).

All I have to say is that Agent Coulson getting Jossed was just the final straw for my engagement with the film, for a good ten minutes after that I was too busy waving my fist at the screen. I stopped that as soon as the war started and things started getting awesome. Truly truly amazing, will be seeing it again.

There is debate in my world as to whether or no Coulson is actually dead. That guy at the end looked a lot like him, and he and Fury seemed in cahoots about something during his "death" scene. My sister and I argue that he's still alive. My boyfriend is on the fence, and my brother says dead. Curious about what others think.

Probably my favorite laugh-out-loud moment was the Hulk's beatdown on Loki, where the latter ends up literally pounded into the floor, staring up at the ceiling with this incredible "...what the holy hells just happened?!" look on his face.

OMG there is a SERIOUS shit-fight going on over at Wikipedia with people arguing about calling the Tesseract by its proper name (the Cosmic Cube), and more significantly over whether or not to say the name of "the master" who's revealed at the end.

Bunch of pedantic geeks (not that I should be casting stones there) beating each other up on the 'net, it's hilarious. One of them was actually dumb enough to say "But how do we know it's not Darkseid?" Gee, because he's a DC character you jackhole?

There's also some really interesting discussion around the net over whether one of the other items in Odin's weapons room was The Infinity Gauntlet, to help set up the second Avengers movie after Thor 2.

While I was sad to see Phil Coulson die (?) and his cards get ruined, people need to worry a little more about Maria Hill and if SHE will make it back for the sequel...
http://slephoto.deviantart.com/art/Maria-Hill-vs-The-Basement-Dweller-290084254
(relatively SFW)

Edited at 2012-05-06 06:52 pm (UTC)

The Hulk definately had some of the better parts of the movie. I loved the one-punch round 2 of his fight with Thor (perfectly done), as well as the end of his fight with Loki. I really liked how the Hulk was not mindless the second time he appeared, even if he was not thinking in the first time he was around, I wonder if the fact that the Hulk was released willingly the second time had anything to do with the difference.

Hawkeye was given an ability that makes perfect sense for the character. And I loved how his quiver worked for selecting arrowheads, just brilliant!!

And my complements to all of the cast, where none of them tried to steal the spotlight from the rest of them. Sure, Robert Downey Jr may have had a slightly bigger part, but it was not at the expense of anyone else in the movie. This truly was an Avengers movie, not an "Iron Man featuring Cap, Thor, and Hulk" movie as it could have been (rearrange the order of the four heroes to your taste, the comment still stands).

Over the run of the Hulk comics, it was always a struggle between Banner & Hulk for control. With a uncontrolled change always leading to a mindless smashing Hulk. If Banner let the change happen or better yet, induced the change, you got a smart Hulk.

One thing included in passing, is that when the Hulk gets angrier, he gets stronger. The worst thing the Wyrm troops did was to concentrate fire on the Hulk. That just pissed him off even more.

Saw it alone; couldn't afford to bring others, and I was feeling particularly egotistical that day.

The best thing I can say is that Whedon didn't screw it up. Considering how many people have handled heroes badly, and how many ways this could have gone badly, the film did okay. I'm sorry that I'm not head-over-heels in love with it, but I've been through a lot of that.

Think about this, too; Marvel hasn't had a single entity behind it. Marvel Studios (branch of Disney) has had to farm out its movies to several different production companies, due to existing contracts. DC has the support of AOL Time Warner, including several TV channels. Heck, Disney can't even put the Marvel characters in its American parks, thanks to Universal Orlando's contract. (They apparently have done so elsewhere.)

Now as to the big controversy...

The easy way out of Coulson being dead was hinted at early in the film, when Tony Stark mentioned "Life Model Decoy" when trying to get rid of Coulson interrupting him. LMD's were one of the most common things in the early days of SHIELD, back when Nick Fury was a white guy and a veteran of World War II.

If memory serves, they were first introduced in the first issue of "Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD." Several LMD's of Fury were sent in different directions, to distract the enemy while the real Fury was taken to his job interview.

LMD's weren't self-conscious and self-aware, to my recollection, but I was never a Marvel completist. I suspect that what got eighty-sixed was an LMD of Coulson. And for all I know, there may be a lot of LMD's of Coulson. Wouldn't that make more sense than to have one Agent Coulson involved in all these different cases? Better that than SHIELD spending all that money for air fare and hotel accommodations, zipping one guy around the country.

I liked it lots and will likely go see it again (hopefully tomorrow) before I make a longer comment. I liked the little Star Wars reference made by... Can't remember who, but I'm pretty certain I didn't dream it.

When I saw the first end-credits scene, I just stared. And kept saying, "NO. NO. NO. NO."

If they actually use Thanos for an Avengers sequel, I will be one happy fanboy. Especially if they bring in Adam Warlock. Hey, who knows? They keep making Ant-Man noises. Perhaps Hank Pym was given contract work by the Enclave, who might turn out to be the R&D division of this Council....

I'd been suspicious about Coulson's death, but now that the topic has come up, how's this for an explanation: Fury lied. Coulson only needed to be dead for the duration of the war. If he shows up in another film, all he needs to say is "who said I was dead?" and raise one eyebrow, and Stark (just a guess) will start swearing like a sailor.

Edited at 2012-05-07 01:47 am (UTC)