Marvel's Avengers - early reviews seem positive [edited title]

[Alka Seltzer]

Saw it on Wednesday, it's one of the better popcorn movies I've seen.

[bienville]

Originally Posted by Bakhesh

SPOILER:

Barton had already broken into the place where the uridium was being held (needed to stabilise the tesseract). Loki's eyeball machine transmitted the image directly to Barton's eyeball machine, which was already plugged into the retina scanner on the safe, so it wasn't needed again after that.

THANK YOU!
Exposition was rolling a little quickly for me on first viewing.

[Quimby]

OMG! I have't read the thread yet but I cannot understate how good this movie is. Great dialogue, great characters, great story, great effects, great great GREAT!

It lives up to all the expectations and exceeds them. I can't believe how easily it juggles so many characters and makes all of them seem like they are the star of the movie. I wanted to just stay in the theater and watch it again.

P.S. there are two scenes during the credits. One halfway through and one at the very end.

[Christopher Robin Davies]

Tiny nitpitck: Was I alone in noticing when, at one point, a character mentioned the need to heat the iridium to 170 Kelvin, stating that as if it were going to be particularly difficult? You could do that with a Bunsen burner. I might have misheard of course.

[Oakminster]

Saw it with the Druidess today. Lots of eye candy....massive 'splosions, nifty 3-D effects. Great action flick with a couple of great laughs mixed in. The Hulk has two of the best comedy bits in the movie. Tony Stark gets off a couple of one liners as well. Even Cap draws a chuckle at least once. Hawkeye was probably the least impressive Avenger, and they really didn't do much to establish his character in this movie or any of the lead-ins. Hulk looked great, much better than I've seen him look in any of the previous movies. Thor was a little underwhelming, but Tom Hiddleston nails Loki.

Very interesting cameo in the first post-credit scene....

(Probable spoiler for the Big Bad in a sequel in box, and some speculation)

SPOILER:

Thanos is Loki's "Master" who provided the army for the assault. There is also some other entity involved, known only as "The Other". I'm wondering if that might be The Red Skull, who apparently went to Asgard at the end of Captain America.....

All in all, well worth the price of admission.

[mozchron]

I broke my no movie theater rule to see this today.

Very good dumb summer popcorn action explosion movie. I liked it a lot.

Needed more Hulk though for perfection.

[kenobi 65]

Originally Posted by Christopher Robin Davies

Tiny nitpitck: Was I alone in noticing when, at one point, a character mentioned the need to heat the iridium to 170 Kelvin, stating that as if it were going to be particularly difficult? You could do that with a Bunsen burner. I might have misheard of course.

I thought I heard a bigger number (1170 or something)...but 170 Kelvin wouldn't require a Bunsen burner, it'd require liquid oxygen or something -- it's -154 degrees Farenheit.

[Larry Borgia]

Awesome flick.

The action scenes were really stand out, not more of the same old same old. Whedon is underrated as a director of pure action. I really liked the last half hour of Serenity, as well as Buffy season finales 4 and 5, so this was no surprise to me. But it was great to see how he worked with a huge budget. It was great seeing how everybody fought together.

Can't really think of any flaws. First hour a little draggy maybe? But they needed to get all the characters together.

It was much better than all of the five pre-avengers movies, which ranged from "Good, but not great" to "OK" for me.

Like everybody I had a sad when

SPOILER:

Phil Coulson died. He was my favorite character from Iron Man and Thor, and then they humanized him even more.

Lot of Whedonesque dialog, but not too much. Good to see it didn't take itself seriously. Favorite:

"Phil!"
"Phil? His first name is agent."

Best comic book movie ever? I say yes.

[magnusblitz]

Originally Posted by Bakhesh

I also thought Loki did a great job, and would put him up there with Magneto (think Magneto edges it as his motives are better). The aliens are just there as random cannon fodder, although they do allow for a nice lead in to a sequel

I felt like Loki has multiple problems. One, he's not all that intimidating. For most of the movie he's just a guy with a staff. Occasionally he does a bit of trickstering with his images but that's it. His plan wasn't too amazing. He peaked early on in the movie with his speech to Black Widow and when he had Hawkeye under control.

Second, his motivations just kinda suck. He comes off like a petulant child. "I'm a king, waaah, why does no one respect me?" They even arguably lampshade this at the end. I just find it hard to take him seriously compared to other villains who come off as much more cold-blooded or with better motivations.

The Chitari essentially are Skrulls in all but name. In the Ultimates, they are described as being known by many names across the galaxy, and both Skrull and Chitari are mentioned. IIRC Marvel had sold the rights to Skrulls to Fox when they sold them the Fantastic Four, so calling them the Chitari was just a way of sidestepping this.

Makes sense, though in the movies they seem to lack their shape-changing powers, which is pretty much all that differentiates them. I think part of the problem is they get literally zero background or development beyond "bad guys invading Earth." So they give the heroes something to beat up on, but beyond that, were kinda lacking.

[RikWriter]

I saw it tonight in Imax 3D with my 15 year old son and Oh. My. God. What an awesome flick. Easily the best superhero movie ever made. Joss Whedon managed to do what I thought was impossible.

[diku]

Had a total blast. Since the child has come along we tend to only see the real big movies when they come out, so we decided to try it in 3-D since we'd only been to one other (Harry Potter). Great movie, builds slow, but still, a lot of fun. Probably more so if you've been wanting to see an Avengers movies ever since you've read comics. I'd love a real JLA film, but it'll never happen.

I really enjoyed it. And the 3-D was fine, I really don't find all the faults that others do. I enjoyed the effect, it wasn't over done, and a good chunk of the movie was fine without the glasses if they bothered you.

[MsWhatsit]

I saw it in 3D mostly because the friends I was with wanted to see it in 3D. It was OK, but I found the effect distracting in places. I'm seeing it in 2D on Sunday.

I thought this movie was amazing. Just fantastic, start to finish.

[Love Rhombus]

Incidentally, it's been suggested elsewhere that

SPOILER:

Colson isn't dead, since we only have Fury's word for it, and he's not always truthful. And they needed that push.

But that would kill the punch of it.

And I still have a few quibbles, even though I mostly loved it: Did Chris Evan's face seem too smooth, like CGI'd slightly? Perhaps it was just the 3D. And I'm still somewhat uncertain as to what Hawkeye brings to the big table.

That aside, it was great! I think Ruffalo was the best Hulk so far, hands down.

[Little Plastic Ninja]

Originally Posted by Love Rhombus

Incidentally, it's been suggested elsewhere that

SPOILER:

Colson isn't dead, since we only have Fury's word for it, and he's not always truthful. And they needed that push.

But that would kill the punch of it.

Which is why

SPOILER:

Whedon probably won't do it. Though maybe Coulson will come back as a JARVIS-type AI or something. It would be very, very Fury to lie about this. It would also be very Coulson to aid in that lie.
Incidentally, I LOVE how Cap just refuses to allow Tony to rationalize away Phil's death. And I loved the flash of actual feeling and emotion Tony has. You can't tell me those two things -- Phil's death and Steve's push for Tony to actually ACCEPT it -- weren't a big part of why he sacrificed himself at the end. And he did. Just because he didn't actually die doesn't mean he wasn't fully prepared to, doesn't mean he went with the intention of Getting The Job Done no matter the consequences.

[Dave Hartwick]

Originally Posted by Larry Borgia

Best comic book movie ever? I say yes.

It's right up there, but I'm thinking Watchmen and V for Vendetta top it on my personal list. It'll take a while to process.

[Dave Hartwick]

Originally Posted by magnusblitz

I just find it hard to take him seriously compared to other villains who come off as much more cold-blooded or with better motivations.

Makes sense, though in the movies they seem to lack their shape-changing powers, which is pretty much all that differentiates them. I think part of the problem is they get literally zero background or development beyond "bad guys invading Earth." So they give the heroes something to beat up on, but beyond that, were kinda lacking.

Tend to agree on Loki, although the

SPOILER:

conflict with Thor at the top of the Stark building highlighted both his motivation (screw everybody, I want revenge despite the cost) and his dastardliness stat (apparently there's no such word as "dastard") when he takes a family reconciliation moment as an opening to make a gut stab. Problematic, though, when you think about it, because the wound he inflicted was for nothing, really. Buttmonkey villain, I guess, especially in light of the (freaking awesome) "puny god" scene.

I kinda wish they would've just called the invaders "mooks". I can't even figure out how to spell them into Google. I didn't think it at the time, but they were lacking even back in the The Ultimates. Thinking back, their high point was when one told Cap to surrender and he delivers his famous, jingoistic, line.

[Love Rhombus]

Am I the only who who thought that, just for a moment, Thor got through to Loki? He goes bad again almost instantly, but juuuust for a second. (not sure if that's ambiguous enough to avoid spoiler tag.)

Also, Old German Guy was cool.

[Patty O'Furniture]

It was ok. I'll give it a solid B. The Hulk continues to disappoint me because they just can't seem to make it look like it's not a CGI character.

My only previous exposure to the Hulk was Bill Bixby's version so there may have been some recent developments I'm not aware of... but has it always been indestructible? Bullets bounced off it and the alien's energy weapons didn't seem to do anything at all.

[Khadaji]

When they first announced it, I had low expectations. IMO, one of the flaws of the X-Men movies is that they included too many heroes. Too many to do justice to each character, to allow them to shine. I figured that this movie would suffer from that flaw. I was wrong.

I thought it was great. In fact, I wonder if they have ruined the rest of the summer's movies for me - I'm not sure how they'll get one to top it.

I thought this was the best Hulk so far.

I was never a Gwyneth Paltrow fan until I saw her as Pepper Potts. She was still just freakin adorable.

Downey Jr.'s Iron Man is my favorite super hero character to hit the screen.

I can't recall ever seeing a movie in the theater more than once, but I am thinking of seeing this one again - maybe.

[kushiel]

Did anyone else feel like this was more of a long season finale episode of a TV show as opposed to a standalone movie? I mean, the story was thin even for superhero movies. It feels like the other Marvel movies were like regular TV show episode arcs introducing the characters and the Avengers was the big season finale where they all got together. There was no attempt to introduce anything, it just hopped right in assuming you know everything, just like a TV show would.

I did really like it! As a comedy popcorn flick, anyway! I almost want to see another director do a take on it but playing it straight as a dramatic movie. That's the only failing I found in it, there was no tension or fear that things wouldn't turn out all right.

So, in short, I enjoyed 2.5 hours of of random scenes built up around cast interactions!

[Intergalactic Gladiator]

I just saw it with the kids this afternoon and I thought it was great -- probably the best super hero movie I've seen. I agree that perhaps the plot was a wee bit thin, but I also think that it's just enough to hold everything together and that's really all it needed. The big showdown at the end was very well done and better than Captain America, I thought, as Captain America seemed to build all this good stuff at the beginning and then kind of devolve into a CGI slugfest at the end (a minor nitpick on my part, I really liked Captain America). I thought it worked better in the Avengers and it fit with the story and all.

Everyone got something really cool to do and I thought that was well done. The Hulk really stood out and the parts where he and Thor took down the dragon and then his "discussion" with Loki shortly thereafter were brilliant and hillarious but also served the character.

SPOILER:

I'm also disapointed about Agent Caulson and I wish that he could have survived, but I also see how that's the one final punch to put everyone together. And do you expect anything less from Joss "The Fan Favorite Killin' Bastich" Whedon?

I also appreciated the part where everyone in the lab on the helicarrier are arguing. It was obvious to me that Loki's staff was influencing them, but it also seemed subtle and well played.

My only two nitpicks are minor, the first is that New York got pretty much destroyed in the climactic battle at the end. Like I said, this is a minor nitpick, but with CGI, I think it's a little too easy to raze a city for your story and it's done so many times that it may have been more interesting if they found a different way to do it. That being said, I thought the fight itslef worked for the story and it was really the only way to prove that the invading aliens were that serious of a threat.

SPOILER:

The second nitpick is that all the Chitari just fall over when Iron Man blew up the mothership. The Avengers were pretty much finished beating the forces on Earth at that point, having them all keel over didn't do anything except wrap up the battle in a nice little bow so everyone can go get lunch. The could have had SHIELD round up the survivors or something else. Meh, again, that's minor.

I'm suprised that just about everyone in the theater was gone by the time the first stinger hit the screen at the end. I knew about it from upthread, but I still nearly (figuratively) crapped my pants when I saw it. The second one at the very end was also great, very very funny.

Did anyone else think Bruce Banner kind of acted like Lenard from BBT a bit?

[Quimby]

Originally Posted by Khadaji

I was never a Gwyneth Paltrow fan until I saw her as Pepper Potts. She was still just freakin adorable.

I have a feeling she personally picked out those shortie shorts thinking, "Scarlett Johansson? Wait 'till they get a load of me!"

[olivesmarch4th]

I loved it. I thought the casting was fantastic. I was worried that Captain America would not be able to pull much weight in a team that included Thor and The Hulk, but they managed to make him look pretty badass. I didn't care for his character at all in Captain America but somehow this movie redeemed him. I liked the scenes that brought out his leadership ability.

Hawkeye and Black Widow were a wonderful surprise too. I'd never read the comics so I didn't know who the hell they were, but by the end of the movie you care about them just as much.

[Dewey Finn]

I saw it today. Did Hawkeye and Black Widow appear in any of the recent Marvel movies? I don't remember seeing them. And one nitpick. When they showed the flying aircraft carrier during the battle in Manhattan, it didn't appear to show the damage that previously occurred to it.

[Chronos]

I saw it today. Did Hawkeye and Black Widow appear in any of the recent Marvel movies? I don't remember seeing them.

Black Widow is the hot chick (not Pepper Potts, the other one) in Iron Man 2. Hawkeye doesn't get as much screen time, but he's in Thor, one of the agents at the camp where Mjolnir landed-- "Someone tell me whether I'm supposed to shoot this guy, because I'm starting to root for him".

[magnusblitz]

Originally Posted by Patty O'Furniture

It was ok. I'll give it a solid B. The Hulk continues to disappoint me because they just can't seem to make it look like it's not a CGI character.

My only previous exposure to the Hulk was Bill Bixby's version so there may have been some recent developments I'm not aware of... but has it always been indestructible? Bullets bounced off it and the alien's energy weapons didn't seem to do anything at all.

I really thought the Hulk, both Ruffalo and green CGI version, stole the show (along with Downey Jr., but that's unavoidable). But I can understand that he still looks "fake".

As far as I can remember, Hulk isn't really invincible, but just really hard to hurt/slow down. He also has a really strong healing factor, ala Wolverine. My own personal image would be the bullets penetrate him, but not much, and he just ignores them/heals them almost instantly. (Wouldn't surprise me though if bullets just bounced off him in the comics too though).

[Arabella Flynn]

Saw this in 3D last night. I thought it was a great popcorn flick, too. It's really difficult to write an ensemble action movie, especially when most of the cast has already had movies of their own, but I thought the balance was done very well. Everyone got a moment, everyone got at least one or two awesome lines, and everyone kept the same personalities we'd seen in the previous films.

One of my favorite bits was almost a subversion of what you see in a lot of band-of-misfits action films. It's when

SPOILER:

Tony Stark is puttering around in the lab with Bruce Banner, and they have a surprisingly open talk about the incidents that made them each superheroes. I went in expecting that someone was going to talk Banner around into joining as an Avenger with the usual 'planet in danger, problem bigger than you, you have a duty to risk something you fear in order to fix it' spiel. But it was Tony, of all people, who got through to him with, "Yeah, it's not something I would have chosen either. But look at all this awesome you now own, don't you feel a need to see how much more awesome you can get if you do something with that?"

I pretty much knew as soon as Fury said that Stark wouldn't be the one to sacrifice himself for the team, that he'd end up doing just that as his 'character redemption' bit. It was an unexpected bonus that his philosophy that it was perfectly okay to accomplish things just for yourself, and just because you can, gave someone else their breakthrough.

[bienville]

Some thoughts on why Loki works as a villain in this film and why his motivations are adequate

SPOILER:

Complaints in this Thread have been that Loki is too petty and whiny to be a terrifying supervillain. Maybe his evilness pales in comparison to other supervillains, but that's kinda what makes him just right for this movie.

NOTE: All my ideas here are based on the character Loki in the movies Thor and Avengers as portrayed by Tom Hiddleston (who is fucking brillaint!). I am not at all familiar with Loki's history or feats in the comic books.


Loki is less a psychopathic evil and more a sad self-hater with feelings of inadequacy. His big attempt at greatness was to craft a staged war on his homeworld for the specific purpose of setting himself up to be a great hero when finally defeating invaders who were really only his manipulated pawns.

This power grab is thwarted when his manipulation and treachery come to light. Even as his evil deeds are brought to light, he is still offered forgiveness from a family that loves him. The forgiveness is like poison to him, self-hater that he is, and he chooses banishment over the unbearable sting of humility and repentance.

Odin and Thor would accept him back in Asgard- it is precisely because his banishment is self-imposed that it is so irretractable. Reconciliation would render him subjugated (even if only in his own mind). Banishment in and of itself has a certain greatness to it and nourishes his delicate sense of his own importance.

The problem with banishment is that he needs somewhere to live.

No world could ever compare to Asgard. Loki's reverence for the supreme greatness of Asgard may well surpass the esteem even Odin and Thor hold for their homeworld because Loki is an outsider who wants in. He desperately wants to belong in Asgard yet feels rejected.

With the reverence he holds for Asgard, every other world presents pathetic consolation- such as to invoke his disdain.

Should he settle and make a life for himself on Earth? Surely not to live beside humans as an equal! Earth may be his best option for a home in exile, but if he is to live on Earth he will only accept that it is his place to be the planet's ruler. Humans are so far beneath him- if he is to make a home with them, it must be as their ruler.

This is why people are seeing so little conviction and gravitas in Loki:

He doesn't truly value his prize.

This is entirely character appropriate, and indeed what makes him- to me- far more interesting than any supervillain I have ever seen.


A human who wants to take over the Earth will be a terrifyingly psychopathic egotistical evil monster. This is someone who's sought prize is domination over everything he has ever known.

In contrast, for Loki to take over the Earth- he is (from his point of view) a boot trodding upon ants.

This is not Napoleon invading Russia. This is 19th Century Germany taking Tanganyika.


Loki even knows that is allies and benefactors have far greater goals. He is not working to betray and subjugate them when the time is right- he wants only this pathetic little world to rule as his own.

So, Loki's motivations and convictions are weak- like the motivations and convictions of the boot. Still, he is to be feared because- disinterested though he may be- he has great power and can therefore do great harm to humans as the boot will destroy ants.


As we are seeing a story of The Avengers first adventure as a team to fight evil, Loki is a formidable opponent yet is not overwhelming. Earth, until now, has been insignificant enough to not even appear on the radar of the universe's greatest evil forces. As Loki exposes Earth to the rest of the universe, as The Avengers' feats are put on display, other parties will become interested- parties that The Avengers would in no way be ready for without having a "practice" run with the lesser villain that we see in Loki.

My 2¢


P.S. I absolutely love Tom Hiddleston as an actor despite pretty much only knowing him as Loki- otherwise I have only seen him in Midnight in Paris and War Horse. His performances in Thor and The Avengers have been brilliant.

I joked upthread about his "Kneel before me" speech in the Germany scene being "Loki's Terrence Stamp Impression". I actually very much look forward to seeing Hiddleston as an older actor 30 years from now- I think we will look at him then the way we look at guys like Terrence Stamp, Christopher Lee, Ian McKellen, and Anthony Hopkins today.

I looked at his filmography to confirm that I have, indeed, seen him in as few movies as just the four I have seen. My eyes nearly popped out of my head when I read that, this year, we will get to see him as Hal/Henry V in Henry IV part 1, Henry IV part 2 AND Henry V!!!

IMDB Link for Henry V (2012), the page for which includes links for Henry IV Part 1 and Henry IV Part 2

[drastic_quench]

Yeah, in the recent World War Hulk story, General Ross had to shoot him with adamantium bullets fired out of Gatling-type canons to break his skin. And in the last Hulk movie similar fire just indented his skin no more than a poke in the chest. He heals as fast or faster than Wolverine, too. When he got his eyeballs clawed out by X-23 in a recent fight with the X-Men, he regrew them in minutes.

ETA: loved the movie, and I see no need to amend that statement with qualifiers like "for a popcorn movie" or "for brainless summer action." It was a really good movie by any bar. One of my favorite movies is There Will Be Blood, but of course no one ever has to say that it was great 'for a intense character study.'

[Love Rhombus]

bienville, that was an amazing post, and I salute you. Yes, it makes perfect sense.

[Sam Lowry]

Originally Posted by bienville

I looked at his filmography to confirm that I have, indeed, seen him in as few movies as just the four I have seen. My eyes nearly popped out of my head when I read that, this year, we will get to see him as Hal/Henry V in Henry IV part 1, Henry IV part 2 AND Henry V!!!

IMDB Link for Henry V (2012), the page for which includes links for Henry IV Part 1 and Henry IV Part 2

You might enjoy this then.

[Chronos]

OK, just got back. Great movie, and it was especially amazing how all the characters managed to fit in and work. Hawkeye maybe got a bit shorted, but that's about all that can be said there-- Cap, Thor, Hulk, Iron Man, Black Widow, Fury, and Colson all had enough awesome that any one of them could have been the star.

I saw the 3D version, and it looked great. There was a credit for the 3D conversion, which surprised me: It was done a heck of a lot better than any prior conversion I've seen, and I thought it was natively 3D.

My favorite non-spoiler moment that hasn't been mentioned yet was when Rogers actually caught a cultural reference. And did the Hulk say something while fighting Loki? It sounded like he did, but everyone was laughing too hard for me to catch it.

And now, to re-read the thread, including spoilers.

[RandMcnally]

"There's only one god, and he doesn't dress like that." That totally sounded like something America would say.

I didn't like the Hulk cheap shotting Thor. Cheap laugh.

[Chronos]

OK, I see that others have already mentioned the Hulk-Loki line.

Another thing I like was the things left unsaid. For instance,

SPOILER:

When Banner wakes up in the rubble and the security guard-guy tells him that he aimed away from people, it's a way of letting Banner know that he does still have human decency even while big and green. I expected him to comment about that, but he didn't.

And when Coulson is dying, he says "It wouldn't have worked without someone for them to...", and I was expecting Fury to finish the sentence, but again, he didn't. And I think in both cases it worked better for not being said explicitly. Whedon knows we're smart, we can put the pieces together ourselves.

To the people complaining about one specific scene that was particularly Whedonesque,

SPOILER:

It's not like the guy has a trademark on the concept of killing off a likable character. And really, it's silly when you can go into a movie and know that nobody at all is going to die, because they're Good Guys.

Agent... Hill, I think her name was? did a good job, too. She didn't get nearly as much spotlight as the heroes, of course, but she was a good expository foil, her opening scene with her going from casual to action in a blink of an eye was great, and she was rather easy on the eyes, too (though obviously up against some tough competition in Scarlett Johannsen).

Oh, and one moment I was expecting and hoping for but didn't see: I was hoping we'd see Captain America lifting Mjolnir (possibly with difficulty, and with a comment about how heavy it is, but still doing it). It's not that it can only be lifted by Thor himself; it's that it can only be lifted by one who is worthy, and Steve Rogers is canonically one who is worthy.

[Oakminster]

Originally Posted by Chronos

And did the Hulk say something while fighting Loki? It sounded like he did, but everyone was laughing too hard for me to catch it.

"Puny god." or something like that.

[Little Plastic Ninja]

Originally Posted by bienville

I looked at his filmography to confirm that I have, indeed, seen him in as few movies as just the four I have seen. My eyes nearly popped out of my head when I read that, this year, we will get to see him as Hal/Henry V in Henry IV part 1, Henry IV part 2 AND Henry V!!!

IMDB Link for Henry V (2012), the page for which includes links for Henry IV Part 1 and Henry IV Part 2

Okay, this is maybe offtopic, but OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG. I didn't even know anyone was doing those, and to have him as Hal tells me whoever's making this is doing it so very right.

[FoieGrasIsEvil]

That movie was all kinds of awesome! Loved every bit of it!

[Krokodil]

One scene that could've been better: When Steve Rogers is spoiling for a fight with Tony Stark on the HeliCarrier. With his kind-of puffy face and freshly-plucked eyebrows, he reminded me of Karofsky, the gay bully from Glee. His costume just looks blue and awkward from behind. I guess his weight and brows stabilized by the time they shot the big battle scenes.

[FoieGrasIsEvil]

Its not just the super heroes that are awesome. How about the

SPOILER:

freaking flying, stealthy aircraft carrier? That thing was so badass when it lifted out of the water and converted from ship to flying machine.

[Crowbar of Irony +3]

Originally Posted by Infovore

I'm not sure where my spouse got this, but we were talking about it last night. Apparently it's now SOP for at least some studios to open movies overseas so they can rake in the "OMG it''s an American action movie!" take before the US reviews come in. (He called it "avoiding the John Carter debacle.") I asked him why they'd do it with something like the Avengers that's guaranteed to do well, and he said they're doing them with all of them now.

As I said, take this with a grain of salt as I have no idea where he picked it up. But it kinda makes sense.

It may to be coincided with the country's holiday season. For example, in Singapore the movie opens on 1st May which is a public holiday.

[Quimby]

I am guessing opening internationally first has more to do with pirating than the fear of bad reviews.

[Lightnin']

Loved it, going to go see it a second time today. Between Avengers and Cabin In The Woods, it's a very good time to be a Whedon fan.

My favorite line has to be,

SPOILER:

"What's my secret? I'm ALWAYS angry."

[enalzi]

Originally Posted by Lightnin'

My favorite line has to be,

SPOILER:

"What's my secret? I'm ALWAYS angry."

Yep, I think that line got the most cheers in the entire movie.

[kushiel]

Originally Posted by bienville

My 2¢


P.S. I absolutely love Tom Hiddleston as an actor despite pretty much only knowing him as Loki- otherwise I have only seen him in Midnight in Paris and War Horse. His performances in Thor and The Avengers have been brilliant.

I joked upthread about his "Kneel before me" speech in the Germany scene being "Loki's Terrence Stamp Impression". I actually very much look forward to seeing Hiddleston as an older actor 30 years from now- I think we will look at him then the way we look at guys like Terrence Stamp, Christopher Lee, Ian McKellen, and Anthony Hopkins today.

I looked at his filmography to confirm that I have, indeed, seen him in as few movies as just the four I have seen. My eyes nearly popped out of my head when I read that, this year, we will get to see him as Hal/Henry V in Henry IV part 1, Henry IV part 2 AND Henry V!!!

IMDB Link for Henry V (2012), the page for which includes links for Henry IV Part 1 and Henry IV Part 2

TBH, I was sold when I found out Hiddleston auditioned because he was in a play with Kenneth Branaugh who told him to try out for his new movie, Thor. That much British has to be awesome!

[Infovore]

Originally Posted by kushiel

TBH, I was sold when I found out Hiddleston auditioned because he was in a play with Kenneth Branaugh who told him to try out for his new movie, Thor. That much British has to be awesome!

I loved him in the role because he reminded me a lot of one of my favorite actors, Mark Lindsay Chapman (circa the early 90s, when he played Dr. Arcane and completely stole the show on the cheesy old "Swamp Thing" TV series). If they'd made this movie 20 years ago I could easily have seen Chapman playing Loki.

[Ethilrist]

Originally Posted by kushiel

TBH, I was sold when I found out Hiddleston auditioned because he was in a play with Kenneth Branaugh who told him to try out for his new movie, Thor. That much British has to be awesome!

In Branagh's directorial voice-over for Thor, he gives out a huge amount of information about why he chose most of the people in the cast. He did an amazing job with that, even if he did spend a predictable amount of time shining up his own reputation.

And, I really loved the bit at the end with the Hulk

SPOILER:

treating Loki like a gorilla with an ugly suitcase. The look on Loki's face afterwards is priceless.

I've always wanted to see that in a movie.

[Tangent]

Saw it last night--loved it!

I was especially surprised at how much I liked Black Widow in this. She was given some good character scenes (with Bruce and Loki) and her hand-to-hand fight scenes were well done. I was worried how two non-powered characters like Black Widow and Hawkeye would fit in with the others, but I think they were incorporated very well. Their inclusion, I would say, makes the story better by "humanizing" the team a bit. I was never worried about any harm coming to the big guys. Heck, Hulk and Thor are nigh-invulnerable. But I was never sure whether Black Widow or Hawkeye would be alive at the movie's end. And I thought Scarlett Johansson did pretty well--I've always found her acting to be kind of wooden in the past.

Current estimates are that The Avengers will have an opening weekend domestic box office of 200.3 million dollars! That smashes the record set by the last Harry Potter movie ($169M). The Avengers has also taken in over $440M in foreign markets.

[Yllaria]

Originally Posted by enalzi

Yep, I think that line got the most cheers in the entire movie.

And it explained all of those little secret
smiles all through the movie, which brought a wonderful sense of closure.

[Chronos]

I was especially surprised at how much I liked Black Widow in this. She was given some good character scenes (with Bruce and Loki) and her hand-to-hand fight scenes were well done. I was worried how two non-powered characters like Black Widow and Hawkeye would fit in with the others, but I think they were incorporated very well. Their inclusion, I would say, makes the story better by "humanizing" the team a bit. I was never worried about any harm coming to the big guys. Heck, Hulk and Thor are nigh-invulnerable. But I was never sure whether Black Widow or Hawkeye would be alive at the movie's end. And I thought Scarlett Johansson did pretty well--I've always found her acting to be kind of wooden in the past.

Usually, with an actress as hot as Johansson, I have a hard time objectively judging her acting talent, since I'm too distracted just looking at her. Her scene with Loki, though, her acting shone through.

[WordMan]

Saw it. Enjoyed it. The craft is on the screen - Whedon's craft. I can see the film getting recognized.