# Marvel's Avengers - early reviews seem positive \[edited title\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 20, 2012, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvels-avengers-early-reviews-seem-positive-edited-title/619406 "2012-04-20T13:18:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2012, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvels-avengers-early-reviews-seem-positive-edited-title/619406/101 "2012-05-04T17:45:25Z")
Saw it on Wednesday, it’s one of the better popcorn movies I’ve seen. ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2012, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvels-avengers-early-reviews-seem-positive-edited-title/619406/102 "2012-05-04T19:00:52Z")
> [@Bakhesh](#): > > 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. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2012, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvels-avengers-early-reviews-seem-positive-edited-title/619406/103 "2012-05-04T21:23:01Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Christopher\_Robin\_Davies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8dc957/32.png) [@Christopher\_Robin\_Davies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Christopher_Robin_Davies)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2012, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvels-avengers-early-reviews-seem-positive-edited-title/619406/104 "2012-05-04T22:19:31Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2012, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvels-avengers-early-reviews-seem-positive-edited-title/619406/105 "2012-05-04T22:38:13Z")
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) 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. ---
**Author:** ![mozchron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@mozchron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mozchron)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2012, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvels-avengers-early-reviews-seem-positive-edited-title/619406/106 "2012-05-04T23:46:39Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2012, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvels-avengers-early-reviews-seem-positive-edited-title/619406/107 "2012-05-04T23:56:19Z")
> [@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. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2012, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvels-avengers-early-reviews-seem-positive-edited-title/619406/108 "2012-05-05T00:03:34Z")
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 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. ---
**Author:** ![magnusblitz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@magnusblitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magnusblitz)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2012, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvels-avengers-early-reviews-seem-positive-edited-title/619406/109 "2012-05-05T01:43:36Z")
> [@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. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2012, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvels-avengers-early-reviews-seem-positive-edited-title/619406/110 "2012-05-05T03:40:35Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![diku](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4af34b/32.png) [@diku](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/diku)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2012, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvels-avengers-early-reviews-seem-positive-edited-title/619406/111 "2012-05-05T04:26:12Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2012, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvels-avengers-early-reviews-seem-positive-edited-title/619406/112 "2012-05-05T14:58:12Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2012, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvels-avengers-early-reviews-seem-positive-edited-title/619406/113 "2012-05-05T15:33:36Z")
Incidentally, it’s been suggested elsewhere that 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. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f07891/32.png) [@Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Plastic_Ninja)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2012, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvels-avengers-early-reviews-seem-positive-edited-title/619406/114 "2012-05-05T16:08:41Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > Incidentally, it’s been suggested elsewhere that > > 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 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. ---
**Author:** ![Dave\_Hartwick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@Dave\_Hartwick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Hartwick)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2012, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvels-avengers-early-reviews-seem-positive-edited-title/619406/115 "2012-05-05T16:16:36Z")
> [@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. ---
**Author:** ![Dave\_Hartwick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@Dave\_Hartwick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Hartwick)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2012, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvels-avengers-early-reviews-seem-positive-edited-title/619406/116 "2012-05-05T16:33:51Z")
> [@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.[/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2012, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvels-avengers-early-reviews-seem-positive-edited-title/619406/117 "2012-05-05T16:52:15Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2012, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvels-avengers-early-reviews-seem-positive-edited-title/619406/118 "2012-05-05T17:11:33Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2012, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvels-avengers-early-reviews-seem-positive-edited-title/619406/119 "2012-05-05T20:07:12Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![kushiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kushiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kushiel)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2012, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvels-avengers-early-reviews-seem-positive-edited-title/619406/120 "2012-05-05T20:46:48Z")
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! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvels-avengers-early-reviews-seem-positive-edited-title/619406.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marvels-avengers-early-reviews-seem-positive-edited-title/619406.md?page=7)