Last movie you saw.

[MadeManG74]

Max, spoilerise your spoilers and let's discuss the movie a bit. I'm curious to know what you found underwhelming.

[max_cady]

OK, dude. I owe you that much. Let's just say that The Avengers is a very good movie, a very good attempt at making the very first superhero team-up. It's a very good movie, and it's way up there. It just needed a little something to edge it to excellent.

Now, my issues with the movie. [spoiler]After the huge build-up starting with The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2 and the other films, I got the impression that they sort'of phased all that out and the plot to kickstart The Avengers seemingly starts from scratch. Because early on in the movie, it's implied that The Avengers iniative was just cancelled or postponed.

What were all left with is the impression that this takes place much longer after the events of the other films and that Tony Stark and the rest of the crew involved, simply just moved on. Which makes the task for Nick Fury to gather all these heroes seem almost too easy. By the hour mark they are already in the huge aircraft trying to unconver Loki's plan.

Bruce Banner's incentive for joining up with the team is also incredibly easy and most of his backstory just seems to be missing, considering how tragic is it.

There's a bit of dead space in which the team is just bickering with each other, under the clear influence of Loki's staff.

My other gripe with the film, is and always has been, Black Widow and Hawkeye, they are only there because of plot convenience. Because it's not like Loki couldn't get things done if he had mind controlled any other professional archer in the world. This also makes the climactic showdown with the aliens lose a little of their menace.

If Hawkeye and Black Widow can also go toe-to-toe with these monsters, it makes them not seem as dangerous as they should be. Hulk and Captain America can kill them by simply using blunt force, so can Thor and Iron Man. It's their numbers that are the only decisive factor.

The other "downside" would be Nick Fury, so much talking, not much else, I'm afraid. The CG also dipped in quality from time to time.

But setting those issues aside, everything else from The Avengers is just pure gold.
The character interactions,  how Thor and Hulk get on each others nerves. What happened with Agent Coulson was the dramatic turning point. How Captain America is really a great de-facto team leader. The way Loki takes joy in outsmarting his brother. Some of the gags are real gut busters. And of course, the climactic showdown. The mid-credits reveal in which the major villain is... dum... dum.. dum...(***dramatic pause***) THANOS!
[/spoiler]

[MadeManG74]

OK, dude. I owe you that much. Let's just say that The Avengers is a very good movie, a very good attempt at making the very first superhero team-up. It's a very good movie, and it's way up there. It just needed a little something to edge it to excellent.

Now, my issues with the movie. [spoiler]After the huge build-up starting with The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2 and the other films, I got the impression that they sort'of phased all that out and the plot to kickstart The Avengers seemingly starts from scratch. Because early on in the movie, it's implied that The Avengers iniative was just cancelled or postponed.

What were all left with is the impression that this takes place much longer after the events of the other films and that Tony Stark and the rest of the crew involved, simply just moved on. Which makes the task for Nick Fury to gather all these heroes seem almost too easy. By the hour mark they are already in the huge aircraft trying to unconver Loki's plan.

Bruce Banner's incentive for joining up with the team is also incredibly easy and most of his backstory just seems to be missing, considering how tragic is it.

There's a bit of dead space in which the team is just bickering with each other, under the clear influence of Loki's staff.

My other gripe with the film, is and always has been, Black Widow and Hawkeye, they are only there because of plot convenience. Because it's not like Loki couldn't get things done if he had mind controlled any other professional archer in the world. This also makes the climactic showdown with the aliens lose a little of their menace.

If Hawkeye and Black Widow can also go toe-to-toe with these monsters, it makes them not seem as dangerous as they should be. Hulk and Captain America can kill them by simply using blunt force, so can Thor and Iron Man. It's their numbers that are the only decisive factor.

The other "downside" would be Nick Fury, so much talking, not much else, I'm afraid. The CG also dipped in quality from time to time.

But setting those issues aside, everything else from The Avengers is just pure gold.
The character interactions,  how Thor and Hulk get on each others nerves. What happened with Agent Coulson was the dramatic turning point. How Captain America is really a great de-facto team leader. The way Loki takes joy in outsmarting his brother. Some of the gags are real gut busters. And of course, the climactic showdown. The mid-credits reveal in which the major villain is... dum... dum.. dum...(***dramatic pause***) THANOS!
[/spoiler]

You make some good points Max:
[spoiler] With regards to how quickly they get everyone together with the program being seemingly scrapped, I got the feeling that the project may have been officially canned, but Fury still believed in it. I took it that Fury had his own people keeping tabs on everyone of interest the whole time so that he could call them all together regardless. Cap was already with them, ditto Hawkeye and Black Widow, so gathering up Iron Man wouldn't be TOO difficult, and Thor joined by accident.

You mentioned that Banner was easily coerced into joining them, which is kind of true. I also think that if he wanted to keep Hulk under wraps, joining them up was his only option. If he didn't they would no doubt have dogged him until he did or he Hulked out which neither of them wanted. Also if anyone could provide him the tech to help 'cure' himself it would be Shield.

As for Hawkeye and Black Widow... I disagree, if anything they are played up in the movie to be anything but regular people. Sure they don't have super-powers, but Hawkeyes pulling off literally impossible shots in the movie. He doesn't need to have Super-Strength to be an important character. What he lacks in traditional powers he makes up for with resourcefulness. He's also probably the best wet-work agent in the field, so while Cap is the leader, Hawkeye was the 'eye in the sky' in the movie who could direct them on the field and knows which targets to pick. One arrow in the right place can make all the difference right?

Ditto Black Widow, if you need someone to punch out a 2000 tonne flying power turtle, you got Hulk and Thor, but what if you need someone to talk to the scientist powering the portal? Or to infiltrate a location without arousing suspicion etc. She didn't come into play too much in this movie, and a big firefight isn't her forte, but she's definitely got a talent set that nobody else has in the group.

But yes I agree most of it was great. The interplay between all the supes was cool. I really like that Thor was able to hold off Hulk, I was worried that they would bitch him out to make Hulk look better (especially since his fight with Iron Man and Cap was so balanced when he really could have wiped the floor with them both. I guess he was 'holding back' because he knew they were only mortals), so I was nearly cheering when Thor clocked him with Mjolnir (followed by that awesome scene of Hulk trying to pick up the Hammer but failing because he's not worthy). The big panning shot across New York with all of them fighting was particularly good.

Man I can't wait to see what happens with Thanos now... No way can the Avengers stand up to him right? I mean, this would have to lead to Guardians of the Galaxy or Defenders or something right? I remember hearing that Dr Strange is getting the film treatment, maybe there's some Cosmic Marvel on it's way?[/spoiler]

[Aki-at]

Now I will weigh in my opinion...

I have always thought from the offset that this film would be a disaster, too many characters to fill in a film over 2 hours long? Not possible and no way without at least damaging some characters starring role. I witnessed this with Spiderman 3 and their treatment of Venom and it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Heck they even had to change the actor who played the Hulk, bound to be terrible!

But... SECOND BEST SUPERHERO FILM EVER MADE!!!!11!!1!!

The Dark Knight is still my favourite, but I do believe this film has overtaken Batman Begins in my personally chart and I rank Batman Begins quite highly as a film, regardless of it being a superhero one. I am just so surprised with how good this film came out. Maybe if I rewatch it multiple times, it could even take the palce of the Dark Knight.

[spoiler] I agree with Mang on a number of things, I really do love how Thor went toe to toe with Hulk. In recent times Marvel have tried to position Hulk as the strongest character in the whole universe with no equal and due to this my original liking of the character has somewhat diminished (It's also one of the reason I dislike Superman!) and fantastic how Hulk was not able to pick up Mjolnir, in some other medias they show Hulk is strong enough to pick it up, utterly disappointing from Marvel. Stop ruining your characters like that you dimwitted Iizuka wannabes!

Was amazed how there was not ONE main main hero, I thought it was going to be Iron Man but they did well to balance it out, with the exception of the final missile scene but in terms of the series he was the only one to could do such a thing. Captain America did have a lot less to do then the other heroes but since he did lead the team at one point, it balanced it out I felt. Only Nick Fury had little to do, though as director as SHIELD, I doubt he could have left his post and become a field agent. I also loved Loki, he was awesome in Thor and even more impressive here.

I did not expect the level of comedy in this film "Loki's my brother don't you dare insult him!" "He's killed over 90 people" "... He's adopted..." such well writen dialogue in the film. My favourite has got to be Loki's and Black Widow's little psychological showdown and the arguing scene with all the heroes. Actually there are a lot of awesome interactions between each character. I must say though, did not expect Agent Phil Coulson to die like that but I do like how, thanks to his appearence in the earlier 3 films, how much of an important character and death it felt. Generally the story held up really well.

Though I have to finish off with how Mark Ruffalo impressed me. I certainly was not expecting it but the Hulk stole the show in a good way. They did not need to add any extra powers or make him overly strong and Ruffalo played Banner perfectly, best line of the film has to go to him "That's my secret... I'm always angry" *HULK OUT AND SMASH*

Also his random punch at Thor haha.[/spoiler]

So yeah, fantastic film. If you like superheroes, watch it. If you like a good summer action flick, watch it. If you like fantastic films, watch it. I cannot endorse it enough.

[Barry the Nomad]

Avengers is sounding good! Looking forward to seeing it. The whole concept is just nets, never thought we'd see a movie like this. Only way it could be more epic is if X-Men and Spider-Men had small parts in the movie, but that's impossible due to rights and would be overkill.

Now I just wish they'd release a blu-ray set of all the movies leading to the Avengers + the Avengers itself. So: Iron Man 1&2, Capn. America, Incredible Hulk, Thor, Avengers. Would be an awesome set.

[max_cady]

One other small point that I'd like to make,[spoiler]I only watched the regular 2D version, some of my friends watched the 3D version. Based on what they told me, the 3D is once again uttely pointless.[/spoiler]

[Chaosmaster8753]

The Avengers was fantastic. I'm hoping future movies featuring them turn out good.

[SOUP]

I love Avengers. I just hope they keep Joss Whedon around for a second film. He was a big reason for how much I enjoyed it.

[Nathan]

Ip Man. Donnie Yen is fantastic.

[max_cady]

Saw American Reunion last night.

It was nice to see the crew get back together again. After an onslaught of horrible direct-to-dvd sequels, the cast of the original cast get back together for the same old routine. Jason Biggs's awkwardness and Sean William Scott's potty mouth does deliver some very good laughs. Major kudos for Eugene Levy who has the most emotional character sub-plot.

The problem that I have is that, American Reunion never really strays off the beaten track, I commend them for not going full gross out mode like they did with the third film, but the way the conflict is set up for each individual characters. How it starts, the moment where the s*** hits the fan and how things work themselves out, it all feels like an afterthought. The writers clearly wanted to focus more on the jokes.

Other than that, it's a nice distraction.

[Snowcat]

Ok somethings annoying me about the Avengers


[spoiler]Why the hell is that Thanos and Not Kang the Conquerer? I mean come on Kang is such a HUGE Avengers villain? Remember Avengers Forever? WHY THE HELL THANOS! I will always think Thanos is a  Silver Surfer villain :/[/spoiler]

[MadeManG74]

First of all, Snowcats is back!?
Secondly: I think they went with that particular character because I have a feeling they want to expand the universe a bit. I think Dr Strange is going to be getting a movie soon for example, which might lead into more characters that are more suited to 'him'.

[Chaosmaster8753]

I wonder if they'd use Dormammu in the first Dr. Strange movie.

[JohnOfRage]

GoodFella's and Casino!

[MadeManG74]

I wonder if they'd use Dormammu in the first Dr. Strange movie.

That would be cool, I only know of Dormammu from MVC3. Would be nice to see him in a movie, especially to introduce a new level of threat above and beyond what the Avengers are used to fighting.
Especially if they include some of his lines from MVC
"A new will grips the sky, the earth, the ether... My will"