So I just got back from seeing it and it was great. Really, really good. Would watch again, 10/10.

The overall story wasn't the most compelling thing in my opinion, but the writing was really good. Character interaction - which in this type of movie is the most important thing really - was great, and everyone got a fair amount of screentime I think. I had fears it would be a bit dominated by Iron Man considering his popularity but it wasn't too bad at all.

Of course, it being ANZAC day the theater was absolutely packed. Someone brought a fucking baby in, and the fat guy next to me chewed his popcorn really loud. The audience also laughed obnoxiously over a bunch of lines, but to be fair there was some really funny moments in the movie. I'll probably watch it again later when most people have already seen it.

My favourite part:

Spoiler

Stop trying to read spoilers and wait until the damn movie comes out. Seriously.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=x0jBF912xYY - I'll just leave this here. I couldn't stop laughing; the music is fantastic.

 

Hahaha, why is Hawkeye from MASH in this?

 

Because he is one true Hawkeye.

 

10/10? Really?

I've seen all the other superhero movies and I was pretty excited for this one, but goddamn did it go to extremes. The CG was fucking fantastic. The Hulk was such a beast and all of the fight scenes were done very well. Loki was fun to watch and he served as a good excuse to bring together the people in the group.

But the things they got wrong. Almost every humour beat fell short for me. I get that 'light' action movies like these have to maintain the tone and stop it from getting too dark or violent, but the comedy moments were too often and too weak to do anything but annoy. For example, the entire character of Coulson, who I liked in previous movies. The 'so thats what it does' line is so out of place and in poor taste that it broke any drama in the scene (and it also doesn't make sense, considering the source of the weapon had only one ranged attack and they built a gun out it, what did he think it'd do?). More examples include anytime the Hulk punches an ally, anytime an extremely simple trick fools a supposedly powerful character and of course

Spoiler

The Hulk destroying Loki in three seconds. Which was the funniest of the gags, but ruined any suspense in the movie. Climactic battle ahoy!

Which actually brings me to my major gripe with the film, which is that Loki was not enough of a villain to sustain the movie by himself. I think Marvel must have intervened here, because I doubt Joss Whedon would have made such a silly error. Loki could have been beaten by almost any of them alone. At no point in the movie did I feel that he was a threat. Tom Hiddleston did the best he possibly could with what he was given, but he could only do so much. When every single character in the Avengers is given a moment in which they outsmart Loki in some way (Black Widow's interrogation, the explosive arrow trap from the archer guy etc etc), how can you respect the villain? Tension relies on believing that the villain has a chance to win, and I never believed that.

And then you've got the acting. Hiddleston did an amazing job through the terrible script he was given, and managed to make Loki believable as a trickster with strength and smarts. Downey Jr was likewise good at making his character likeable and also coming off as anti-establishment and individualist. However, Johansson and Renner were both wooden, neither able to summon any sort of emotion or interest in the movie. Most obvious cash grabs I've ever seen. Ruffalo was surprisingly good, but given so little screen time he never got the chance to shine. Thor and Cpt. America both share the problem of not having enough time to show their personalities. The Cap remains the 'voice of reason' or 'boring character' and Thor's script must have consisted of two pages of dialogue and a lot of drawings of frowns.

There are my three big issue with the movie. Terrible humour, no tension and very patchy acting. Before writing this I though that my biggest complaint was with Loki, but I've reconsidered. The biggest problem was trying to fit too many personalities into one movie, and not being able to examine any of them for it. All of the Avengers are one note and relatively uninteresting without the dilemmas and issues of their own films. The lack of a clear protagonist means I didn't really care that much about any of them, in comparison to Loki, who had the most screen time, the best actor and more entertaining content than anyone else. The movie's lack of focus just meant I couldn't really get into it.

To be clear, the action was really good and the plot wasnt bad either. Some actors did well and overall, it was a pretty good movie. I'd go ahead an give it a 7.5/10 but it does not deserve 10.

 

Did we see the same movie?

Loki's strength isn't that of a combatant, his strength lies in subtlety and misdirection. If he had the strenght to stand against all of the Avengers in combat as a team, he likely wouldn't have bothered laying his hands on an army, nor would he be the Loki we know.

Spoiler

You say Black Widow successfully interrogated Loki, but the result of that was the gathering of all this main foes in a room with his staff, exposed to his influence. I feel Loki turned her trick around on her there.

The Coulson "So that's what it does" line didn't feel out of place for me; he was always a very deadpan character and him pretending an ignorance fit my perception of him.

I feel that Whedon did a good job with sharing the screen time between the main characters, and none of the acting jumped out at me as being wooden, or bad.

Humour-wise, I have to disagree. I lost count of the number of times I found myself laughing out loud along with the entirety of the cinema.

The overall tension of the conflict's outcome could have been higher, but come on. It's Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America and Thor. No army is going to take those four out without some heavy help. If we're giving this film ratings other than Awesome/10, I say 9.5.

 

Eh, I guess if you got into it you can forgive or not notice the flaws. I didn't get that into it.

 

@Berkeley I probably shouldn't comment since I haven't actually seen the movie but from previews I was given the impression that we're supposed to see the Avengers as an incredibly powerful force with the main obstacle being poor teamwork in this film. Perhaps that's why they chose Loki as the villain in this one, they didn't want to choose a villain that had a chance against the full team and are saving that for an Avengers 2 since the teamwork kinks will mostly be worked out.

 

Saw it today. My god, it was awesome.

Awesome action, awesome characters, awesome interaction, awesome funny moments. Hulk really stood out in this film. Iron man continued to be awesome.

All in all, it was awesome SPLENDID.

 

Amazing.

The comedy was light-hearted and made the cinema laugh quite a few times. Two main moments were:

Spoiler

Hulk smashing Thor right after they defeat the room full of enemies, and Thor saying Loki was adopted

Spoiler

I also like that Tony/Pepper didnt have the phone call as it would've basically been a rehash of the scene from CapAmerica. Hulk saving him was an ace moment

Spoiler

It's been mentioned that the fight between Loki and Hulk was short, but it was fucking ace.

I can't believe the Agent died, although it's obviously because Agent's don't have first names.

10/10 for me. It flowed really nice, wasn't bored at any point like I am at a lot of films these days.

Almost forgot, also liked the scene where Cap saved the civilians and his mask came off. It seemed the most dramatic civilian rescue scene.

 

Great movie.. and because I watched an OV the cinema was nearly empty.

Like some of the above said this movie was more about teamwork then about the enemy. And in my opinion the characters and dialog were great, hell I even liked Thor. And for the plot.. it is an action film based on comics.. so what did you guys expect?

 

Japan gets the movie in August. Sad.





/filler

 

Just watched the movie. It was fantastic.

Surprisingly, the Hulk was the true star of the movie. The scene where he pounds Loki to a paste was hilarious. His dialog before he transforms to the Hulk before entering the battle was perfect.

10/10

 

I havent seen it yet, but let's not go crazy and say things in the heat of the moment.

 

I thought that there was a limit to how much hirrarious win that could be crammed into a movie.

Then I saw the Avengers.

If only the first half of the film was a little more epic (don't get me wrong, it was epic, but to the extent that the second half was), it would have been perfect.

9/10

 

Just saw it. Whedon has it. Don't know what 'it' is, but he's got it.

Moral of the story: Don't fuck with Earth and definitely don't fuck with the Avengers.

 

Doesn't this movie come out next week? How the hell have you all seen it?

 

Not everyone lives in the United States.