Avengers Assemble!

Here's my initial thoughts after watching "The Avengers" yesterday, written around 4am!

Its hard to know where to even start with my review of "The Avengers." You know when you get so hyped for something, to such a high degree, that you almost go beyond hype to the point of a weird type of apathy? Thats basically what happened today, and I think the last time it happened was with ROTS. Today started off nicely. My cousin came over around 2pm, and I shortly finished my marvel marathon with "Thor" around 1pm. After hanging for a bit, we headed out to pick up my friend from Sophie on SI, then my best HS friend from NJ with his significant other, and we then headed up the IMAX theater in New Rochelle. Surprisingly, I got to Hoboken, NJ a lot faster this time.... I don't know what route my GPS was taking. After that, i parked, we went to the theater to get tickets from the machine, and then I went to pray near the car. We then proceeded to find a place to eat, and the one with the shortest wait time was a mexican restaurant called El Tio. One of my best friends/current roommate joined us. We ordered, I got some kind of vegetarian platter that wasn't too tasty honestly, and my best HS friend's significant other paid for the meal. I wasn't there for that part, though.... I was so focused on getting ideal seats, that I really wanted to be in line at 1900. As usual, I overestimated things, and when I left early with my friend from Sophie on SI, after praying, we were the first ones there. Which was fine, because I really wanted good seats. One of my best friends from Sophie and his friend came around that time, as did everyone else, and we had a good time just talking about various things from work, to movies, to superhero geek stuff. It really was a fun experience for me, something I feel I don't get to do often, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We could head noise from the theater, basically a lot of explosions, but couldn't make out much. As more people started coming in, we could barely hear the theater noise at all. I saw "Thor" here as well, I believe. Once the line got very, very long, some woman came up to my cousin, and asked how early we got here, because her husband wanted to know. Which was odd, to me, but everyone seemed to think she was trying to flirt and get earlier in line. Mission failed. For the film, I wore a new jacket I found in the closet, with my SHIELD badge ironed on (which works surprisingly well)" and I also had my fake arc reactor light thing. Finally, we got into the theater, and I was first to go in and get a seat. Except for two people who inexplicably were already there. Anyway, I got my choice seat right in the middle, two rows down from the bottom, and then I tried to get a drink. The line was so long, and it was nearing the typical 15 minute preview time, that I just had to go back. My HS friend kindly got a drink for me though, even though I didn't ask him too. After some trailers including TDKR (closed my eyes to avoid spoilers), the new spiderman (too nolan-esque), and "Prometheus," the film finally started. Marvel logo on the screen, and then bam: the cosmic cube.

I don't even know where to start reviewing this film. It truly felt like a comic book to life at certain points, especially the battle at the end. The film started without a huge bang. We see a SHIELD base, where the cosmic cube is being studied, with hawkeye keeping on things, around where the comic left off. When the cube starts activating itself, Fury, Hill, and Coulson come, and we see the other side of the cube, where loki is talking to some alien, about the chitauri, and then he transports into our world and escapes. Then, we see Fury talk to his bosses about something called phase two, which we later learn is about making some crazy powerful weapons. Then recruitment begins. Widow goes to India to find Banner, Fury speaks with Cap, and Coulson talks with Tony, and Pepper. I didn't know pepper was in the film, so that was a pleasant surprise, and they're romantically together as well, it seems.

They basically capture loki, with IM and Cap, but then thunder strikes, and somehow thor made it here, takes loki, and escapes. Cap and IM go to assist, fights ensue, and to be honest, so much happens by the end, the beginning is getting a bit fuzzy, sounds like a good reason to see it again. Anyway, the team doesn't get along well, stuff happens on the helicarrier with brainwashed Hawkeye, and eventually loki is recaptured, but unfortunately kills Coulson in his successful escape attempt. Selvig meanwhile opens the portal, and tons of chitauri come out, a fight ensues, and the trailer gave away only a taste of the epic battle.

To me, this battle set the bar so high for any superhero film to follow. It's similar in scale to your generic transformers battle scenes, but here, we actually care for the characters, we see how their powers work together, and it's just a marvel to behold. I don't know how they filmed it, but it pans so well. We get a grand scope of the action, pan down to see thor fighting, then follow IM as he flies by, then lands near Cap, uses his blasts to bounce of Cap's shield, then he flies up, past Hawkeye who throws an arrow at loki, who crashes into a building, where hulk sees him and beats him senseless. Thats just what I remember, and theres so many just plain epic scenes like that. My cousin said he can't read another avengers comic after seeing that epic battle, and it'll be hard to see anything as epic as that. It took action to a whole new level, and made up for the short duration of action in IM2

The Mark VII, which was teased at in the iPad motion comic thing, was fantastic. In seemed to utilize a new quick delivery system using these magnetic bracelets, that one can buy online now for a few hundred bucks.

The real core of this film is the forming of the team. If each marvel film was chronicling the origin of their titular characters, this film was emphasizing the character of the titular team. At first, the team was so disparate, disorganized, and angry at each other. It was only through the death of poor Coulson that we saw then truly come together for a common cause.

Hulk totally rocked this film like crazy. Good comic relief, amazing action sequences, and visually more expressive and realistic than we have seen before. Ruffalo was a bit tough to get used to at first as Banner; he plays him almost overly socially awkward, which was kind of weird. I saw more of a guy resigned to his fate, than a man withdrawn. This was a guy who even tried to kill himself, but the hulk part of himself stopped the bullet.

Hawkeye was also well done for the limited time we had with him. We got a sense that he is maybe a no nonsense, serious soldier. Romanoff got a bit more, and we learn something about her past, and her history with Barton. And we see her skill set at extracting information, which was quite impressive.

Hiddleston is again at top form as loki. But his motivations here are bit shady. So he wants revenge on thor, but why does he want to be king here? Why was he trying to take over the world? I guess multiple viewings will be needed.

The end scene was nice, with us basically seeing the avengers mansion. The first end scenes shows the guy behind the current stuff: Thanos. I honestly wasnt sure if it was Thanos or a skrull, but my cousin thought it was Thanos, and a google search seemed to agree with him. This means they're taking marvel in a whole new direction, cosmic and grand. I'm interested to see how this plays out in IM3 and the next few marvel films. And the last end credits scene, with them all just eating schwarmma and not talking or anything in the diner; odd, but funny in its own way and in its simplicity.

The IMAX experience was immensely subversive, especially in the final battle, and I think it's the first time I really felt like seeing it in IMAX was worth it. The 3-D was equally fantastic in both the final battle and on the helicarrier bridge. Cap didn't seem to have enough time to adjust to the modern world; supposedly that's what CA2 is for, and that's good. There were rumors of some Cap flashbacks from his time, but that wasn't seen. Coulson's death was sad, I knew someone was gonna die according to a quick review, and Coulson was high on my list, but I thought maybe it could've been Selvig. And my HS friend said it was odd that hulk first was against them, but at the end was fighting well on the team. I think it's because first he had no control of his change the first time, and second, they were at odds the fist time, but this time, they were a team and hulk, primitive as his mind is, could understand that. Caps new uniform is very nice, more tidier and modernized than his older one. Seeing them address Jane Foster was also important, I'm glad they included that. Lots of herpes fighting each other, sometimes maybea bit much but I gotta rematch to reasses. There also seemed to be too much humor at the start and the first half, but again, something I'll need to reassess. . Even after the battle ended I wanted to see more.

I'll probably have more thoughts on the film soon, but I'm quite tired now as its nearly 0430, but I at least wanted to get some quick thoughts out there, overall, Joss Whedon pulled off an epic superhero film, spending time developing not the characters per se but the team. And having seen these characters before, their origins didn't need to be repeated, so we got more time to enjoy a truly epic battle in NYC. And I'm glad, during a quick flashback thing, we saw Cap in ice. This film was a lot to take in, and I need to digest and sleep a bit, but I think I plan on seeing it again and analyzing a lot more of it. Until next time!