Wikipedia trumps "Stand By Me".... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goofy#Confusion_concerning_Goofy_and_Pluto
Caught it this morning at First Colony. Perfect Crowd. My spoilerless thoughts: I give the movie 8.5/10, definitely fitting well with IM-1 I look forward to seeing it a second time I think the dialogue and bicker-banter was as good as I hoped (Joss Whedon is a master with that) I think it was largely the Iron Man show, featuring Hulk and Thor Widow got some nice shine, though they couldn't really mask how useless she becomes in a major throwdown Hawkeye wasn't compelling, really Captain America still feels hokey. Him and the uniform. They need someone to come in and help that out. A lot. Loki was enjoyable, but I wasn't as wowed by him as everyone else The first half is "quiet", but moves along very well, and makes up for lack of action with some good humor My single spoiler thought: Spoiler Loki vs Hulk had to be the greatest single moment in the movie I'd say the only thing that dings the movie in general is the actual premise. Loki's basic goal just feels random, aimless, and just forced in to give us the movie's plot. Spoiler Was he looking to lay waste to Earth to get revenge on Thor? Did he want to rule it? Why did he think he was going to get far at all with that with Odin watching? Oh, and how the **** did Thor know about Loki's deal with the aliens? -->It didn't bug me that much...but it stood out like a sore thumb, in my opinion I dunno. I'm not going to take away from other's experiences, but I enjoyed the 3D IMAX. I will say, I don't think you'll really lose much with 2D. Up until the climatic megabattle, the 3D is largely subtle - which I feel is a good thing. I HATE what I'll call "viewfinder" 3D - where the stereoconversion leaves you with several 2D layers and people that look like cutouts. Spiderman's trailer looked to be exactly that, and I absolutely would not watch that in 3D (and I still doubt I'll see it anyway). On a sidenote...the 3D trailer for Prometheus looked AMAZING. Best 3D I've ever seen - it honestly looked like we were watching real life. I've seen every trailer, and the 3D made the footage go to 11. So my 3D ratings (out of 10): Thor - 2 Spiderman trailer - 4 Avengers - 7.7 Prometheus - 11 That could be something they'd want to know about - it's not like you're talking about someone with true mainstream fame. Even Dr Doom isn't as universally famous as we might think.
Great, great insight. Thanks a lot for that. The only 3D movie I've ever seen was Thor and I swore off it, but you've not only gotten me to reconsider, but now I'm excited. Especially about Prometheus.
I saw Ironman and its sequel. Would have rated them about a 7 out of 10. Good popcorn stuff. I also saw Captain America. I was extremely disappointed in that one. 3 out of 10. Never saw Thor or the newer Hulk. Never really wanted to. Suffice it to say, I had very lowered expectations of seeing The Avengers based on the above and nearly didn't go today. Two and a half hours later I am STUNNED but happy to report this is already my favorite "super hero" movie ever. Yes, for me even better than The Dark Knight, Spiderman, and any other you can mention. In fact, its in my top 10 of ALL movies in the past dozen years or so. Simply put, its the perfect blend of story, action, comedy and downright fun. Its been a long time since Hollywood surprised me in a good way but I honestly can't recall the last time I enjoyed a summer blockbuster the way I did this movie. Maybe Raiders of the Lost Ark? Some of ya might be thinking...thats pretty high praise or this cat is a fanboy but I'm not. I'm 48 years old and generally am disappointed by movies. I expected to be by this one too but for once I am happy to report I'm not. Go see this movie. You will love it.
He was there, of course, but compare his fights and dialogue to Iron Man, Cap, and Hulk and he had the least. Spoiler Onboard SHIELD headquarters, Stark and Banner had a lot of dialogue. Captain America had a small feud with Stark. All Thor got was a short talk with Coulson when the main bad guy's in his rogues gallery. On fight scenes, while he got a fight scene with Iron Man and Cap, he had the short end of the action after that. While Cap and Iron Man were busy saving the flying fortress and Hulk was rampaging, all Thor got was a short Hulk fight and a short scene with Loki with Thor getting ejected. He was chiefly used as a lighting rod during the last fight. All his dialogues with Loki were same-y. He just didn't have much of a character development like Stark and Cap did nor a culmination moment with the Hulk.
Ok, just saw Avengers and it was FREAKING AWESOME! And here I thought I had set my expectations too high. Whedon is the f-ing man! 1st theater standing ovation I've seen since Star Trek (2009) and was well deserved. If you saw all 5 films leading up to The Avengers, the payoff of this culmination is incredible. I tweeted this too. lol Just have to share with the world how much I loved this flick. After the underwhlming Captain America and 'meh' Thor, wasn't sure what to expect, but this was great.
Very cool. I'm definitely going to watch this at a movie tavern once the crowds die down... I'm sure it's been been talked about a lot, but I agree, Thor was such a freakin let down after so much hype it got...easily one of the worst superhero movies I've ever seen. It seem like it was rushed to the theaters so it could add some background to the Avengers movie or something...just pathetic. I can't remember a single thing I liked about that movie...and I usually like superhero movies...yuk...
Well that just goes to show you how important the right director is for a genre movie like this, or like Thor, or any of the super-hero movies which have come down the pike the last 20 years. I saw The Avengers today as well, and Whedon hit the most massive monster home run yet in the realm of super-hero/comic-book movies. There have now been 5 which I consider to have met or surpassed expectations: Blade, The Crow, Spiderman 2, The Incredibles, and now The Avengers. But for sheer scale, and for the sheer cojones to actually put ON SCREEN everything that comic books like The Avengers have had on basically every other page since the beginning, Whedon has finally done what no one else has managed to do. This was everything the X-Men movies should have been, this was everything the Fantastic Four should have been. This was everything Superman should have been. In case anyone is wondering, I am not forgetting Nolan and the Batman movies. I really have a hard time counting those as 'comic book' movies. Maybe better to call them 'graphic novel' movies, but even then, no. I see them as grounded so much in reality, that Superman, Green lantern, wonder Woman, AquaMan, none of those characters could ever be seen to exist in Nolan's Batman universe. So it's really kind of in its own category of awesomeness all by itself, that is why i didn't count Dark Knight among the ones listed above. Maybe TDKR will change my thinking on this, but somehow I doubt it. I think I will be seeing it again at least one more time before I put an actual review up on CF, but rest assured - this is the best time you will have in the theaters so far this year. TDKR and Prometheus now have a VERY high bar set for them. Oh, fyi.. I sprang for the 3D, but I would advise against it. It brought absolutely nothing to the proceedings, and all it did for me was take extra money out of my wallet. I believe I would have enjoyed it as much or maybe even more in the regular number of D's. In case you were wondering.
I guess I had my expectations set too high by all the superlative reviews. I was extremely underwhelmed and my girlfriend was too. My spoilerful review follows. Spoiler Loki had some cute moments but otherwise the menace (an endless stream of robot aliens or whatever) was duller than dull. The solution to the problem (nuke through the wormhole) felt like an afterthought. The S.H.I.E.L.D. stuff went from boring to confusing back to boring again. And the heroes spent half the film or more sitting around a ship. It seemed like the other half of the film was filming Robert Downey's face inside his mask. His I'm so clever, I'm so arrogant, I'm a bad boy act wore thinner than bologna and tasted like it too. More than a team movie it felt to me like Iron Man 3 with some guest stars until the third act when The Hulk had some genuinely good moments. And Mark Ruffalo was very good all around as he typically is. His secret: "I'm always angry" was the highlight of the film. The next two best moments centered around him as well: when he punched Thor as an afterthought and when he flopped Loki around like a doll on the floor. And the fourth best moment was Gwyneth Paltrow in jean shorts and bare feet. If her shorts had been a touch tighter it would have been the top moment. Thor lacked any personality at all, as per usual. Captain America felt like an afterthought when he's supposed to be the ultimate Avenger. (His new costume was cool though.) Black Widow had some funny moments though I am the only man on the planet that finds Scarlet Johanson to be an average sort of pretty and not at all stunning. Nice body though. Speaking of which, I was also distracted by the prettiness of all the men -- especially Captain America and Thor. It felt like a men's underwear ad shoot. Nick Fury was irrelevant and still took up way too much screen time. Just a severely dull movie to me. Nothing but explosions and semi-funny one-liners. And for 2hr.20min.? I won't be seeing this twice. Some of the comic book sites are calling this the best superhero movie of all time. What? Superman, Superman 2, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Spiderman, Spiderman 2, X-Men, X-Men 2, Iron Man and Hulk 2 were each miles better than this movie to me. In other words, it misses even my top 10. What a disappointment. I'd chalk it up to the fact that I'm a DC guy but I've read a ton of Marvel and a ton of Avengers and this was not the movie I was promised by rottentomatoes and comic geeks all over the internet.
After seeing it now twice in one day (midnight showing, 2nd time today killing time at Katy Mills) it lived up to the hype in my opinion. It's unfair to compare it to Dark Knight because of it's uniqueness already mentioned with it being really filmed based on a "graphic novel". The character balance was there, didn't think it was too Iron Man heavy as much as everybody else thinks, but agree that Thor's role was short, and would have love to see more Hawkeye. Joss Whedon's direction/writing is well documented. Loved 2 particular scenes that were a staple of his work Spoiler The part where they had the classical music playing, showing Captain America suiting up, Hawkeye doing his work to break in the lab, and Loki walking in unison to the music heading towards the scientist to grab his eye image was genius. Also loved the part in the final battle where they started with Black Widow on the air craft fighting one of those aliens off, Iron Man flies in to help, then he helps Captain America, then goes to Hulk/Thor taking down one of those ships. Each shot was a perfect balance of showing each superhero do their part. Agree that Mark Ruffalo worked well as Hulk/Banner. Wasn't too much a fan of Norton, hell I liked Eric Bana better, but Ruffalo suited the role very well along with the Hulk CGI working well. Although I was a bit confused by his size, it seemed he was smaller as in height they made him out to be compared to the previous 2 movies. Spoiler The Hulk vs. Thor fight was fun to watch, especially after the debate on who's stronger, even though its Hulk no contest. The Hulk/Loki scene will be one of the best memorable scenes in movie history. It was kinda of knock on hero/villian movies where the villian has his cliche speech, and Hulk pretty much did his "STFU" retaliation we've all wanted to see for the longest time. Awesomeness..... The comedy in the movie flowed well. At times I thought it was a bit much, almost twice as much as IM and IM2 had combined but better than what we've seen in the past in other movies, Transformers 2 for example. Am I the only one that all they could think of is Robin Scherbatsky everytime Maria Hill spoke? I was waiting for Ted Mosby and Barney Stinson to come out of nowhere and fight for her. It was a welcome part to see her outside of HIMYM, but I guess she's stereotyped by me like Mark Paul-Gosslar/Zack Morris. Staying on topic about females, agree with Batman Jones, not too much of a fan of Gwyneth Paltrow, but those short shorts Pepper Potts had on was smokin...... btw.... Spoiler WHERE THE HELL WAS WAR MACHINE???? Overall, it was a fantastic movie. Seen it twice in less than 24 hours, and I'd love to see it again.
Now that I've seen the movie, I totally get this statement. As much as I liked Eric Bana and Norton's performance as Hulk, Ruffalo trumped them. I think Hulk was my favorite part of the film. Overall just a flat out fun movie.
Sounds good man, I'll probably just watch it when the crowds die down with a few beers...if 3D is offered, cool, if not, no biggy. I've seen a few 3D movies recently and they were 'OK' but neither have been worth the extra cash imo.
Captain America is a bum. They should have had Spiderman instead. Spiderman and Iron Man dialogue would have rocked. Norton's Hulk looked more real and menacing. Avengers Hulk is a little too cartoonish looking.
