The Avengers

[modage]

It's not great but fanboys won't notice. It has more than its share of geek-out moments which work really well so the other things probably won't matter to most.

More: http://modage.tumblr.com/post/21106612534/the-avengers-review

[Sleepless]

Good review, Mod. 

[Reel]

Neil Cumstain's review

[Pubrick]

i don't know whose dumb idea it was to release this like it was Tintin.. the rest of the world has less invested in this than the US so letting me see it first makes no sense even as a marketing strategy. actually now that i think about it, it kinda does, and it makes me wonder why ALL films aren't released this way.

the usual pattern is to release it in the US first, and let the rest of the world salivate for a few days/months (or in the case of france probably not give a shit), and let the international gross be a caveat to either cushion or redeem the scucess or failure the film may have experienced on domestic release. but this alternative method makes america want it MORE because everyone else has it. it really is cruel and kind of brilliant. or it could just be a stupid mistake done by idiots in charge with no psychological insight whatsoever.

and now my review:

first 10 mins are kind of lame. the next twenty or so getting the team assembled is much better. and once they get together i think the whole film becomes great. there is nothing you could want in a tentpole blockbuster that this film wont' deliver. and it also has something most of the big ones utterly lack: humour.

i was surprised by how funny it was. though that may have been expected by the fanboys of whedon who suckle at his hit-and-miss teat, i've been more underwhelmed by the dude's output than barely whelmed. his brand of humour is something like a slightly evolved family guy.. where instead of every scene being a set up for something random, whedon constructs every scene to be a set up for a witty/sarcastic/smug/sometimes perplexing/cringe-worthy line of dialogue that plays as the character equivalent of winking at the camera.

but it mostly works! the best scenes and best payoffs involve the hulk. possibly due to my growing hatred of dialogue in films (see: tintin), i found the hulks physical humour to be (along with his physical threat's importance to the narrative) the most interesting and naturally enjoyable parts of the film. to prove my point about whedon's formula being its own worst enemy recall this one scene with the hulk..

SPOILER ALERT>>> 
the part where he bashes loki.. that's the funniest scene in the movie, but then whedon goes and crams a stupid witty line for the hulk to say because he just can't help himself.. good luck hearing it over the uproarious response already filling the cinema. 
<<<END SPOILER

final thoughts.. it's a great crowd pleaser, the kind you wish would happen more often. oh and for a film set in new york i think they really dropped the ball by not casting  more token blacks and at least one hispanic superhero. it's NEW YORK PEOPLE!

classic pubrick summary
worked - Ruffalo ruffalo Ruffalo ruffalo ruffalo ruffalo Ruffalo ruffalo
failed - captain america's monotheism
winner -  me for seeing it first.

[72teeth]

classic pubrick summary
worked - Ruffalo ruffalo Ruffalo ruffalo ruffalo ruffalo Ruffalo ruffalo

ROTFLMAO rOTFLMAO ROTFLMAO rOTFLMAO rOTFLMAO rOTFLMAO ROTFLMAO rOTFLMAO
classic pubrick humour

[modage]

final thoughts.. it's a great crowd pleaser, the kind you wish would happen more often. oh and for a film set in new york i think they really dropped the ball by not casting  more token blacks and at least one hispanic superhero. it's NEW YORK PEOPLE!

It didn't represent my life!

I think the reason it was released overseas first is because some kind of sporting event is going to take away all the attention in a week or so supposedly.

[©brad]

final thoughts.. it's a great crowd pleaser, the kind you wish would happen more often. oh and for a film set in new york i think they really dropped the ball by not casting  more token blacks and at least one hispanic superhero. it's NEW YORK PEOPLE!

It didn't represent my life!

Hah!

[Ravi]

Whedon juggled all these characters well while giving us a bit of their backstories, and yet the film never feels overstuffed. Stark gets the best lines.

[BB]

For me, this is likely the best possible shitty tentpole. That's not to say that all tentpoles are shitty, just that those produced by Marvel tend to be (I haven't seen Thor). I appreciated the light, jocular tone. And some of the set pieces were pretty cool. But overall, it's the same old shit done better. A fun ride but not much of a film.

Also, old man that I am, I found the CGI overkill tiresome (just make it a fucking cartoon with a live action Scalett Johansson) and the 3D unnecessary and poorly incorporated (it seems directors and cinematographers still haven't realized that if an object is wider or taller than the frame, it's weird to look at in three dimensions).

Perhaps it's a tired point but I'm getting mighty sick of these fanboy movies dominating as they have over the last twenty years and that goes double for Marvel's decade of triumph. Once in a while: fine, good even. Four or five times a year: fucking no. I hope that with The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises this summer is recognized as the zenith of the trend and things start dying down over the next couple of years. They must. But they probably won't, and we'll have to endure another decade with diminishing returns until our collective personal standards are so low that ANYTHING will suffice. I think this has been Kevin Feige's plan all along. To ensure that no movie will ever flop again.

I long for the days of the stereotypical Hollywood super-producers, living large, indulging in absurd luxury, swimming in coke and pussy. At least they cared about prestige and had to balance their greed with output of reasonable quality to keep up appearances. With business-man nerds like Kevin Feige (a 40-year-old man who used the phrase "ZOMG-awesomeness" in a press release) you essentially have a giant adolescent running the show. Obviously, he's doing well by it. But I fear he's slowly turning us all into nerdy man-children like him. And the problem with a nerdy man-child culture is, things don't have to be good or interesting; they just have to be nerdy. Of course, maybe it's the other way around and the culture is driving the change.

In sum, I thought the movie was okay.

[Pubrick]

i forgot to mention this in my review.. and i cannot stress it enough:

DO NOT SEE THIS IN 3D. 

DO NOT.

if you go see this in 3D and complain about the 3D then you are like the idiots in that woody allen joke who complain about the quality of the food and the small servings. actually that was a poignant joke,  you would be more like someone who eats shit and then says eww this tastes like shit.

[BB]

I had no choice. It was either 3D or wait a month for it to open at the second run theater. I am otherwise in total agreement with you.

[SiliasRuby]

I'm sorry and I know I'm might be slightly alone on this but aside from the spectacular action-this freaking sucked. Especially if you are not familiar with the background of the comics. Maybe its my fault that I didn't see 'Thor' or 'Captain America'. I just could't connect with any of the characters-I know I should have thought that would happen but I always hope that I can connect with the characters even though its a tent pole. Pubrick is Right: Ruffalo is awesome.

[pete]

silias! what a curveball of you not liking a movie. fuck yeah dude! hate more movies please.

I thought the movie was so-so. some good jokes and good nerd out moments yes, but also some of the phoniest 80s/90s style bad extras and uniforms. also, none of the effects or stunts were especially imaginative. most of that stuff were pretty generic actually.

[diggler]

I was waiting for the backlash to start