Is it time for us nerds to start anticipating THE AVENGERS, directed by Joss Whedon?

Two things: 1) floating fortress stupidest secret base ever and 2) what was Loki's plan for the Hulk? To hulk out and destroy the floating fortress? Or was that just a red herring?

(Also, and this is just Hulk lore, but why can no one figure out that he is indestructible and more or less infinitely strong?)

dude, don't diss the helicarrier. it's canon.

(also it allows them to exist independent of nations and law)

and have monkey knife fights

yeah, I took loki's plan to be enraging hulk in order to destroy the fortress and/or the avengers... which almost worked

biggest failing was the sudden + inexplicable turnaround of hulk from uncontrollable rage monster to valuable team player, but obv the movie is v rewarding if you just go with it so

he probably just talked things out with Harry Dean Stanton, got a whole new perspective on shit

dude, don't diss the helicarrier. it's canon.

I know they *needed* it, but it just seems like putting all your eggs in one very easy to take down basket. As the movie demonstrated.

I think they threw in Hulk hitting Thor to show that he was still a loose canon, just that his rage had been redirected toward the aliens. Hulk doesn't take things personally. Hulk just goes after what's bothering him the most. Then ... Hulk tired. Hulk rest.

Hulk smash plot holes.

Though per Loki/Hulk, don't they later identify his plan as wanting the public to seem him take out the Avengers, to earn him street cred? Though of course, up until this point, the only Avenger anyone knew was Iron Man (right?). The other folks kept to themselves, though of course, word of the Hulk had surely made the global rounds.

Thinking out comic book logistics hurts Hulk's head.

overthinking the plot mechanics of the avengers is not a rewarding exercise

For sure.

Great fun, agreed with pretty much all positive takes above and have little to add otherwise -- hardly any kind of be-all/end-all but a really fun entertainment that looks good and moves just as well. Gotta give credit to Whedon as director/co-screenwriter to work out how to give everyone the right amount of screentime.

Meanwhile:

http://www.deadline.com/2012/05/avenger-update-205m-record-domestic/

Story itself says current projection is 207.1 million. Crazy. But seeing as all the showings at the theater I was at last night were sold out or selling out rapidly -- and this was with three screens running it -- I believe it.

Nearly $210 million the first weekend in the US alone, right? What was the international tally? And did it open in Japan yet?

Yup to the first. (As I, um, just posted. :-D )

Int'l tally was something like $642+ -- and no, not opened in Japan yet, so god knows where this thing will finally top out at.

I usually go to morning shows when I have days off and the 10:40 a.m. showing on Friday was three quarters full, which, er, never happens.

it was funny to look at the weekend projections yesterday and see avengers w/ $200M and the next grossing movie at $8MM

keep in mind that $200M weekend gross for all movies playing in the US combined would be considered respectable box office

Meanwhile Edgar Wright keeps dropping hints:

http://twitpic.com/9hnn6t

scarjo's down for a black widow movie, and I imagine anyone connected with this behemoth is going to have some major hollywood pull for the next couple of years

www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/04/black-widow-movie-scarlett-johansson_n_1477199.html

er

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/04/black-widow-movie-scarlett-johansson_n_1477199.html

The cube where I saw this in Tupelo was only half full -- at the first showing of the day on opening day. But they had had two midnight shows the night before, and we correctly guessed that it wouldn't be as crowded at 12:30 p.m. on a school Friday. They have it on three screens in 2D and two more screens in 3D.

There was a line for the noon (first of the day) 2D screening here yesterday. Movie is firing across all demos, I guess: women, children, nerds, teens, older folks...

I saw Jenny Agutter's name in the credits but don't remember seeing her. Was she on that Council thingy with Powers Boothe?

― improvised explosive advice (WmC), Monday, 7 May 2012 13:53 (1 hour ago) Permalink

oh word that's awesome

I was kinda bored by this :(

my nephew's school sent home slips that parents could sign permitting their kids to get out of school early this past friday to go see the avengers. supposedly, more than half the student body got parental permission to do this.

The 3D show at the same time as mine Fri morning was sold out thanks to a couple of elementary school classes.

disgusting!!

I was kinda bored by this :(

― homosexual II, Monday, May 7, 2012 10:55 AM (42 minutes ago)

Could you elaborate? What was it missing?

Well, perhaps it was my own fault - I wasn't familiar with the backstory of the characters (hadn't read the comics, hadn't seen the previous movies), Loki didn't seem very threatening to me. I'm also extremely difficult to please.

As far as huge Summer blockbuster type movies, the last one I liked was Star Trek.

The 3D show at the same time as mine Fri morning was sold out thanks to a couple of elementary school classes.

lol and people were talking about the death of monoculture in the worst generation thread

the amazing thing about this making so much money is that it was the first week of may. which is always a huge weekend, typically the first big weekend of the year, but still nothing compared to the middle of july when everyone's out of school. made $50 million more than the next highest early may movie, spidey 3. probably still not as impressive as hunger games making $150 in mid-march tho

this is a big xp:

war machine is a part of iron man canon

― Mordy, Monday, May 7, 2012 8:19 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

so... iron man is part of both the iron man and avengers canons, but war hammer is only in the iron man canon, so tony stark doesn't know anything about war hammer in the avengers canon? and wasn't the line already crossed when nick fury and SHIELD were major plot points in iron man 2?

comics are weird

looking back, i was kinda surprised how much of this movie took place on the flying ship. idk why really.

warmachine is part of the marvel universe so there is crossover in all elements
he exists across the board.
WM is more of a 70's/80's creation though and not really necessary to an avengers storyline by any means just yet. I imagine they figured to save some little money by not paying Cheadle to be in this thing.

but yes, comics are weird

people who follow comics more closely than me: are Rhodey and War Machine part of the Ultimates universe, seeing as the Iron Man/Avengers/nu-spiderman storylines seem to grow out of that universe?

iron man is part of both the iron man and avengers canons, but war hammer is only in the iron man canon, so tony stark doesn't know anything about war hammer in the avengers canon?

No, this isn't the case at all. The only "canon" is Marvel Universe Canon, but every character from every movie can't be in, or even referenced in, every other movie. It's crowded enough already.

xposts

Man/Avengers/nu-spiderman storylines seem to grow out of that universe?

Waaaaht? No.

they do though

well new spiderman is clearly based on the Ultimates storyline

lol war hammer = war machine, getting my character names twisted

my point in other words: i know that war machine wouldn't be in the film, i just figured they would mention him in some capacity to fill the plot hole. like, there's a huge battle going on in the city he lives in, someone should at least explain him away like they did with natalie portman

strictly speaking War Machine exists in all Marvel U canon like forks said, but some characters are kinda pegged to certain comics/miniverses. they can crossover, so like green goblin is primarily a spiderman villain but also shows up in thunderbolts and then in cross title storylines when he takes over (idr shield? whatever). other characters won't really make serious appearances tho so you'd generally only see WM in Iron Man and while he might be in the background of a big crossover like World War Hulk he's not going to get a lot of facetime in an Avengers comic, and if he's played by a big actor you can see why Marvel wouldn't just throw him in. similarly none of Thor's buddies were in the flick, i didn't see the Cpt America movie but if Bucky was there he wasn't here (of course maybe he died in the Cpt America movie?), no Dr. Samson or jenny hulk etc.

tangental thoughts re film canon: kinda thought it would be awesome if like fantastic four or x-men teams showed up at the end of the movie to help, or spider-man to cross promote new movie, but it's obv much harder to arrange actor schedules than to draw a new character on the page. they def need an avengers V x-men movie at some point tho that would be sweeeet.

lol and people were talking about the death of monoculture in the worst generation thread

Do keep in mind that these comics are and have been an aspect of the monoculture for literally decades. That's why I don't have a problem with all these superhero movies; superheroes, and in particular these superheroes, have been a staple of American popular culture for about as long as we've had popular culture. I mean, tens of tens of thousands of issues, hundreds of stories, all featuring these (and many more) characters ... it's kind of amazing, if you think about it.

well new spiderman is clearly based on the Ultimates storyline

― (Name Withheld to Avoid Hassle) (forksclovetofu), Monday, May 7, 2012 1:06 PM

The last Spider-Man movie I saw was the one with Alfred Molina in it, so somebody's going to have to get me up to speed on this. What Ultimates storyline? There are a lot of Ultimates storylines.

i was really impressed with the argument among all the heroes in the ship's science lab, very screenwriterly. reminded me of the negotiation/argument scene among the tribal chiefs in lawrence of arabia (if only because i had to watch that in a film class as an example of good multi-character conflict writing.

does he hook up with kitty pryde in the new movie?

new spiderman is clearly based on the Ultimates storyline

I know he can't be in the Avengers because different studios have the rights, but it seems like the new Spiderman is too angsty and Nolan-esque to hang with the Avengers anyway.

xp well the thor thing was explained when loki asked how much of odin's power it took to get thor on earth, or something. which i thought was a really awful copout seeing as the huge "tragedy" of the thor flick was that he was gonna be stuck in asgard away from natalie portman.

and they can't cross over with F4 and spidey and x-men because they don't own the distro rights

War Machine is a member of the West Coast Avengers, and the alien invasion took place in New York. So it's, you know, a jurisdictional thing.

other characters won't really make serious appearances tho so you'd generally only see WM in Iron Man and while he might be in the background of a big crossover like World War Hulk he's not going to get a lot of facetime in an Avengers comic

war machine was an actual avengers member at various points and has been in a ton of avengers comics