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

well when you put it like that...

when you went to see it like that...

one complaint i guess i had was how all these whipsmart awesome heroes kept having to ask captain america where they should stand for the next battle, because he's kinda lame really and whedon didn't seem to know what else to do with him.

Captain America is their leader though

Movie sucked and was no different from any other superhero movie - the end.

OTM. I don't get the raves for this at all.

difference from other superhero movie = it had all the superheroes

Captain America is the only of these loner dudes who is a team player, which is why he's the default leader.

OTM. I don't get the raves for this at all.

What the hell were you expecting? Maybe you need to see a truly shitty superhero music to recognize one done well. Might I recommend either recent "Fantastic Four?" "X-Men 3?"

yup, anyone who thinks this isn't better than the norm hasn't seen the real horrors that are out there

Spawn (1997): I think this might be one of the worst filns I've ever seen

(Hah, I meant superhero movie, not superhero music)

Though I will say the score to this was pretty boilerplate.

Forget it, Jake, it's Alan Silvestri.

a little overhyped imo. thought the second half (part. the final battle) was the best part. iron man good more than dark knight good (fun, exciting, POW POW POW, not a lot of ambition) i thought. liked black widow's expanded role.

a little long too.

dark knight's ambition was part of what spoiled it imo

they're not really comparable

agreed, this promised and delivered breezy fun, the ambition was in the scope and perfect delivery of that promise

they're not really comparable

well, yeah, cuz The Dark Knight is gross, boring, and interminable.

I have yet to see The Avengers but I whole heartedly agree with Alfred about The Dark And Dreary Knight.

There's room for both approaches.

dark knight was imperfect bc of the nolans' insistence on cramming messy half-baked high school-level philosophizing into their scripts.

and ethical conundrums. fuck ethical conundrums. joss whedon handled them better in angel.

wmc otm

but

avengers makes a better job of its approach

Up to this point, I agree, but after Nolan's Batfilms are all done I'm going to think of them as one piece probably, so I want to leave it open-ended in case he completely wows me with the 3rd act.

think that's fair too, yeah

This certainly was a Marvel movie.

yup, this was good. go give it your money.

i brought a very comics illiterate friend (and big ruffaho) to this, her reactions were "this is so nerdy!" (at loki's costume) or "there's always a big insect" or "look at their arms!" or laughing.

i don't know who the big villain reveal was in the credits but some dude behind me sounded like he was brought to completion at that moment.

ilx poster some dude?

ruffaho

If you want to understand who the guy in the end was, here's a link that explains it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanos

If you know who he is, it's the Marvel rip off of Kirby's Darkseid.

"The scepter Loki uses appears to contain the Mind Gem used by Thanos. [citation needed]"
^this is an interesting point!

kinda was bummed they didn't pick a differnet villain. loki is played out.

Loki is in the first Avengers story though and kind of convenient to have the Thor movie to set him up first though. I saw the movie today and thought the guy who played Loki was quite good.

As for other Avengers villains, I think Kang would be harder to pull off in a movie with the whole time travel angle. Ultron would work, but I think it would need to be setup in one movie and then used as the next villain.

That said, I would love for there be someway to do the Wrecking Crew, just to see a superpowered guy with a crow bar bash Thor or the Hulk.

The Korvac story would be one that could be adapted.

I don't know if they would or could do the Kree/Skrull War without being able to use the Fantastic Four, which I guess Marvel doesn't have the rights to do in movies right now.

I was like 11 or 12 when the infinity war came out so the ending for me was some teen boner time shit

"The scepter Loki uses appears to contain the Mind Gem used by Thanos. [citation needed]"
^this is an interesting point!

I could see that in retrospect, especially how Loki's scepter came up in the one scene.

The dude that played the Hulk and the Hulk got the best scenes. Don't know how they will pull of a Hulk 3...but man I would love to see Planet Hulk as a movie, even if they did it without Nick Fury and them all shooting him out there.

just watched iron man 2 for completion's sake i guess, spent the whole movie thinking don cheadle was gonna die because 1. he's the black guy and 2. he isn't mentioned once in avengers, is he? you'd think they'd at least have an explanation for why this extremely valuable person isn't helping them

war machine is a part of iron man canon

I think Galactus was in the crap Fantastic Four movie. Wonder if they still have the rights to him? I always liked the idea of this planet-eating celestial super-being who just shows up every once in a while, like Godzilla. Or Silver Surfer?

OMG T***** AT THE END WAS ALEXIS DENISOF, IF ALEXIS DENISOF IS THE BIG BAD OF AVENGERS 2 I WILL BE SO HAPPY

Ohhhhhh, THAT'S who he was. I saw Alexis Denisof's name listed in the credits and had no idea who he was in the movie because I didn't remember seeing him.

I saw Jenny Agutter's name in the credits but don't remember seeing her. Was she on that Council thingy with Powers Boothe? (Said "council" to inevitably be found corrupt/infiltrated by some villain, likely setup for Avengers 3, you heard it here first.)

Yes, she was on the council.

thx, I did the same thing as WmC when I saw her name in the credits

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.