Avengers

[zraver]

Who has seen it, overall impressions, favorite scenes and comments.

I was not as impressed as i hoped to be. It had some good scenes, but overall the story was weakly put together with the addition of Blackwidow and Hawkeye taking up screen time that kept the characters were are already familiar with from blending well.

Favorite scenes- Stark talking to Loki, "we have a hulk" and the Loki trying to talk down to Hulk and the Hulk's resulting carpet beating of Loki.

Final comments, I enjoyed the rivalry between Thor and the Incredible Hulk which has a decades old basis in Marvel Comics. Also I am looking forward to the Avengers II v Thanos.

[TopHatter]

Considering the long build-up (since Iron Man came out May 2008), the sheer number of superhero and other characters (12 or so) and insane amount of background material (dozens of different comic titles dating back to Captain America in 1941), I thought it was very very good. Not without it's weaknesses of course, but it certainly showed that it could be done very well.

Favorite parts, the Hulk of course clock-cleaning Loki, the Hulk sucker-punching Thor, Captain America's complex battleplan instructions ending with a simple one-word direction for the Hulk. Funny, I've always been an Iron Man fan and not really a Hulk fan, but Hulk got most of that great moments.

Less "crowd-pleasing" moments that I thought were brilliant:
The Black Widow's introduction scene. SO well done and neatly topped by her interrogation scene with Loki.
Normally I pick up on things like that right away but I as startled as Loki when she thanked him for his information. Epic.

Captain America's not-very-well-hidden sensitivity about being a relic of the past ("I caught that reference, I caught it!")

Agent Phil Coulsen, pretty much any scene he's in. He was a "throwaway" character back in Iron Man that I really liked and I'm glad they kept him as a continuing thread in several of the movies.

Surprises:
I came into the movie not wanting to like Mark Ruffalo's portrayal of Bruce Banner...and wound up being won over.

BIG irritation:
The trailer effectively ruining the Crowning Moment Of Awesome at the end, the Hulk and Iron Man scene.

[zraver]

"I got that" by Captain America was a double entendre of sorts, not only for Cpt America, but for the parents (who got it) in the theater with their kids (who didn't).

The sucker punch was awesome. But the scene with the NYPD rang hollow, maybe if it had been Hawkeye or even Ironman, but Cpt America in the Marvel Universe was America's first hero going back to WWII, he had trading cards etc, that NYPD officer was old enough to have a parent who served in WWII and likely grew up on tales of Cpt America beating the hun.

Which reminds me, props to the Old German dude!

[TopHatter]

But the scene with the NYPD rang hollow, maybe if it had been Hawkeye or even Ironman, but Cpt America in the Marvel Universe was America's first hero going back to WWII, he had trading cards etc, that NYPD officer was old enough to have a parent who served in WWII and likely grew up on tales of Cpt America beating the hun.

True but as far as those officers were concerned, Captain America disappeared during WWII never to be seen again...and now here's this weirdo in a Captain America costume and most definitely far too young to have fought in WWII.

The scene was also important because it demonstrated Cap's tactical genius and set up the "battle plan" scene a little bit later with the rest of the Avengers. The scene itself was a tried-and-true trope of course, but it worked.

Which reminds me, props to the Old German dude!

I had a funny feeling that was going to happen, yet another trope that works well.

I think that since Flight 93, the average person whether in real life or a fictional character, has been more willing to stand up to evil, even if it's suicidal, because we've seen the horrifying consequences of simply standing by and watching.

[bolo121]

It was fun but the last scene made no sense at all. Also the completely unnecessary India scene inserted to pander to an emerging market made me cringe. AWFUL hindi accents.

Howard Taylor over at schlock mercenary made many of the same points:

If Natasha can drop invaders with handgun rounds, those invaders aren’t going to get past the Hudson river, much less the Mississipi. After watching Black Widow shoot, I’m confident my friends in the National Guard can take care of business. All I’m saying here is the aliens had worse intel than they thought. Forget facing The Avengers – they need to fear the local gun club.

Thor’s lightning seemed to be doing a real number on the incoming folks. Why’d he leave that position? Stark would have been pretty effective there, too – especially since Thor could have kept him charged up. I’ll chalk that one up to “bad decisions in the heat of battle,” the sort of thing that any green soldier will… umm… oh. Thor. Right.

Who arms a tactical nuclear missile with a timer? I’m admittedly no expert here, but I expected milspec GPS. Of course a timer lets Stark grab the missile and speed it up, buying him time to fly it past its intended target and up to a new one. Or it would have if Stark hadn’t been out of juice, explicitly telling Jarvis “save the rest for the turns.”

I’d complain about Loki’s plot, but Banner justified it perfectly when he said “that guy’s brain is a bag of cats.”

[TopHatter]

AWFUL hindi accents.

I'm always curious about that sort of thing...what did it sound like to your "ear"?

[667medic]

I'm always curious about that sort of thing...what did it sound like to your "ear"?

The characters spoke Hindi with accent, like how a person learning Hindi would speak.

BTW Hulk was supposed to be hiding in Calcutta and they speak Bengali and not Hindi in Calcutta.

[TopHatter]

The characters spoke Hindi with accent, like how a person learning Hindi would speak.

BTW Hulk was supposed to be hiding in Calcutta and they speak Bengali and not Hindi in Calcutta.

Hm interesting, you'd think they'd be able to find native Hindi, or more accurately in this case, Bengali, speakers.

Oh yeah, I forgot one my favorite moments...it got such a huge laugh that it drowned out the few lines of dialogue.

Someone made a disparaging remark about Loki and Thor immediately bristled at this insult to his family, warning that "He is my brother and an Asgardian!"

Someone else reminds Thor of the body count thus far. Without missing a beat Thor clarifies: "He's adopted"

[Firestorm]

Also the completely unnecessary India scene inserted to pander to an emerging market made me cringe. AWFUL hindi accents.

Well if they were trying to pander to the Indian market (which I don't think they were) it was a bad idea to do a slumdog millionaire repeat with the wrong language being spoken with an accent.

[bolo121]

I'm always curious about that sort of thing...what did it sound like to your "ear"?

yep 667medic was pretty much spot on. Nobody speaks hindi like that, It sounded like english speaking people who have memorized a few lines.
They should have gotten some people to dub in a few lines in bengali
Better not to have inserted that scene at all.

[bolo121]

Well if they were trying to pander to the Indian market (which I don't think they were) it was a bad idea to do a slumdog millionaire repeat with the wrong language being spoken with an accent.

I think they were. I remember reading about the India bit in several indian news articles. Also the release date in india was a week ahead of US

[Blademaster]

I think they were. I remember reading about it in several indian news articles. Also the release date in india was a week ahead of US

They did that to combat piracy for no other reasons.

[bolo121]

That doesn't make much sense. The primary markets are still US first and then China.
Releasing it in India early merely makes it easy for people in the US to get pirate copies off the net.

[Blademaster]

That doesn't make much sense. The primary markets are still US first and then China.
Releasing it in India early merely makes it easy for people in the US to get pirate copies off the net.

Not when the US market is used to very high quality. As of right now, piracy can't make to HD level. So HD market in US is quite safe for now. As for China, I can''t speak for since I am not familiar with market. But for Indian market, piracy is a very big thing and quality is not on the high list right now.

[667medic]

Hm interesting, you'd think they'd be able to find native Hindi, or more accurately in this case, Bengali, speakers.

Oh yeah, I forgot one my favorite moments...it got such a huge laugh that it drowned out the few lines of dialogue.

Someone made a disparaging remark about Loki and Thor immediately bristled at this insult to his family, warning that "He is my brother and an Asgardian!"

Someone else reminds Thor of the body count thus far. Without missing a beat Thor clarifies: "He's adopted"

The funny part was Hulk beating the shit out of Loki and Loki's stunned expression. The whole movie hall erupted with applause. Hulk is da man....