THE AVENGERS

 

• Now THIS is a movie!
• Action, humour, characters, dialogue, all on point
• While the story beats are par for the course with a superhero team-up, the infighting followed by begrudging teamwork followed by triumphant coalescence were entertaining throughout
• And THIS is a villain. Tom Hiddleston is having a blast, and he's such fun to watch
• The Chitauri don't bring anything to the party from a character perspective, but since they pose a threat through overwhelming numbers, that's understandable, and it's good that Loki is there to serve as a single recognizable villain
• I still don't think back fondly to his role in Thor, though. There's a part of me that wants to watch Thor again to greater appreciate Tom Hiddleston's performance, but I still just don't care about the Asgard stuff, which is all he appears in. Perhaps, like Thor, Loki is best when he's on Earth
• If you're looking for a movie with a lot of cute butts, you could do worse
• CGI in this movie: better utilized, better quality, or both?
• Since this movie's one of the big ones, Ashley and I invited our friends Nick and Liz over for a viewing party. These are their two-sentence reviews
• Nick: I'm massively impressed with how they were able to take all six previously established characters and give them all seemingly equal screen time. It's an excellent blend of action, comedy, and drama, with a sprinkling of butts
• Liz: Joss Whedon is really good at action scenes. Everything is interesting
• Ashley: Butts butts butts butts butts butts.
• 
• In case it wasn't obvious from my reviews, I've been underwhelmed by the other movies so far. I've stayed committed to seeing the franchise through, but I started wondering how much enjoyment I'd actually get from the experience, or if maybe the MCU just wasn't for me. However, I saw Avengers in the theatre with Nick, after having seen only Iron Man and Captain America prior. I remembered liking Avengers a lot, so I was pretty confident I'd like it just as much this time
• Furthermore, I can now say that the experience of watching The Avengers is richer for having seen the previous films. The recurring characters, the interactions, the references, I had a deeper appreciation for all of them
• On to Phase Two, baby

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER

 

• This movie achieves what it sets out to do. It's a good introduction to Steve Rogers and really solidifies his character
• Despite that, I found it left me a little cold. I wasn't entirely sure why at first, until Ashley pointed out that it didn't have much levity. And it's true. For a sci-fi war movie about a super soldier battling a guy with a red skull for a head, this is a very sincere movie
• I appreciate that the Marvel films play with the formula. If all 22 movies had the exact same tone, that would get really boring. However, I do enjoy the humour, the snark, and the more fun qualities of the ones I've seen so far. It's good to identify that this is the flavour of Marvel I like, as I think this will help me understand the later movies for what they bring to the table
• As a shorter guy with a deep voice, I feel qualified to say that it's unnerving to hear Chris Evans' voice coming out of pre-Cap Steve Rogers
• Hugo Weaving is probably the most effective villain in the movies so far. However, as of yet, none of the villains are nearly as interesting as the heroes. On the face of it, this might seem like a foregone conclusion. Of course you'd want the hero of your movie to be more interesting than the villain. However, this hasn't always been the case for the superhero genre. It's been said before, but in nearly every Batman movie, the villain is the most entertaining part. I like that the MCU provides charismatic heroes you can root for, but you can't deny the entertainment value provided by a magnetic villain on screen
• By "magnetic villain" I'm not just specifically referring to Magneto
• We took great pleasure in referring to him as Fucky Barnes
• Howard Stark looks like a grown-up Neal from Freaks and Geeks
• We are now in a post-Endgame world. Ashley and I were under no illusions that we could catch up in time, but we've managed to avoid spoilers so far. We'll see how long that can last, especially since we apparently can't even watch the trailer for Spider-Man: Far From Home. At least they included a spoiler warning
• This is a long write-up. Fucky Barnes. Heh