The Avengers thread(may contain spoilers)

[Tyrant]

I personally prefer them asking at the register to the way they used to do it at our theaters. About 20 minutes before the show, one of the theater workers would get up in front of the screen and loudly ask folks to donate to _fill in the blank_ after talking about _fill in the blank_ and everything it did for five minutes. Then until the previews started, people would be scurrying back and forth between seats and down aisles to hand the worker money. I'm all about giving to charity, but this practice was beyond irritating.

And on topic, I thought the movie rocked. I don't know that I've ever suffered a geekgasm that lasted the entire movie like that before.

[Henry88]

$702,137,707    

http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=avengers11.htm

[Relaxing Dragon]

I'm detecting an incoming member to the $1,000,000,000+ Worldwide Gross Club. Question is, just how far up the Top 10 will it climb?

[Henry88]

I'm detecting an incoming member to the $1,000,000,000+ Worldwide Gross Club. Question is, just how far up the Top 10 will it climb?

and to do it so dam fast just makes my head spin.

[LucasM]

I avoid spoilers like a group of Chitauri on aerial jet-skis [I won't even watch the 'Next Week' blurbs on TV shows I watch, because they give too much away and I like getting full impact from whatever fiction I'm taking in].  So only after seeing the film did I open and look in on this thread (starting to read it with the opening day posts).  Given that I took extra anti-seizure meds before leaving the house (so they'd be in my brain by the time the film got underway, keeping me from further overload), I'm only mildly fuzzier today in my thinking, than I was yesterday.  So I'll try to write some of my thoughts, hopefully not duplicating those of others here too much.

I'll say it right off the bat: I'm a Joss Whedon fan.  I'm a fan of his TV series [3 of them being in my top 5 all-time favorite shows], a fan of his prior film, and a fan of his comics-writing work.  So I knew that he - if anyone - could pull off a good superhero film.  And, with Joss' proven proficiency [Buffy, Angel, Firefly/Serenity] at skillfully using every member of an ensemble, where each had it's own distinct input into a story, a distinct input that no-one else could supply, I knew that he could pull off a good group superhero film.

And I still ended up being surprised at just how good The Avengers was.

It was one of the first films in a long time to hold my attention from start to finish without my thinking about checking the time (though I had to guess at when it might have been roughly 1 hour after starting so I could take my midnight meds).  When it was over, I thought about how 'into' the story I'd been and realized that, because subjectively it seemed like it had only been on for maybe an hour.

There were so many excellent parts (many of which others have already enumerated: Hulk's interactions with both Thor and Loki, the 'stinger' at the end).  But the key part for me is that Whedon never let the story dictate the characters' actions; never making a character do something out-of-character just because he needed that 'something' to happen.  He let the characters dictate the story's progression.  And at the start of the film he gave just enough 'alone screen time' to the two characters not having their own film series, Black Widow and Hawkeye, so people knew what their skills were before things got underway, where such explanation would bog down the plot (and then he counted on the near-universal basic knowledge of the other characters [or seeing the prior films] to cover their 'skill sets').

I saw it in 3D.  And was pleased that the film was not designed for 3D, so the effect was - like the plot - organic in its presence.  No 'stuff flying at you' that wouldn't have been otherwise, so one wasn't distracted by it.  But even if it had been filmed 3D, given his past, I suspect Whedon would have basically shot the same film, regardless.  [Even though it wasn't designed for it, the film did convince me to get a 3D capable HDTV when I finally buy one, however.  ]

What else?  Well, I felt a little bit like a kid again when I walked out of the theater.  Though I still enjoy them, that degree of envelopment in a superhero story hasn't happened for me in quite a while.

So... uh... yeah: I liked it.   

Brain permitting, I'll see it in a theater at least one more time before it disappears (preferably several more times).

[Bob]

Amen sir, amen.

[Henry88]

[monstermoviefanchicknj]

Heard it did $207.4 million on opening weekend in North America. 
I don't have a huge interest in it myself, i'll wait until it comes to dvd.

Hopefully, the Rifftrax will be out for it by then.  And I'll be employed long enough to purchase it!   

[Bob]

That scene made our entire theater laugh on Monday.   Great stuff.

[Darth Geek]

Great scene in the movie (although the GTFO is unfunny and unecessary).

Watching in a little gif like this, it just make me think the Hulk is part of Bobby Benson's Baby Band.

[wurwolf]

(although the GTFO is unfunny and unecessary)

Agreed.

[MontyServo]

That scene made our entire theater laugh on Monday.   Great stuff.

Same here at the drive-in on Sunday night.  Even in my car, I could here the entire place just in an uproar. (Although to be honest, I did have the sunroof open.  It was a nice night. )

Fantastic bit.

[wurwolf]

One of my favorite bits was Agent Coulson nonchalantly on hold while he listens to the Black Widow kick a little ass:

[Relaxing Dragon]

Like pretty much every Marvel movie, Agent Coulson (aka Phil) was one of the best characters around. Always such a treat to see him onscreen, be it when he's totally in control of the situation or when he's fanboying over Captain America (a nice touch, I think).

And then Joss had to go and be Joss. And made me sad. At least he got that fantastic bit to Loki beforehand, spelling out why he'd lost and blasting him through the wall... all without even getting up. Dude was a badass amongst badasses, which is saying something considering the company he was keeping.

[wurwolf]

Yeah, I was actually not only disappointed in that but also a bit mystified... (please don't read this if you haven't seen the movie!)

Agent Coulson appeared in nearly every Avenger movie and was one of the threads that tied all of these super heroes together. I don't really understand what purpose it served to kill him off, both in regards to continuity or that he is such a likable character. To me it was the only misstep in the entire movie.

I guess this means he won't be in the other Avengers movies but they're doing a Black Widow origin story so there's no reason to believe he won't show up there.