So how much can I recommend The Avengers? You have my word that it is more packed full of awesome than any movie released in a long while. How much of a hit is this thing? Well even before it started breaking box office records worldwide, I knew it was going to be massive. My wife and I tried to go on Saturday night. We went to the theater in town that NEVER sells out and is always less crowded. We showed up an hour before The Avengers was to start and we were turned away because it was sold out. We came right home and bought tickets for Sunday afternoon online. We arrived well over an hour before The Avengers was to start and got in line to wait to get in. I have no idea how long that line went because it wrapped clear around the corner. The theater was packed. After three days The Avengers was still packing the place to the hilt. So I think it may be just beginning to rake in the dough. Sure Dark Shadows is next week, Battleship after that, and Men In Black 3 after that, but I am going to go out on a limb and say this movie will out last them all! Mark my words. It's THAT GOOD!
Now this movie could have been a major clusterfuck! I am talking about a clusterfuck of colossal proportions. How the hell Joss Whedon was able to orchestrate everything and make it turn out so damn well is beyond me. It is very rare to have a movie turn it up to 11 and leave it there for most of the movie without it being real obvious that the people behind the movie bit off more than they could chew. Well I have to say that this is by far Joss Whedon's best work to date. I say this as a huge fan of his work. I wanted this to be good so that maybe it opened the door to some Firefly action in the future, but he went well beyond anything I could have hoped for. Now I am not a big comic book fan. Other than THE TICK and ETERNAL DESCENT I am an extremely casual fan. I never collected Thor, Iron Man, Hulk, or Captain America. So if you get pissy because I didn't shove a bunch of trivial facts in this review, I am reviewing this as a casual fan of comic movies. Suck it. I have heard that Kenneth Branagh has made it clear that he will not direct Thor 2. As sad as I am to hear that, maybe Joss would be an even better choice? Alan Taylor is currently listed, but screw him I say. Sure he directed Game of Thrones, but he also directed the show Sex and the City.
One of the things that might have saved this movie from clusterfuck hell is that it had only one real star in Robert Downey Jr. But the other stars were an important part of it all. Although none of them are famous enough to have a hard time walking down the street unnoticed, they all played their parts amazingly well. So Joss got all top notch actors without having to deal with too many egos in the set. Now before you all start bringing up Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, and Gwyneth Paltrow please note that they had smaller roles in this show. Sure they all had a good chunk of screen time, but was Mr. Jackson even half the badass we are used to him playing? Now my wife has made it very clear that after watching Chris Hemsworth play Thor she would leave me for him in a heartbeat, so I predict that he will be an a-list actor in no time. But that is my point. Many of the stars of this movie were a-list quality without all the problems a movie can get with too many a-list talents. It was just a rare aligning of planets.
Any of you that have been reading what I write here long enough will know that what I look for in a movie is a well written story and some good one liners. If it is a horror movie I want some carnage, a good body count, and some huge laughs. If it is a dark drama I want a dismal view of society, a huge body count, and some great laughs. When it is an action movie like The Avengers I want lots of explosions, wrapped around a respectable storyline, unreasonable amounts of destruction, and lots of laughs. A Comedy? I have lost all faith in modern comedy. Sad thing is that I find movies like The Avengers to be more funny (when well written) than any comedy I have seen in the past couple decades. The Avengers did not disappoint in any way. I could go on and on, but just notice the word count on this review. I just could not stop typing. It's that good.
The Avengers Review: More Awesome Than I Thought It Would Be
So how much can I recommend The Avengers? You have my word that it is more packed full of awesome than any movie released in a long while. How much of a hit is this thing? Well even before it started breaking box office records worldwide, I knew it was going to be massive. My wife and I tried to go on Saturday night. We went to the theater in town that NEVER sells out and is always less crowded. We showed up an hour before The Avengers was to start and we were turned away because it was sold out. We came right home and bought tickets for Sunday afternoon online. We arrived well over an hour before The Avengers was to start and got in line to wait to get in. I have no idea how long that line went because it wrapped clear around the corner. The theater was packed. After three days The Avengers was still packing the place to the hilt. So I think it may be just beginning to rake in the dough. Sure Dark Shadows is next week, Battleship after that, and Men In Black 3 after that, but I am going to go out on a limb and say this movie will out last them all! Mark my words. It's THAT GOOD!
Now this movie could have been a major clusterfuck! I am talking about a clusterfuck of colossal proportions. How the hell Joss Whedon was able to orchestrate everything and make it turn out so damn well is beyond me. It is very rare to have a movie turn it up to 11 and leave it there for most of the movie without it being real obvious that the people behind the movie bit off more than they could chew. Well I have to say that this is by far Joss Whedon's best work to date. I say this as a huge fan of his work. I wanted this to be good so that maybe it opened the door to some Firefly action in the future, but he went well beyond anything I could have hoped for. Now I am not a big comic book fan. Other than THE TICK and ETERNAL DESCENT I am an extremely casual fan. I never collected Thor, Iron Man, Hulk, or Captain America. So if you get pissy because I didn't shove a bunch of trivial facts in this review, I am reviewing this as a casual fan of comic movies. Suck it. I have heard that Kenneth Branagh has made it clear that he will not direct Thor 2. As sad as I am to hear that, maybe Joss would be an even better choice? Alan Taylor is currently listed, but screw him I say. Sure he directed Game of Thrones, but he also directed the show Sex and the City.
One of the things that might have saved this movie from clusterfuck hell is that it had only one real star in Robert Downey Jr. But the other stars were an important part of it all. Although none of them are famous enough to have a hard time walking down the street unnoticed, they all played their parts amazingly well. So Joss got all top notch actors without having to deal with too many egos in the set. Now before you all start bringing up Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, and Gwyneth Paltrow please note that they had smaller roles in this show. Sure they all had a good chunk of screen time, but was Mr. Jackson even half the badass we are used to him playing? Now my wife has made it very clear that after watching Chris Hemsworth play Thor she would leave me for him in a heartbeat, so I predict that he will be an a-list actor in no time. But that is my point. Many of the stars of this movie were a-list quality without all the problems a movie can get with too many a-list talents. It was just a rare aligning of planets.
Any of you that have been reading what I write here long enough will know that what I look for in a movie is a well written story and some good one liners. If it is a horror movie I want some carnage, a good body count, and some huge laughs. If it is a dark drama I want a dismal view of society, a huge body count, and some great laughs. When it is an action movie like The Avengers I want lots of explosions, wrapped around a respectable storyline, unreasonable amounts of destruction, and lots of laughs. A Comedy? I have lost all faith in modern comedy. Sad thing is that I find movies like The Avengers to be more funny (when well written) than any comedy I have seen in the past couple decades. The Avengers did not disappoint in any way. I could go on and on, but just notice the word count on this review. I just could not stop typing. It's that good.