The Avengers - here there be few spoilers
Apr. 30th, 2012 09:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
f4f3I saw it in 3D IMAX (Edinburgh has a very cute IMAX, about a quarter of the size of the Glasgow one, but you are closer to the screen, so it balances out) and the picture was exceptionally sharp, and the 3D well worked. And Gwyneth Paltrow looked old...
As to the plot and characterisation, I'll avoid spoilers. There was the same complaint you'd expect from a team comic book - not enough room for each character to have any proper development - but Whedon did well with the little touches. Mark Rufalo is a little too husky to be Bruce Banner, but nailed the Ultimates version very well. He certainly stood up to Robert Downey, who continued to have some very good lines. The Hulk was used sparingly, in two extended fight scenes. He didn't have any touching moments with a baby deer, but we can't have everything. They went for the physical presence, instead, and it worked very well. Both in the fight scenes, where he was terrifying, and in two lovely bits of slapstick, which were amongst the best things in the movie.
Iron Man was as advertised - a billionaire playboy philanthropist inventer, and Captain America managed to land a couple of good verbal jabs on him. Thor was played exactly as in his own movie - a lovely touch is him gravely admitting that "When I was younger I lived for war, but now I am, well, etc etc", but when the Hulk gives him a bloody nose he smiles before getting up to pound back on him. Black Widow gets more exposure than Hawkeye (well, wouldn't you?) and nobody stops to ask why a spy with some cute guns and an archer are walking with Gods. Cap gets to be hokey, a couple of times, and, well, he wears the flag. SLJ plays Fury as duplicitous as he can, and it's not his fault that he can't be as cold blooded and manoeuvring as he is in the Utimates comics.
Overall? I really, really enjoyed it. And there's a set up for the next movie half way through the credits which made me whoop. I had seen it coming earlier, and dismissed it as surely impracticable. But Whedon surprised me. It's actually a very subtle line of dialogue that sets up the reveal, and I wonder how it will go over with non-comics fans.
As to the plot and characterisation, I'll avoid spoilers. There was the same complaint you'd expect from a team comic book - not enough room for each character to have any proper development - but Whedon did well with the little touches. Mark Rufalo is a little too husky to be Bruce Banner, but nailed the Ultimates version very well. He certainly stood up to Robert Downey, who continued to have some very good lines. The Hulk was used sparingly, in two extended fight scenes. He didn't have any touching moments with a baby deer, but we can't have everything. They went for the physical presence, instead, and it worked very well. Both in the fight scenes, where he was terrifying, and in two lovely bits of slapstick, which were amongst the best things in the movie.
Iron Man was as advertised - a billionaire playboy philanthropist inventer, and Captain America managed to land a couple of good verbal jabs on him. Thor was played exactly as in his own movie - a lovely touch is him gravely admitting that "When I was younger I lived for war, but now I am, well, etc etc", but when the Hulk gives him a bloody nose he smiles before getting up to pound back on him. Black Widow gets more exposure than Hawkeye (well, wouldn't you?) and nobody stops to ask why a spy with some cute guns and an archer are walking with Gods. Cap gets to be hokey, a couple of times, and, well, he wears the flag. SLJ plays Fury as duplicitous as he can, and it's not his fault that he can't be as cold blooded and manoeuvring as he is in the Utimates comics.
Overall? I really, really enjoyed it. And there's a set up for the next movie half way through the credits which made me whoop. I had seen it coming earlier, and dismissed it as surely impracticable. But Whedon surprised me. It's actually a very subtle line of dialogue that sets up the reveal, and I wonder how it will go over with non-comics fans.
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no subject
Date: 2012-04-30 10:02 pm (UTC)A few U.S. theatre chains are doing all-day events showing several Marvel movies leading up to a 12:01am "Avengers" screening, but the nearest location is an hour away. :-(
no subject
Date: 2012-05-01 04:15 am (UTC)I associate him with indie flicks of the late nineties and early aughts. Did his career pick up steam and he's gotten all Major Motion Picture when I wasn't looking? He must've done.
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Date: 2012-05-01 05:43 pm (UTC)Mark is very good.