My entirely non-spoilery comments on The Avengers

[giandujakiss]

I truly believe that these brief comments are non-spoilery. Nonetheless, in an abundance of caution, I am putting them behind a cut. But I do think this is pretty safe to read if you haven't seen the movie (if anyone comments, though, I make no promises about comment-spoilers).



Tom Hiddleston was amazing. I loved him in Thor - he was the only thing I really liked in Thor, actually - and he stole the show here.

Joss obviously went out of his way to make sure that every member of the team was given a decent amount of character exploration/action stuff, and I really appreciated that.

It was also obvious that Joss was trying to integrate his trademark character development/wit into the film, and it didn't always work. A couple of lines were too flip in the mouths of those particular characters. More commonly, it felt a bit like Joss was skipping ahead - like he didn't have time to lay the groundwork before jumping ahead to the more "climactic" moments between the characters, so suddenly we were hitting certain high-note points in character/relationship development without a proper foundation.

That said, the final big "battle" sequence was amazing. I am a person who loves action movies and dislikes action sequences (which tells you something of the tragedy of my existence). This is because I like watching what these outlandish, action-filled scenarios do to characters, but the actual action itself - fighting, blowing stuff up, etc - tends to bore me pretty quickly. In Avengers, however, Joss did a brilliant job of melding the characterization and relationships with the action, and so the final battle had me on the edge of my chair and literally clapping with glee.

So those are my comments. Now, I'm off to read all the reviews and posts I've been skipping!

Comments

[scrollgirl]

A couple of lines were too flip in the mouths of those particular characters.

Yeah, I've been pondering that a bit more, wondering if I was too hasty in my judgment of a couple of those lines being OOC. I'm too used to Joss writing for a particular audience, a nerdier and/or leftist-liberal one, and maybe I didn't appreciate that he was trying to develop a more diverse audience (since this isn't just a superhero movie, but a summer blockbuster movie). And that maybe his take on one character in particular (I'm being vague to avoid spoilers) was intended to be more "conservative", for whatever reason--and unfortunately we didn't get to spend enough time in this character's head to really establish that mindset.

[giandujakiss]

My issues were less about deeper character development than literal phrasing - i.e., just particular "clever" lines - like something Nick Fury said in the opening scene - that just sounded more like they would have been at home coming out of Buffy's mouth than Fury's - that kind of thing.

But, OTOH, Joss and RDJ obviously taste great together :-)

[scrollgirl]

I would pay good money to watch Joss and RDJ banter each other into the ground. :D

[thirdblindmouse]

I feel the same about some of the lines -- quips I thought were funny as quips, but didn't seem quite right for these characters to be saying in this context this soon. Give it half a season or so, you know?