Tag Archives: Avengers

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The Avengers (At The Theater 2012 #6)

Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Thank you Josh Whedon! So many people predicted in the press that you couldn’t bring all these A-list Hollywood actors together, put their egos behind them and create a great ensemble film. Those people were so wrong. Could The Avengers have been more perfect? I was grinning during this movie from the opening scene through the second end credits scene. You did stay for the second end credits scene, right?

Actually, I was grinning from the Dark Knight Rises and Amazing Spider-Man trailer through the end of the movie. I thought last year was the year of the comic book fan at the movie theater. But clearly, it’s this year.

I liked Edward Norton in The Incredible Hulk, but Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk makes me want a Hulk movie.

SPOILERS AFTER THIS PICTURE OF THE HULK PRACTICING SHOT PUT!

Like anyone affected by the deaths of Wash and Shepherd in Serenity, I had a feeling that Joss Whedon was going to kill off a fan favorite in The Avengers. I didn’t know who it would be. Black Widow? Hawkeye? But Agent Coulson? Why?! No!! Damn you, Whedon!

RIP Agent Coulson
How awesome was it when Iron Man said “Cap’n”?

First end credits scene: Thanos! Thanos! Thanos! Are we getting The Infinity Gauntlet in Avengers 2? Please say yes. What about the Thanos Copter?

Not his best moment.

Second end credits scene: They went out for shawarma! Awesome! Wait, what is shawarma?
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On The Couch 2011 #29: Captain America

There were too many comic book movies this year. As a lifelong comic book reader, I never thought I would say that. But it’s true. There were too many, and they were released way too close to each other. X-Men: First Class and Thor were both great, but when Green Lantern came out to middling reviews, it transformed all the I-gotta-see-all-these-movies momentum I had for comic book movies into “Eh, maybe I can wait for Netflix on a couple of these.”

That said, Captain America is wonderful. I rank it a little under X-Men: First Class, which I loved and a little above Thor, which I really liked. Marvel had a banner year for movies this year and I am super-excited for next year’s Avengers movie. Joss Whedon + Mark Ruffalo + RDJ’s Tony Stark = I will not be waiting for this movie to hit Netflix!

I cannot wait for this movie!

The CGI in Captain America is really cool. At first, I thought another actor was playing Steve Rogers before he was injected with super soldier serum. But then I realized no, that’s Chris Evans, special-effected in a reverse-Hulk way to make him much punier than he actually is.

If this movie was made 15 years ago, would the producers have approached Chris Evans with “Look, Chris, the CGI isn’t there yet. Would you mind losing 90 lbs for the early parts of the movie?”

Stanley Tucci continues to be the King of Supporting Actors, playing the German refugee scientist Dr. Erskine, creator of the Super Soldier formula.

The Tooch does it again!

If you are a Captain America comic book fan, there are so many Easter eggs dispersed throughout this movie. My second favorite was seeing the original Human Torch encased in glass at the World’s Fair pavilion. My favorite was when Dr. Arim Zola was first shown, and his face was seen distorted through a lens as if it were on a screen, foreshadowing his appearance in the comic. It sent my geeky heart aflutter.

Did you catch this brief appearance by the original Human Torch?


I really recommend seeing Captain America, as well all of the other Marvel movies that are leading into next summer’s Avengers.

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At The Theater 2011 #2: Thor

If there is an award for the movie trailer that served its movie the least at next year’s Tuesdees, Thor’s trailer is definitely going to win. When I watched it during the Superbowl, I immediately thought “There’s a movie I can skip.” And I love comic books. Love them. Granted, I was never a big Thor fan, but the end of Iron Man 2 and knowing that Joss Whedon is directing the upcoming Avengers movie had me interested in seeing Thor. Until that trailer was released. The trailer for Thor makes it look as cheesy as a Kraft factory.

Anthony Hopkins is an awesome Odin.

But then a week before Thor was released, people who saw sneak previews of it started talking about how good it is. People whose opinion I respected were telling me to go see this movie. And all I could think was, “Really? This movie? No, clearly you mean some other Thor movie.”

They definitely didn’t mean this Thor movie.

Finally the praise that just kept getting stacked on top of more praise got to me and I grabbed a bunch of friends to go see it the Saturday night of opening weekend.
Quick math problem: A group of seven people are seeing Thor, a major summer blockbuster, at 9 PM on the Saturday night of its opening weekend. How early do you show up to the theater? Note: This is New York City; there aren’t any Arclights here where you can reserve your seats in advance. So, how early do you show up? 45 minutes early? An hour? We stopped for pizza on the way to the theater and showed up a little less than 30 minutes early.

I know. We were screwed. There was no way we were all sitting together, or if we were it was going to be in the first two rows.

Except, when we walked into the theater, there were four people in the theater. Four people! Four people! Is the recession that bad?

Some of you are thinking, “What? Four people? Impossible, I say!” A few of you though are thinking, “Oh, so you saw it at the Battery Park Regal?”

You guys, the Battery Park Regal is my new favorite theater. It’s clean. It’s empty. It’s really, really empty. No joke, all the Foursquare tips for the place are “Don’t tell people about how empty this movie theater is.” But I have to say something. Because I don’t want this movie theater to fail. So please go see a movie there. It’s the anti-Court. St.

This is about how crowded the theater was when we walked in.

Thor was great. I loved it. I’m not a huge Thor fan and I wondered how they would make him interesting. But they did. How? Slapstick. I was very surprised by how much slapstick comedy made its way into Thor, but I’m all for it. Maybe the Asgard scenes would have been more enjoyable if they had the level of slapstick that the Earth scenes did.

Still the best Thor movie.