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tealinJust got back from a surprisingly poorly-organized Disney screening of The Avengers ...
... Yeeeaaah, that was pretty great.
I should caveat this with the following: The only Marvel/Avengers movie I have seen leading up to this was Thor. I quite enjoyed it for the most part but have not felt moved to watch the others. My only primer on Marveldom has beencopperbadge's entertaining explanations of the print comic series and a couple of movieverse fics, so at least I am familiar with the central characters' names.
This near-blindness going in was, amazingly, not that much of a hindrance to understanding the main gist of the story, so big props for that! The action setpieces were exciting, the effects tremendous, the pacing brisk, the world fun, the conflict/tension rollercoaster tuned-up, everything you'd want from a frolicking summer popcorn movie, but hark, what is this – CHARACTERS? Honestly, the strength* of the main characters carried me through any confusion I had regarding the vast secondary cast, subplots, and prerequisite reading. The felicitously frequent character-based comedy was well-played. I would expect nothing less from Joss Whedon, but it was nice to see him be allowed to deliver, and on a project with major studio backing, no less. I am looking forward to Disney making buckets of cash off a movie that's actually good – not that that will teach them anything, but it's nice for fate to align with one's values for once.
*not literal
My only real complaint with it, which is not unique to this movie, is that the action scenes are shot too close and/or cut too fast, and I sometimes struggled to map things geographically or tell what was going on. I could get on its case about lack of philosophical depth, etc., but that's very clearly not what this movie was trying to be, and it succeeded in so many other ways I can respect that.
I seem to recall an interview with Joss Whedon when he just started on The Avengers, in which he said something to the effect that he was annoyed at people already making deconstructed superhero movies, when the genre was still so young, so he was going to make an honest-to-goodness superhero movie, dangit. And he has! Well done him.
Oh, and: stay till the end of the credits. They are long credits but it is worth it.
Well, that's it for my attempt at critical objectivity; here's my very personal capsule review:
Too many characters, not enough Loki!
But then, I could watch Tom Hiddleston act for two hours solid, so don't listen to me.*
Also, if you haven't seen the movie yet but plan to soon, I advise you refrain from clicking this link, because you can't un-see it: Jeremy Renner is clearly the lab-grown offspring of Nathan Fillion and Daniel Craig, OK yes.
*Dear Mr Whedon, I have been a very good girl and for Christmas I would like you to make another Shakespeare movie only this time it would be Othello and you would cast Mr Hiddleston as Iago. I think you made Loki the big bad in The Avengers because you already know how hard this would rock and just wanted to try it out. Yours very sincerely, Tealin.
... Yeeeaaah, that was pretty great.
I should caveat this with the following: The only Marvel/Avengers movie I have seen leading up to this was Thor. I quite enjoyed it for the most part but have not felt moved to watch the others. My only primer on Marveldom has been
copperbadge's entertaining explanations of the print comic series and a couple of movieverse fics, so at least I am familiar with the central characters' names.This near-blindness going in was, amazingly, not that much of a hindrance to understanding the main gist of the story, so big props for that! The action setpieces were exciting, the effects tremendous, the pacing brisk, the world fun, the conflict/tension rollercoaster tuned-up, everything you'd want from a frolicking summer popcorn movie, but hark, what is this – CHARACTERS? Honestly, the strength* of the main characters carried me through any confusion I had regarding the vast secondary cast, subplots, and prerequisite reading. The felicitously frequent character-based comedy was well-played. I would expect nothing less from Joss Whedon, but it was nice to see him be allowed to deliver, and on a project with major studio backing, no less. I am looking forward to Disney making buckets of cash off a movie that's actually good – not that that will teach them anything, but it's nice for fate to align with one's values for once.
*not literal
My only real complaint with it, which is not unique to this movie, is that the action scenes are shot too close and/or cut too fast, and I sometimes struggled to map things geographically or tell what was going on. I could get on its case about lack of philosophical depth, etc., but that's very clearly not what this movie was trying to be, and it succeeded in so many other ways I can respect that.
I seem to recall an interview with Joss Whedon when he just started on The Avengers, in which he said something to the effect that he was annoyed at people already making deconstructed superhero movies, when the genre was still so young, so he was going to make an honest-to-goodness superhero movie, dangit. And he has! Well done him.
Oh, and: stay till the end of the credits. They are long credits but it is worth it.
Well, that's it for my attempt at critical objectivity; here's my very personal capsule review:
But then, I could watch Tom Hiddleston act for two hours solid, so don't listen to me.*
Also, if you haven't seen the movie yet but plan to soon, I advise you refrain from clicking this link, because you can't un-see it: Jeremy Renner is clearly the lab-grown offspring of Nathan Fillion and Daniel Craig, OK yes.
*Dear Mr Whedon, I have been a very good girl and for Christmas I would like you to make another Shakespeare movie only this time it would be Othello and you would cast Mr Hiddleston as Iago. I think you made Loki the big bad in The Avengers because you already know how hard this would rock and just wanted to try it out. Yours very sincerely, Tealin.
no subject
Date: 2012-05-05 10:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-06 04:53 am (UTC)I have an audio recording of Othello with Chiwetel Ejiofor in the title role, which has Ewan MacGregor as Iago, but it was not nearly as good as the library's one with David Threlfall as Iago and, I think, Don Warrington as Othello, so I haven't listened to it much beyond the first go. (Also, I thought Mr Ejiofor's delivery sounded quite a lot like Obama, which was a leeetle bit distracting ...) A video recording would be something else, though. On the other hand – the ISC has now ruined even the library's recording for me with their awesomeness, and I haven't even SEEN their Othello.