Home Movies: The Avengers

by Bobgar Ornelas

In about five or ten minutes I will throw in the disc and watch (Marvel’s) The Avengers.  So why am I typing this out and why in all that is holy haven’t I’ve seen it already? Well, I want to write a brief little post expressing my thoughts on the movie prior to watching it. As for why haven’t I already watched it, well I just never got around to watching it in the theatres and it finally arrived via that mail order movie service, you know the one.

I hate hype. 

Let’s face it, there’s a ton of hype going into this movie and since its release. People went multiple times to the theatre to view it, bought the multi pack disk releases and hell even shawarma saw a spike in popularity due to the film. Oh, how do I know about the shawarma having not seen the movie? Well, due to everyone’s feverish love of the movie things were spoiled left and right. I don’t blame them, it’s what we do when we genuinely love something. 

Lastly, the majority of the time big budget, plus all star cast equals disappointment for me. Yeah, I have an unpredictable threshold for certain kinds of movies. Going in, honestly I don’t really have high hopes. I’m one of the few people that thought that Iron Man was just okay. Marvel movies haven’t really blown me away save for Incredible Hulk. I hear he’s the “breakout star” of the movie so maybe there is hope after all.

Chuck D and Flava Flav  taught me to not believe the hype. I think that the Avengers Mania has subsided enough by now that I can watch this movie somewhat objectively. (yeah, right) Well, enough of all this I have a date with the couch and movie. I’ll be back and I will report whether the hype is to be believed. Did the movie deliver on its own merits. And did the fan’s fervor set too high of expectations for the movie in my mind? 

Let’s find out, shall we?

Let us see…it was good. Not the movie watching experience that I was guaranteed me but it was really good.  Mostly everything has already been said about the movie, I think that my favorite aspect was the fact that all of the Avengers got their ass handed to them in pretty much all their battles. It gave the movie an illusion of permanent danger for the characters.  Was it over hyped? Yes, of course, but I can see why it was such a hit for so many people. I thing the general moviegoer doesn’t know the tired convention of having two heroes fight then team up. I can see how that can stir up the inner child in all of us, unless we have seen it all our lives in the comic books.

That’s the good, here’s the bad. It’s way the heck too long of a movie. My personal preference is a 90 minute movie but when you’re rounding two and a half hours I have a hard time keeping my interest. The middle of the movie dragged for me. Lots of talking, I think that Whedon was channeling Bendis Avengers. That’s a minor gripe because it led to one something that I really enjoyed and that’s the friendship developed between Banner and Stark. Speaking of Banner, I did not like this version of Banner at all I really wish that Edward Norton had reprised his role. The Hulk scenes were great, but too few. All in all I do have complaints, but to be honest they are minor and represent my peculiar quirks. 

Well, there you go. I liked it, but did not love it. 

PS -Captain America's costume was atrocious.