The Avengers

All of the Marvel movies had been leading up to this one.  It all started way back with the first Iron Man movie, then the Hulk.  The after credits scenes hinted that this movie would come.  People complained because the second Iron Man movie was more of an advertisement for Thor than anything else.  Then Thor and Captain America were released, and the idea of there being one movie with all of them seemed to be more realistic than ever.

Unfortunately, I had some reservations about it.  I mean, how could they really put this many characters together and make it work?  The previews looked really good, and the one with Tony Stark saying "we have a Hulk" was great.  Needless to say, my excitement for the movie started to amp up over the winter, and I was only worried about being somewhat letdown.

Fortunately, Joss Whedon not only lived up to expectations, but he surpassed them.  The movie was pretty damn good and I am happy to see that it had the biggest opening of all time.  I just wish DC would pay attention (or just allow Marvel handle their movie projects). 

The movie started pretty quickly with Loki stealing the Tesseract and then a pretty funny scene with Black Widow, which ends with her beating up some Russians.  The team is assembled fairly easily and we get a nice battle between Iron Man and Thor, with Captain America jumping in the middle and an amazing scene of Thor's hammer versus Cap's shield.

The only slow part came after the death of Coulson and the team splitting apart.  It seemed like that half hour was the slow point of the movie and I really thought that it may end with a cliffhanger.  Maybe the Chitauri would attack the city and pretty much have beaten each hero individually.  Actually, that would have been pretty cool.  It could have ended on a moment where the world is being conquered and Captain America calls out through secure lines "Avengers assemble!"  And then boom, end movie.

Instead, the team comes together pretty quickly and saves the day.  Do not get me wrong, it was pretty badass.  I loved the way Banner tells the group that his biggest secret is that he is always angry.  The Hulk destroying that flying monster was great and when he and Thor take down another one and then Hulk just punches Thor was pretty damn hilarious.

I do want to mention that Hawkeye was pretty much how I imagined.  I am glad they did not go with his traditional costume and instead used a black suit.  I think everyone was wrong about the majority of the fight scenes involving the three human characters.  I did not feel like they were chewing up the screen time to save money on CGI, did anyone else?

The first post-credit scene showed Thanos finding out that the humans put up a good fight.  If I remember correctly, Thanos has a thing for death.  He will want to come to Earth to give Death a gift.  I just wonder if this will be more of the plot of the next Iron Man movie?  Also, will the next Thor movie have something to do with this, or just be separate?  I am excited for the future.

I think Maria Hill will end up dating Captain America...

My favorite line from the movie was probably when Captain America is about to jump out of the plane to go after Iron Man and Thor, Black Widow yells "Captain, that is a god you are going after."  Cap responds "There is only god ma'am, and these guys ain't him."  I am obviously paraphrasing here, but I just love the way Chris Evans pulls off those lines of a guy still from the 1940s.

I would also like to note that Mark Ruffalo was fantastic as Bruce Banner.  He had that nervous, quiet, shy quality that Banner needs.  I also thought his reference to the Hulk as the other guy was pretty cool.  The banter between Banner and Stark were cool, I loved the way Stark was trying to push him to accept the Hulk.  Actually, I enjoyed all the banter between the different characters.

Let me know what you thought of the movie.

Comic Book Movie Grade:  A

Captain America: The First Avenger

I have not said too much about this film, mainly because I kept forgetting about it.  It is crazy to think that Marvel put out two major films this summer (plus, there was the X-Men film, which is also a Marvel comic, but different production company...)  I keep getting surprised by how good the Marvel films actually turn out.  Maybe DC should just allow Marvel to make their movies as well (minus the Batman films).

The movie starts out with Steve Rogers being rejected yet again from being able to sign up for the Army.  Actually the movie starts with a modern day search team finding something in the Arctic.  Anyways, Steve finally gets into the military because a doctor wants him for a special project.  We learn that Steve has plenty of the intangibles, he is very David Eckstein-esque.  He then gets an injection and becomes taller and stronger.  He becomes a super-soldier, but the good doctor is killed, so they cannot make any other ones.  The Army uses Steve to promote buying war bonds.

Honestly, the beginning was entirely too slow.  I get that they wanted to show that Steve was a great kid, and how hard he would fight and never give up.  Why not cut that back a bit and just show the grenade scene and have someone list all his characteristics?  Or something, they could have cut it down a good fifteen minutes.

After that the action picks up and Captain America rescues some soldiers and leads his own team against Hydra.  He then saves the world by crashing a plane into the Arctic Ocean and defeating the Red Skull.  He gets rescued in the modern world and learns that he has been sleep for seventy years.

The Good
-The fight scenes were pretty cool.  He made using a shield look pretty cool and not hokey.  Also, they did not make him ridiculously strong.  Granted, he is strong, but I was afraid we would see him catching cars out of the air, or flipping over a tank.  Not that strong.

-Haley Atwell is pretty damn hot.  The character of Peggy Carter was also cool.  She is pretty tough, and I am sure they will introduce Sharon Carter at some point.  My guess is that the movie makes her the daughter of Peggy.

-Chris Evans did a great job.  He did not come off as the same character as Johnny Storm.  I have always liked him as an actor, although I realize some people do not. 

-I also loved how they set-up things for the Avengers movie, but not so much that it was irritating.  That was a minor problem in Iron Man 2, all the Thor references, which I guess put some people off.  Instead, the references were pretty plot integral.  Red Skull mentions the Cosmic Cube (he calls it the Tesseract) being one of the greatest treasures from Odin's Treasure Room.  Howard Stark was also more than just a cameo, which I thought at first when he was at the World's Expo.

-The ending was pretty much straight from The Ultimates.  Steve wakes up and they trick him into thinking it is still the 1940s and then he escapes.  I liked that touch.

The Bad
-Why did Cap jump to the conclusion that his only option was bringing the plane down?  Maybe someone can explain this to me.  If he is able to control it so that it will go into a dive, why not turn it around?  Or try to land it somewhere?  Were the bombs flown by Hydra agents?  If so, once he killed all of them, what harm would it be to turn around and try to land somewhere?  They should have went with the old fashioned nuclear rocket option instead.

-Bucky's death scene was good, but when they bring him back (and they will), it will seem pretty crazy that he somehow survived that fall.

-Hugo Weaving's accent

-Chris Evans need to bulk up more, his chest was not big enough...

Comic Book Movie Grade:  B+/A-

X-Men: First Class

Lindsey and I went to see X-Men:  First Class on Friday, and it was pretty good.  Before I get into the movie, allow me to say about the theater.  Remember when I went to see Thor?  That place in Indiana was a real dump, but the new place in State College was just the opposite.  They had huge leather seats, the screens were very large, and the sound system was fantastic.  You suck Indiana!

Anyways, back to the movie.  It is set in the 1960s, Erik Lensherr is trying to find the man who killed his mother (Sebastian Shaw, played by Kevin Bacon).  He is like James Bond or Eric Bana in Munich.  He travels to Argentina and kills some former Nazis (he mixes his magnetic control with some pretty tough fighting skills).

Meanwhile, Charles Xavier and his good friend Raven are celebrating Charles receiving his doctorate.  He is pretty much a jerk trying to get into the ladies pants.  Moira MacTaggert enlists his help in tracking down the Hellfire Club.  She works for the CIA and has seen mutants in action.  He then informs the CIA of his abilities.

He then meets Erik and they become friends.  They enlist the help of a bunch of young mutants and set out to stop Shaw and the Hellfire Club.  One of my favorite scenes was the way they trained together.  Especially Charles and Erik together.  How funny is it that Charles is the one who helped Erik unlock his full potential.

There were a few little inconsistencies from the first movie.  Professor X tells Wolverine that Magneto has his helmet because he and Erik built Cerebro together, but in this one, Beast is the one who built Cerebro, and the Russians designed the helmet for Shaw.  How come Magneto never had more of those helmets made so that his followers could defend themselves against Professor X?

Also, we see the development of Mystique.  She starts out as Charles friend, but he does not think she should reveal her real appearance to people (Beast feels the same about how they should look normal).  Magneto constantly tells her that she is beautiful.  It was also cool seeing her shift into Rebecca Romijn.

Speaking of cool cameos, when Erik and Charles go on their mutant finding quest, they walk into a bar and start their proposition to Logan (Hugh Jackman), who tells them to "go fuck yourselves."  I was pretty shocked they allowed that kind of language.

Also, how does Moira go from a CIA agent, to someone who runs a hospital or something.  Remember in the post-credit scene after the third one?  Professor X takes that guys body over that Moira is taking care of, that hardly seems like CIA work to me.

I also loved how Shaw was someone who could challenge Magneto's power.  Although, how would a coin through his head kill him?  Or did Xavier have his powers shut off while he was in his head?  Seemed a bit weird to me.

I thought January Jones was extremely hot as Emma Frost, but umm, does this movie fit with the Wolverine movie?  Emma Frost was a young girl in that film and still being held by Stryker, at the end of this film, Magneto frees her from Stryker's grasp...

I want to say that Michael Fassbender was amazing as Magneto.  I can see why so many mutants would want to follow his cause.  He came off as determined and unwavering in his belief.  Charles (I thought James McAvoy was really good too) came off as arrogant and a little bit afraid of the mutants who look different.  He does not embrace mutantism (I am making that word up) 100% yet.  I am sure with him being paralyzed he will lose some of that ego.

The movie was really good and I am excited about the idea of a sequel.

Comic Book Movie Grade:  B+/A-

Thor

Lindsey and I met at the Carmike Cinemas 4 in Indiana for the midnight showing of Thor.  Why Indiana?  Well it was closest place for both of us since she was at work.  Unfortunately, it was in 3-D, which I had not seen a movie in yet, and was not all that excited about the idea. 

Before I get into the movie, I want to say that the theater sucked.  It was a tiny screen, the sound quality was terrible, and the bathrooms were disgusting.  I am pretty sure the sound system was a set of 50-watt car speakers from Wal-Mart, seriously that bad.  I do not even want to explain the restroom, it will make you vomit.  Anyways, on to the movie.

I definitely enjoyed the movie, more so than I thought I would.  I never really thought Thor was the type of character that could sustain a solo film.  I figured he would be someone that was in the Avengers movie and it would just be assumed that everyone knows he is the God of Thunder.  I was skeptical of this movie from the moment it was announced.

They did a great job of making this a story about sibling rivalry and their relationship with their father.  I loved how they did not make Loki into this evil shithead who all along was working with the Frost Giants. 

I thought for sure the "god without powers" trying to adjust to Earth would just come off as stupid, but it was actually pretty funny.  The only complaint I have about the movie is that the story should have started with Thor on Earth and giving us the idea that he has been stuck in this realm for years.  Unfortunately, if you do that, you lose those funny scenes of him throwing coffee cups on the ground or demanding a horse at a pet store.

A little something for the ladies...

I think if you do it my way though, it would seem more believable that his sacrifice would mean he was finally worthy to wield Mjolnir.  Whatever, such a small thing to complain about.  Speaking of the hammer, when he kicks the crap out of the SHIELD agents and puts his hands on the hammer and nothing happens, that was such a cool scene, especially since Jeremy Renner was there as Hawkeye.

I think Marvel learned their lesson from Iron Man 2 about not overly promoting their next movie by taking away from the current movie's plot.  The fanboys know who he is and get excited and the casual movie-goer probably said something like "hey, was that the guy from The Town (or The Hurt Locker)?"  Then when they see the Avengers movie, they will be like "hey, I remember that guy being in Thor!"

One last thing I really liked about the movie:  Natalie Portman.  Aside from the fact that she is hot (I refuse to believe there is even one astrophysicist who looks 1/5th as good as her), she is also a good actress (or female actor as they are known today).  I loved that when she was around Thor she would sometimes have that giddy/cutesy girly-ness that she had in Garden State. 

Did everyone else stick around to see the after-credits scene?  It involves Nick Fury and Stellan Skarsgard and what appears to be the Cosmic Cube.  I guess it will play a role in the Captain America movie and most likely in the Avengers movie as well.

Comic Book Movie Grade:  A