It was pretty much what I was expecting. By-the-numbers plot points. Ninety percent green screen scenery. The fight scenes were legible, so I guess that's a positive these days. The score was oppressive and boring. The CGI was bloody awful. I can't see where it really hurt any of the principle characters, but it also didn't add anything to their stories. Overall, not worth the hype.


Scarlett Johansson's first scene was funny. A Black Widow movie might be good. Bring back Affleck and Garner as DD and Elektra, it could be a decent redemption.

RDJr started off good, but fails to keep himself above the crap. Paltrow's short scenes were nice. She seems to have developed a personality in the past few years.

Yes, because there are so many surprises in a Joss Whedon superhero movie.




Rosebud was a sled, btw.

Predictable or not, it wouldn't have taken you half a second to put a spoiler warning at the top of your post, Allen. You obviously cared enough about seeing The Avengers to go to an advanced screening, let everyone else discover it for themselves too. Granted, no one who cares enough is going to continue reading your posts, but it doesn't have to be a major plot twist to count as a spoiler.

Tell me what I've spoiled.

Come on Allen, be reasonable. For someone who hasn't seen the film, if they bothered to read your posts, you spoiled a good few things. Granted, most of what you said was general commentary, but giving away the credit-end-sequence, even a couple of the little jokes, that's not cool.

Of course, you've broken no law or caused any real harm, it's just a little common courtesy. Trust me, some folks will appreciate it.

Okay, just for you, I put spoiler warnings on my posts. However, because you made me do that, now I'm going to talk about the only plot point that wasn't entirely predictable...

#SPOILED?


...Agent Colson.

He had been established as something of a hard-ass and a jerk in previous movies. Here, we discover he's a fawning fanboy of Captain America. And possibly gay. Then Loki kills him and Fury uses a combination of his adoration of Cap and his death as a some kind of weak "inspiration" to rally the superheroes into action. It's a very odd interlude that is prolonged for about ten minutes, past the point of becoming awkward. After that, though, Colson is forgotten and not mentioned again.

I don't want to give too much consideration to killing the gay guy as a means to an end, because there doesn't seem to have been a lot of consideration given to it by Zak Penn and Joss Whedon. It seemed almost reflexive — out Agent Colson (almost), then martyr him. Bizarre, no matter what your socio-political bias.


Also interesting that the idea of a regenerative superhero not being vulnerable to gunshot wounds is revisited here after X2, both written by Zak Penn. Wolverine there, Banner here (although we don't get to see it this time).

No, and no.

SPOILERS in my post too, obvs...



Why would you need subtitles for those scenes?



Yeah. When well written, they have really good chemistry. I don’t like Paltrow much usually, but she makes a good Pepper Potts. So we agree: a non-superhero film with Downey Jr and Paltrow, written by Whedon!



Yeah I wondered that too. Marvel movies seem obsessed with getting people, heroes and villains alike it seems, out of any masks.



That’s pretty specious. I suspect the line from Coulson about watching Cap was a flippant line for humour purposes only, not be taken seriously as a “I like watching men” statement. Certainly wouldn't say that it was at a level of outing him.

#SPOILED?



You don't. Those scenes are inconsequential to the overall story. Still, it might have been nice to know what they were talking about.



Well, yes and no.



I thought that, too, at first. Then it went another step further. Maybe it was unintentional. Still, Fury's lingering on his passing was very uncomfortable and didn't serve as the inspiration he wanted.