The Avengers (Whedon, 2012) — The Reviews Thread

[Supermallet]

Yeah, he was someone who had access to the iridium, and the vault holding the iridium required a scan of his iris.

[DonnachaOne]

"What did the Tesseract show you?"
- "My next target. I'll need a distraction. And an eyeball."

The German scientist (his name is on a display in the film, but he's just billed as "Gala Scientist" in the credits) has iridium, which will stabilize the portal because of its properties, locked away securely. Loki uses a (very painful, apparently) device on the scientist that transmits a 3D projection of his eyeball to Hawkeye's device, which allows Hawkeye to fool the retinal scanner and gives him access to the iridium. The attack works threefold because it gives Loki the material he needs, and allows him to distract S.H.I.E.L.D. from the the work Selvig can do with it, and still getting him taken prisoner so that he can weaken S.H.I.E.L.D.'s capability from within.

[mcfly]

Originally Posted by Supermallet

Yeah, he was someone who had access to the iridium, and the vault holding the iridium required a scan of his iris.

I had to think for a second if he had said he needed an eye then when he jammed the thing in the dude's socket it made sense.

[musick]

Originally Posted by whoopdido

Oops. Sorry. I'm trying. Never knew that character existed before I saw Thor a week ago. Can't remember if anybody ever said his name in Thor. Isn't Hawkeye a GI Joe character?

Hawkeye was not refered to by name in Thor only as (Clint) Barton

[mcfly]

Originally Posted by musick

Hawkeye was not refered to by name in Thor only as (Cliff) Barton

Since Renner has become the actor that can headline a film I wonder if a Hawkeye movie is in the works.

[DonnachaOne]

In Thor, Coulson only refers to him as Barton. In The Avengers, Black Widow calls him Clint after he's woken from Kali's black sleep.

[Cellar Door]

At the beginning of The Avengers, IIRC, Agent Hill is talking to Fury and refers to Barton as "the hawk" since he was perched up high in the large room they were in. She didn't use it like a proper nickname or anything, though.

[DonnachaOne]

Selvig said that. "The Hawk? He's up in his nest."
Fury tells Barton to report, he swings down the rope, and he gives Fury a security assessment.

Funny: he then makes a comment about how "doors can be opened from both sides", and that the Tesseract is a door to the other side of the universe. Which never seemed to be implied before by anyone, and even though Selvig, who was already familiar with Einstein-Rosen bridges, was working on it, neither he nor Fury had commented so far about its transporting capability, and only seemed concerned with tapping the "unlimited power" of this "energy source". Maybe it was one of those "legend tells us one thing, history another" bits, but it's never really explained why Hawkeye knows it can also be a transport device.

In such an otherwise well-made film, however, I'm inclined to ignore this inconsistency.

[Mondo Kane]

Cap also calls him Barton when he's giving the team instructions.

Anyone else think this explosive success will change Marvel's planning-board? An Iron Man 3 is lined up as are Thor 2 and Captain America 2. But it's already clear that audiences (Especially of the non-fanboy crowd) will be much hungrier for an "Avengers 2" than anything else.
At the least, there will probably be sudden script changes in the solo sequels to include fellow Avenger-appearances to wet appetites...But will that be enough?

[Superboy]

Originally Posted by Supermallet

Are you kidding? This is a huge deal for comic book films. Can you name another big movie with a team of disparate characters from different properties? This isn't the X-Men, which are a team to begin with. And the way Marvel went about it, giving each character his own film, then bringing them together, that's never been done before. I'd say this is the biggest shake up in comic films since Superman: TMP.

It is, and it isn't.

I had so many problems with this movie, and yet, people are calling it the greatest thing ever. It's no better than the Transformers. When the movie started, I instantly recalled "in the beginning, there was the cube...".

What was the point of giving each character their own movie if the lingering plot threads were just going to be left hanging? granted, they each have their own property and could be wrapped up in their own series, but it didn't feel tight enough, it didn't feel purposeful enough. There was plenty that could have been cut out to make room for more character development, and the characters really are interesting and the way they interact. My favorite scene was Stark and Banner in the lab. Not in a nerdgasm "ZOMG IT'S HULK AND IRON MAN IN THE HELICARRIER!!1!" way, but it touched upon something that's missing in a lot of superhero movies: in a fantastical world, what do these people dream about? It was a taste of how good this movie could have been.

Also, something that I feared going in, and was pretty much confirmed, was that if you create a threat big enough for the Avengers to really take on, then the smaller characters inevitably feel either sidelined or shoehorned. But if you make a more balanced enemy, then it's just too unbelievable that Iron Man, Thor, or the Hulk don't just clobber them instantly. And if you take those big guns out, the movie just becomes less exciting. This was also a huge problem in the Avengers comics.

[RocShemp]

At one point during the final battle they do call him Hawkeye but I forget who says it. Perhaps Black Widow but I'm not sure.

[Shannon Nutt]

Originally Posted by Superboy

I had so many problems with this movie, and yet, people are calling it the greatest thing ever. It's no better than the Transformers. When the movie started, I instantly recalled "in the beginning, there was the cube...".

It's not THAT bad...in fact, I was just thinking this morning that Michael Bay could learn a thing or two from Joss Whedon about how to direct huge, breathtaking battle sequences in a way that's NOT confusing to the viewer.

Back to my original post from yesterday - I was by no means trying to imply that this isn't a really good, really fun film. I was, however, shrugging at the thought (put out there by many critics/fans) that this is the best summer movie in years or the best superhero movie ever. It's not close on either count...but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it quite a bit.

[riotinmyskull]

saw this yesterday and walked out satisfied. it's on par with the first IRON MAN film in terms of quality. whedon did a fantastic job balancing all the characters and the action scenes were great. looking forward to grabbing this on blu-ray and also looking forward to a sequel.

[Mr. Cinema]

Originally Posted by RocShemp

At one point during the final battle they do call him Hawkeye but I forget who says it. Perhaps Black Widow but I'm not sure.

I think she did. When she was on the flying thing. She said something like "Hawkeye, I could use some help."

[Jacoby Ellsbury]

Movie was good, it did remind me a lot of Transformers 3, but I love dark of the moon so I though Dark of the moon was better. This probably disqualifies anything else I will say for some of you.

I think the idea of Loki as the villain was terrible, I mean who is this guy, unless you saw Thor or read comics you don't know him. I had no clue who the villain was going to be, going into the movie and was wondering what they could do to give the Avengers a challenge, but nobody knows this guy.

The idea of Dr. Doom is a little exciting for part 2. Apparently the other guy is Thanos? I thought it was Collossus. At least I know who Doom is.

The thing that went unanswered for me is how do they get Hulk to fall in line. He was going around smashing everything in sight, good or bad, but all of a sudden with a larger force of enemies at hand he cooperates with the Avengers?

The trailers for Batman and Spiderman looked good.

[Groucho]

I think it's safe to say that the vast majority of viewers saw Thor and know who Loki is.

[kgrogers1979]

Originally Posted by Jacoby Ellsbury

I think the idea of Loki as the villain was terrible, I mean who is this guy, unless you saw Thor or read comics you don't know him. I had no clue who the villain was going to be, going into the movie and was wondering what they could do to give the Avengers a challenge, but nobody knows this guy.

The idea of Dr. Doom is a little exciting for part 2. Apparently the other guy is Thanos? I thought it was Collossus. At least I know who Doom is.

Do you know nothing about Norse mythology? Odin, Thor, Loki, etc are all Norse Viking gods. Their comic book counterparts are similar in nature. (i.e. Loki is the Trickster god in Norse legend and also the Trickster god in Marvel comics.)

And did you never watch any trailer? Loki was in basically every trailer, so I don't know how you had no clue who the villain was going to be.

Dr. Doom isn't going to be in the sequel. What gave you that idea? Doom is a Fantastic Four villain and belongs in the FF property licensed to Fox, so he won't show up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Colossus is an X-Man and likewise controlled by Fox.

[macnorton]

I saw this Saturday. It is by no means the greatest film, but it was exactly what I thought it would be. Some stray observations:

- Loki as a villain worked for me. It was a perfect setup for the eventual sequel (more on that later)

-While I thought it might have been the plot to Iron Man 2, The Avengers confirmed Scarlett Johansson is horribly miscast as Black Widow. While she does get the sexy down (and then some ), everything else falls flat.

- Mark Ruffalo should have been the Hulk right from the get go. He plays the part perfectly. He gets Banner's demeanor down to, pardon the pun, science. Excellent portrayal.

- It was surprising the lack of strong female characters in a Joss Whedon film. Both females in the movie are dull and have almost no redeeming qualities.

- The film also touches on some post 9/11 paranoia, as subtle as that may be. It was a nice touch to bring the characters forward into the modern age.

- Shakespeare in the park, probably my favorite sequence in the film.

- While I love New York as a setting, Marvel needs to move the action somewhere else every once in a while.

- The post credit sequences are awesome! The first one, which I was totally marked for, sets the sequel up perfectly. That one had me clapping. The second one, was hysterical (full disclosure, I did have shawarma for lunch that afternoon).

- Last one, you can take the family to see this one. I would recommend anyone below the age of 8, to stay home. Otherwise, a fun film and great to see Marvel making movies like this one.

[CharlieK]

Originally Posted by kgrogers1979

Do you know nothing about Norse mythology?

[Draven]

Originally Posted by Superboy

I had so many problems with this movie, and yet, people are calling it the greatest thing ever. It's no better than the Transformers. When the movie started, I instantly recalled "in the beginning, there was the cube...".

Considering there are no robots peeing on humans, moms accidentally eating pot brownies, giant metal testicles and not one but two shots of dogs humping...I think you're wrong that it's no better than Transformers.

[Mr. Cinema]

Originally Posted by Draven

Considering there are no robots peeing on humans, moms accidentally eating pot brownies, giant metal testicles and not one but two shots of dogs humping...I think you're wrong that it's no better than Transformers.

Don't forget the annoying roommate from hell.

[yoshimi]

It was an entertaining movie. It might not be the greatest film of all time but it is still 100 times better than The Dark Knight.

[Solid Snake PAC]

Originally Posted by Mr. Cinema

Don't forget the annoying roommate from hell.

and horrible script. Added w/ spastic direction and a lot of iffy CGI here and there. Which is weird cuz these fuckers are essentially CGI porn, but they were in a rush cuz of what was going on but...still...a flaw is a flaw.

[iggystar]

Originally Posted by Draven

Considering there are no robots peeing on humans, moms accidentally eating pot brownies, giant metal testicles and not one but two shots of dogs humping...I think you're wrong that it's no better than Transformers.

Don't forget the Jar Jar Binks of the Autobot world.

[Jacoby Ellsbury]

Originally Posted by Groucho

I think it's safe to say that the vast majority of viewers saw Thor and know who Loki is.

I don't think that is safe to say at all.

"That raised the film's worldwide haul to $641.8 million in barely a week and a half, more than its Marvel superhero forerunners "Iron Man," "Iron Man 2," "Thor" and "Captain America" took in during their entire runs.'

Originally Posted by kgrogers1979

Do you know nothing about Norse mythology? Odin, Thor, Loki, etc are all Norse Viking gods. Their comic book counterparts are similar in nature. (i.e. Loki is the Trickster god in Norse legend and also the Trickster god in Marvel comics.)

And did you never watch any trailer? Loki was in basically every trailer, so I don't know how you had no clue who the villain was going to be.

Dr. Doom isn't going to be in the sequel. What gave you that idea? Doom is a Fantastic Four villain and belongs in the FF property licensed to Fox, so he won't show up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Colossus is an X-Man and likewise controlled by Fox.

Yes, I know nothing about Norse mythology.

I guess I saw Loki in the trailer, but didn't recognize him and wasn't expecting it to be only him as the main villain.

Dr. Doom appears after part of the credits roll along with who appears to be Thanos.