Thoughts on The Avengers

Yeah, I know I'm late to the party. I don't know why it took me this long to see it, I was even planning on going to the midnight showing and then I got sick and all that jazz. But even though I'm late, it still looks to me like Superhero is the new black, and its always useful to analyze the current trends. Besides, I like black. And superheroes.

I will say up front that even though I like superheroes, they're not what you would call "my thing." I really, really enjoy superhero movies, but I'm much more likely to pick say Midnight in Paris over Spiderman or The Kings Speech over The Dark Knight. I guess its because its so easy to keep superheroes on this stereotypical, superficial level, and that bugs. However, Joss Whedon did a fantastic job of filling out character in The Avengers, so what I want to talk about is my three favorite Avengers and why they're so flippin awesome.

Iron Man: Who doesn't love Iron Man? (Who doesn't love Robert Downey Jr.). He's totally got the exciting bad boy exterior sensitive sweetheart interior thing going on. He's so absolutely smart and witty and hilarious. Albeit also absolutely cocky, which usually drives me nuts more than anything else, but he's cocky in the 'for humor' way as opposed to the 'you're all scum' way. I also have a tendency to favor superheroes who are super because of their own devices (i.e. Batman and Iron Man) over superheroes who are super because of some kind of supernatural something (i.e. Superman and Spiderman). Favorite line: "Shakespeare in the park? Doth mother know you weareth her drapes?" Did I mention Robert Downey Jr.?

Hulk: People kept saying Mark Ruffalo did a fantabulous job, and even with that my expectations were exceeded. I'm always a sucker for a middle-aged lonely damaged man, so of course I loved Hulk. You see his insecurities and sympathize deeply because of it, but then we also see him overcome those insecurities and kind of embrace his "other guy". Favorite line: "Yeah, last time I was in New York I kind of broke...Harlem."

Captain America: I think its Agent Coulson ("His first name is Agent.") who says that the people could use a little old fashioned, and that kind of sums up the big reason I love Captain America. It is so, so incredibly refreshing to me to see that kind of down-to-earth, home values kind of thing represented in a super hero. How I see it, that's sort of the closest to real-life superhero that they get. I love that in the face of a Norse god he'll say something like, "There's only one God, ma'am, and I don't think he dresses like that." That line almost made me squeal with love for CA and also Joss Whedon for writing it. I also loved "Last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing." That whole Germany "There are always men like you" scene took my breath away with its awesomeness.

I do have two minor complaints. One general, one specific. I would have liked to see more women, including more women present for more than just their sex appeal, but Black Widow was still pretty kick butt and too few women is a thing with pretty much any super hero movie.

In this one particularly, though, I really wish they had done more with Loki. In the Thor movie he was so much more complex and developed, whereas in this one he felt a little one-dimensional. I like my villains a little less villain-y. But Tom Hiddleston is still fantastic and incredibly, incredibly beautiful.

So, thems my thoughts. Have you seen Avengers yet? I'm sure you're way ahead of me. What did you think?

Sarah Allen