The Avengers (2012)

[Ted C]

Urgh.  I didn't read Infinity Gauntlet, but was that any good?  if so will have to snag a copy.

Pretty standard "villain acquires all-powerful superweapon and must be stopped" sort of thing. Marvel's been doing it for years, starting with the Cosmic Cube.

[BoyScoutKevin]

What interests me about this film is not the artistic side, but the business side of the film. And while Paramount, along with Marvel, is the production company on this, I never hear it refered to as a Paramount picture, but as a Disney film, as in "This is the highest grossing film from the Walt Disney Company, surpassing the old record held by 'The Lion King,'" even though Disney is only the distributor, though, the worldwide distributor. Of course, Marvel is a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company, so Disney may be raking in the money with both hands. Both through the production side and the distribution side.

"How much dough to go?"

The last figure I saw was $1,200,000,000 at the box office. Not only surpassing "The Lion King," but also surpassing "The Dark Knight," which would make "The Avengers" the top grossing superhero film of all time, so far. It is also expected to surpass at the box office "Star Wars: Episode IV" and "Star Wars: Episode I." And people are not betting against it surpassing both "Avatar' and/or "The Titanic," which are the two top grossing films at the box office.

The Oscars

Another surprise for me is not only how well it is doing among audiences, but also how well it is doing among the critics. One of the few recent films to appeal to both groups.
So, we will have to see what "Oscar worthy" films come out at the end of the year, but I can see, with all the films that can be nominated for Best Picture, there is an outside chance that "The Avengers" will be nominated for Best Picture. And while the cast is too much of  an ensemble for any actor to be nominated for an Oscar, there is the possibility that Joss Whedon will be nominated for Best Director as alot of people hold the success of the film to the director. And, of course, there are all the technical Oscars.

I have alot of free time on Memorial Day, so I may go see it then.

[indianasmith]

I saw this over the weekend and loved it!!

[HappyGilmore]

A lot of critics are praising Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk.

Unfortunately, as an ensemble, you can't focus on one guy. But if he gets his own Hulk film he could get a nomination.

[HappyGilmore]

So, Men in Black 3 knocked The Avengers down to number 2 after close to a month at 1.

I can see Avengers staying in the top 5 for a bit, but with school letting out soon and a ton of movies coming, how much longer will it bring in cash?

By all accounts, it's surpassed The Dark Knight as the highest grossing 'comic book film' and is likely to be in the top 3 highest grossing films, ever.

Dark Knight Rises has a LOT to live up to. The Dark Knight was amazing, had so much press, awards, and Avengers comes in, makes more in seemingly less time.

DC/Warner Bros. may be disappointed if comparing receipts.

[ulthar]

Saw it today and have two words:

Holy Crap.

Let's add three more:

Joss Whedon Rules!

That dude knows how to make a movie.  It is my fervent hope that he continues with successes like these and makes enough money to buy Fox, renaming it to The Firefly Network.

What an awesome movie.   It fulfilled exactly what I want a movie like this to be:  FUN!

Even with all I've heard about it, with expectations high, it delivered.  How often does THAT happen?

[HappyGilmore]

Rarely do they deliver, sir.

I had high expectations as a longtime fan of both Avengers and Whedon. But, a part of me felt that, possibly, it'd fail to deliver.

I'm so glad it did.

Only thing is...the sequel.

[SynapticBoomstick]

5 Best Points about Avengers:

1. Thor making several sudden stage exits.
2. Any scene wherein Stark acts like a d!ck.
3. Thor and Hulk going Deathwing on the back of the space whale. (Warcraft ref)
4. "I watched you while you slept."
5. "Puny god."

[Kaseykockroach]

I had to be out of the house for a few hours yesterday, and I found myself at our classiest local multiplex, watching The Battle of the Visual Effects Houses—I'm sorry, I mean The Avengers—in the company of exactly two other moviegoers. After watching this very expensive, very loud, very long, and ultimately very boring spectacle, I wondered how best to express my opinion of it.
I was made most aware of just how noisy and empty The Avengers is at precisely those moments when it tries to be a little more than noisy and empty. As when Iron Man and Captain America are chewing on each other, and especially when the No. 2 man to Nick Fury is murdered by the villain, Loki. I could tell that we in the audience were supposed to feel something when this man—what was his name? Colson? Carlson? Carbuncle?—was skewered, but I felt only mild disappointment that he had not turned out to be a mole in the service of the bad guys. It's hard to feel anything when what you're watching is so obviously a precision-tooled industrial product that can be called a "movie" only because a comparably compact and far more accurate descriptive noun is considered rude in polite company.

[Zapranoth]

Since I don't know you at all Kasey, I'll give you FOUR times to be completely wrong per calendar year.  (I gave the Rev only 3 because that's all he deserves, and you get the benefit of a doubt.)   

[Rev. Powell]

Since I don't know you at all Kasey, I'll give you FOUR times to be completely wrong per calendar year.  (I gave the Rev only 3 because that's all he deserves, and you get the benefit of a doubt.)   

Heck, I probably only really deserve two chances. Thanks for the extra pass!

[ChaosTheory]

The Good -
Tony Stark  being cocky and hot and awesome
The Thor/Hulk throwdown
Mark Ruffalo was great as Banner
Banner and Black Widow were both written considerably better than in their last appearances

The Bad -
Hawkeye continues to be lame
Thor and Loki felt really underwritten compared to the THOR movie
Thanks for killing my second favorite character in the series, Whedon. Jagoff.
Konk on the head, really??
While Selvig was brainwashed he magically installed a magic self-destruct button on the Tesseract that the Goddammed Trickster God magically doesn't know about.   Yeah.......

So, basically I liked everything but the plot.
8/10

[ulthar]

I had to be out of the house for a few hours yesterday, and I found myself at our classiest local multiplex, watching The Battle of the Visual Effects Houses—I'm sorry, I mean The Avengers—in the company of exactly two other moviegoers. After watching this very expensive, very loud, very long, and ultimately very boring spectacle, I wondered how best to express my opinion of it.
I was made most aware of just how noisy and empty The Avengers is at precisely those moments when it tries to be a little more than noisy and empty. As when Iron Man and Captain America are chewing on each other, and especially when the No. 2 man to Nick Fury is murdered by the villain, Loki. I could tell that we in the audience were supposed to feel something when this man—what was his name? Colson? Carlson? Carbuncle?—was skewered, but I felt only mild disappointment that he had not turned out to be a mole in the service of the bad guys. It's hard to feel anything when what you're watching is so obviously a precision-tooled industrial product that can be called a "movie" only because a comparably compact and far more accurate descriptive noun is considered rude in polite company.

The movie was fun.  I liked it, my wife liked it and my two children liked it. We laughed, we cheered, we got lost in the moment for a couple of hours.

You didn't like it?  Fine.  Cool.  No problem.

Technical issues or otherwise above-it-all criticism of a popcorn flick?  Who cares about that crap.  It's a movie based on a comic book.  It's supposed to be over-the-top.

This movie succeeds at being what it's supposed to be.  If only more movies were so humble...

[Zapranoth]

A good friend pointed out that the second-favorite character who is thought to be dead may not be dead.

It would be possible that he isn't dead, given the way Fury lies and given the way comic books storylines twist.

[Hammock Rider]

I thought it was a blast. It was just what I wanted. They were true to the characters and it was fun. What more could you ask?

My nephew can't decide whether to be Cap or Shellhead for Halloween. Two of my nieces want to be Black Widow( She kicks those bad guys butts!) and the little baby girl wants to be the Hulk. As an uncle I'd say it was a good day's work.