Luke727's Journal: Avengers

Every time I go to the theater and have a "meh" experience, I tell myself next time it won't be like that. I'm always wrong. The movie itself was good, but the patrons are a bother. Some guy behind me loudly clearing his throat every few minutes. Candy wrappers crackling almost the whole time. People laughing loudly. People talking. But the worst is the couple directly next to me with their two small kids; oldest must have been 6 or 7 and youngest was 3 or 4. Guy had to take his kids to the bathroom every 20 minutes or so; I am not exaggerating. Youngest kid also talked loudly a few times. Honestly, why do people bring little kids to the theaters? The 6 or 7 year old is borderline, but 3 or 4 year old is a joke. Anyway. The movie itself was pretty good. I find it hard to judge cleanly given all the ridiculous hype surrounding it. It has a run time of almost 2.5 hours but it certainly didn't feel that long; the pace of the movie is pretty even throughout. Good job all around. I will say the film was a bit action heavy for my taste, but that's the kind of movie it is. The action was quite good, and there was a good mix of well-timed comedy (mostly one liners). The only real complaint I have is that Black Widow and Hawkeye are ridiculously underpowered compared to the others; at times it felt like nobody really knew what to do with them. The big finale starts and they're sort of relegated to the sideline or put on mop up duty while the heavy hitters do all the real work. I absolutely loved the extended screen time Samuel L. Jackson got here compared to his previous roles in the Marvel films (which were really just cameos); it's never a bad move to give that bad-ass motherfucker more scenes. Iron Man is of course the alpha dog, though Thor and Hulk have their moments (and Captain America to a lesser extent). I wasn't really sure what to expect, but looking back on the previous movies it had a very similar feel. Personally I'm much more looking forward to Nolan's Batman finale; those movies have been far more dramatic and intelligent than the recent Marvel ones. Sadly I'll most likely forgo seeing it in the theater due to the spate of less than stellar experiences I've had the last couple of outings.