The Avengers!

My wife just surprised me with a trip out to the movies to see THE AVENGERS.

I had nearly given up on seeing this one at the theater. We are a little broke these days – in fact, so broke that we can’t even pay attention – so she really made my month by taking me to see it.

What a wild ride. What a great flick.

Let me be up front about this. I really don’t care for Robert Downey jr. – but he is BORN to be Tony Stark. The guy really brings it to this role and I’ll give him a big thumbs up as being the best actor – hands down – in the movie.

I dig Captain America too. He has just the right mixture of apple pie and Oh-Say-Can-You-See with the courage and leadership and all-around chutzpah of a leader and a hero.

Thor was pretty good – and the new dude playing the Hulk did a great job as well. I enjoyed Hawkeye – although I really have got to wonder how many arrows the dude can fit into a quiver. And I wish they could have given him a costume that would have been more reminiscent of the comic book character.

Am I being too picky?

Or am I just letting my geek flag fly?

Loki was a great villain and Nick Fury kicked butt too. When he walked out with an RPG on his shoulder I wanted to jump up and down and cheer.

My only beef was Natasha – the Black Widow. Scarlet Johansen definitely looked the part but her perfomance is fairly flat. As soon as she opens up her mouth I go to sleep. And why the hell was she walking into a ap0calyptic firefight with an alien invasion fleet with a pair of Tokarev pistols? Why the hell couldn’t she have picked up a raygun or something with a little more oomph. I really did enjoy her action scenes – and they wrote her part well – but there were parts of the movie where it almost felt as if they weren’t letting her live up to her proper role.

I know. I know. Some of you folks will say I”m being a sexist – but actually I WANTED to see her kick some major alien ass. Blow shit up. Create some carnage. Whoop ET’s butt.

Still – that scene in which she hijacked the alien sky-scooter was pretty kickass just the same.

All in all if you are one of the remote few who haven’t seen this movie yet – you really ought to see it on the big screen.

 

 

PS: If you’d like to read my take on the superhero mythos – just give that picture a little bitty click, would you?

 

yours in storytelling,

Steve Vernon