Great movie. Honestly, I can't believe it was this good. Even with the crop of good Marvel movies from Marvel Studios, I'd grown cynical. I love Joss, don't get me wrong. But as much as thought he'd be perfect for The Avengers, a part of me thought it was just to good to be true. A lot of the best superhero movies had come from directors who you wouldn't think would ever do it. Apt Pupil doesn't exactly scream "this guy would love to do X-Men!"
But he did it. And, in doing so, saved a few other things for me:
First, The Hulk. I like Norton's Hulk, so I wasn't sure how I was going to like Mark Ruffalo. Also, Hulk wasn't in the trailers a lot. (I'm assuming because he was still being added to to movie in post.) But man, Ruffalo and Joss nailed Hulk. And Banner works really well as a cold cynic. Really well.
Favorite Hulk scene: when Hulk runs out of bad guys to punch, he causally hits Thor. There was actually a beat there where I thought "he's run of bad guys, I wonder what he's going to do."
Second, Sam Jackson. For the past few years, his movie choices have sucked. Seriously, Jumper? I can only assume he read a better script. I actually think this is probably one of his best movies ever.
There was only one problem for me, Captain America, and it's not a big one. First, his helmet/mask sucked. I just didn't work for me. Given how awesome his costume was in his movie, it was a big let down.
Also, I don't think Joss knows how to write the kind of hero Cap his. So he seemed written stiff and stilted. Unnatural. Given, however, Cap's situation, I think it worked out.
A lot of fans have been complaining about the lack of a russian accent when Black Widow speaks english, but it was stated in the comics that she can speak english without any accent at all if she wants to.
Well, in the interest of fanwanking, I don't think she'd be a good spy for the U.S. (or, at least what clearly seems to be U.S. controlled agency) if she couldn't speak english with an american accent.
Y'know, the sad thing is I used to love Hulk as a kid, but I've been disheartened by years of superhero RPG'ing. Nobody ever wants to play Batman or Captain America or Spider-Man. Everybody wants to be Hulk or Tick or some other lunk.
You know, I'd love to see a superhero RPG based on these movies rather than the comics.
