The kids and I went to see The Avengers last night. This was the official beginning of the summer movie season for us. The movie itself was a perfect start. It was big. It was loud. It was fun and it had a happy ending. If you want a detailed review, a lot of Leaguers have some good ones up. I also love everything that Rob Bricken writes over at Topless Robot.
This summer movie season is a crazy one for me. I made my summer movie wish list the other day and it contains 19 movies. That’s a record. Some of them are most definitely going to be stinkers (Battleship). Some will surely be instant classics (The Avengers) and some have potential to be cult hits (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter). I don’t discriminate during the summer. I see them all.
We are big movie-goers in our house. We love the whole experience. The popcorn, the over-priced sodas, the hope for a good seat, the optimism of great trailers before the main attraction. There are also all kinds of emotions tied up in summer movies. I remember seeing The Goonies at the old Raceland Theater by my house, which is now a car dealership. We left the theater that night on a natural high and then topped it off with ice cream and a ride home with our legs sticking to my mother’s vinyl seats on a warm June night. I also remember that summer signaled the opening of the drive-in. Early memories of fried chicken picnics in the back of my dad’s truck and then pretending to sleep while my parents watched some slasher flick for the double-feature. Those recollections give way to drive-in dates that were less about the movies and more about biology lessons. Still, it was summer.
Summer movies are indeed about happy endings. If you want to leave a movie depressed, or completely confused as to what you just saw, or simply fearing for the future of mankind, then wait for winter. A coworker and I joked this morning that nothing says ‘winter movie season’ like a rape scene. Much like summer reading, summer movies shouldn’t make you think too much. They should be fun and light and allow you to decompress from the school year and winter blahs. A good summer action movie should also make you feel just a little patriotic (in preparation for July 4th) and/or make you laugh until it hurts at least once.
So this summer I will be at the movies…a LOT. And I’m looking forward to every minute of it. As for what I thought about The Avengers? My spoiler-free opinion is that it was genius. The build-up through Iron Man 1 & 2, Thor, The Incredible Hulk and Captain America was perfect. It deserves this blockbuster opening. It won’t win any Academy Awards but it will define the summer of 2012 for many children. And that’s success in my book.
Making jokes about rape is Not Okay.
The rest of this post is great.Report
I almost left that out for the bleeding heart crowd. Then I decided we were all grownups.Report
That’s an interesting characterization of people who don’t think rape is funny, but I’m not terribly interested in hijacking your post. I will post something about its content below in an attempt to kill this thread.Report
You are only hijacking the thread if you fail to see the point of the joke, which I think you have.
The joke wasn’t about rape. The joke was about overly-serious winter movies that seem more intent on horrifying their audience than providing a fun experience. Rape is just one of several unpleasant plot devices they rely on. There’s also cancer, suicide, drug use, failed marriages etc.Report
“Making jokes about rape is Not Okay.”
Disconnecting your brain and rolling on pure bellyfeel because someone said a Trigger Word is Not Okay.Report
I saw The Avengers last night, and I loved it. Like you say, the lead-in from the other movies has been done masterfully. The only exception, I’d say, is the Hulk, who has never really gotten a very good movie treatment. This film rectified that by making him hands-down the best character. That was really well-played.
I am absolutely ecstatic at the prospect of getting to see The Avengers, Prometheus, and The Dark Knight Rises all in the same summer.Report
Of the lead-in movies made, I’ve only see the two Iron Man flicks. Will that detract from enjoying/understanding Avengers?Report
Unlikely in the extreme. I haven’t seen Thor, and it didn’t matter.Report
Kazzy the primary utility came in that the lead in movies essentially provide all the back story and humanizing for the heroes. This means that Avengers doesn’t have to spend much time on it. Some of the characters essentially just *thunk* drop in and there’s no real description of who they are and only a brief comment on why they’re there. Also it means that the Avengers movie felt unobligated to try and wedge in any romance scenes or much in the way of eye kandy (except the unavoidable male-nerd candy shots of Black Widow, poor dear).Report
Speaking of eye-candy, I NEVER thought Gwenyth Paltrow was hot until she played Pepper Potts. Now? Holy moley!Report
I wildly adore Pepper as she’s been portrayed in these Marvel movies. She’s certainly pretty, I’m sure if I swung that way I’d agree with you entirely. Also she plays off Downey’s Stark very well.Report
A: Yes
B: But not in any way that a quick trip to Wikipedia won’t cure
C: And, having marathonned those movies, I’d say that with the exception of the first “Iron Man” movie, reading about them on Wikipedia is better than actually watching them.Report
I agree–Ruffalo absolutely murdered it as Bruce Banner. The scenes with him and Tony Stark were some of my favorites in the movie.Report
Agreed on everything Mike. Avengers was epic and the build up was very cleverly done. Marvel deserves the dumptruck of money they’re getting.Report
Great post per usual, MD.Report
I think that what made the movie work so well is that everyone seemed to be interested in playing their roles. Nobody was just phoning it in or bored or laughing behind their back at the whole thing. RDJ wanted to be Tony Stark, Mark Ruffalo wanted to be Bruce Banner, and so on.Report
“This summer movie season is a crazy one for me. I made my summer movie wish list the other day and it contains 19 movies.”
(cough) writeaguestpostformindlessdiversions (/cough)Report
Shoot me an email Patrick and we’ll figure something out.Report