The Avengers (2012)

My son and I went with some friends to see The Avengers last weekend.  I thought it had potential and had heard good things about it, but I still didn't have high hopes that they would develop the characters and it would just be explosions.

Some have pointed out that they had the previous movies to develop the characters, so there wasn't a big need for that.  Any time a character shows up in a movie, I feel like they should have some development.  Even more so when they were only just introduced in one movie.

There was a lot of unbelievability in what the presented, but they road the edge to where when I was beginning to say, "Not possible" they drew me back in and I ended up with, "That was awesome!"


It was great that the kept Captain America as a man from the 40s, a man of ethics and faith.  Not only did it make for a fantastic character, but also the juxtaposition with Tony Stark's playboy persona.


We got the idea that Tony Stark was a self absorbed womanizer without there having to be a bunch of bedroom scenes.  Yeah, there was a lot of stuff with Stark that was too edgy for me, but for the most part they communicated the character without having to get crude.


I did not have high hopes for the characters of Black Widow and Hawkeye, since there were just "ordinary" people.


The opening scene with Black Widow was awesome.  The surprise of it and comedy of it.  The build up as the viewer is trying to figure out what in the world is going on as much as the bad guy is.  Some of my surprise may have been because I forgot that she had been introduced as an intense weapon in Iron Man 2.  But even if I had remembered that Iron Man 2 did not play up that she was a manipulator as well as a superb fighter.


I was not thrilled with Hawkeye, but I think the positive things I can say about him was that I was not more disappointed with the character than I was when I went into it.  I even slightly enjoy some of the scenes with him in it.  I didn't like the mind control to the bad side through half the movie.  I didn't really like that for any of the people, even the one that weren't supposed to be "super".


My biggest complaints about Hulk in The Hulk movies was that he was just too big.  They either made him more realistically sized in this one or they just presented him well enough that I didn't have a chance to focus on it.  He still has to be one of the characters that violates the laws of physics the most, but again, it was presented well enough to mostly get me over it.


I'm just not buying that a being with that much mass of muscle is going to have much of a vertical leap.  I not buying that he is jumping through the air and a plane flying into him does change his trajectory.


I still think Loki is a weenie villain, but he was more tolerable in The Avengers than he was in Thor.


On the subject of Loki and Thor, I don't get the Demigod thing.  I had a friend say that the way they rendered their home world, Asgard, in a way that it looked like it was pulled right off the page of the comic book.  While I respect staying true to the source material, I hated the scenes on Asgard.




I would now like to compare The Avenger to the Transformers movies.

The Avengers was a great movie and they kept it clean for the most part.  The Transformers was full of foul language and vulgarity...and the movie stunk.

Both had huge explosions.

The Avengers developed the characters pretty well, even after having them all have movies of their own to develop them.  Transformers did next to no character development.

Transformers likely had a larger fan base than The Avengers because there had been cartoons on TV and such.  The Avengers characters were probably somewhat know due to their exposure on TV and lunch boxes, but as a team not well known and yet people are loving the movie.

Teen Wolf (2011)

I found the other day that the second season of Teen Wolf had started. While I still like the basic story, I think it is falling apart.

Most every woman and girl, even an older lady, is always in a mini skirt. It is a shallow script that relies on eye candy. On the same subject, the teenage sexual intimacy is a distraction to the plot.

I don't remember how the last season of Teen Wolf was, but so far this season the homosexual innuendos are frequent, unnecessary, and awkward.

The lizards are lame. I was following the werewolves and it was working when it stayed on plot.

Derek's character keeps flip flopping. It was great when he was trying to find out who killed his family and get answers about himself. Seeking for power as an alpha ruined it.

I am hoping Teen Wolf gets better, but some of these turns I fear are irreversible.