More Avenger-y stuff

Prior to seeing the Avengers, I saw the movie Thor.  I was kind of ambivalent about it (I didn't see it in the theater unlike Captain America, which I loved) so I had pretty low expectations for it.  Going in, I thought it had two things going for it: Anthony Hopkins and that Kenneth Braunagh was directing.  But I have to say, I really liked it.  There were another couple actors that I liked in it like Stellan Skarsgard, Kat Dennings, and Idris Elba.  The costume design was pretty solid, there were so many helmets (including at one point, a golden eye patch for Anthony Hopkins).  But the biggest surprise was how good Tom Hiddleston was as Loki.  I've seen him before in Return to Cranford, but he was kind of a milquetoast so I did not expect him to be able to pull off such a complicated character (and he is just as good in The Avengers movie).  And he is hampered by a super ridiculous helmet.

This does not bode well

I went to go see The Avengers today (in 3D due to that being the earliest showing that was not sold-out).  Usually, I think that the previews before a movie can give you some insight into what the expect from the movie.  My favorite (and tailored to me) example, is the single preview before being Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was for The Artist and the single preview before The Artist being for Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.  So I was a little apprehensive when the first 3 previews were for The Expendables 2, Battleship, and End of the Watch.  Also known as 3 movies that are not for me (and not even targeted for me).  I can't believe how terrible Battleship looks.  I think that there was a title card that read something also the line of " from the unholy Hasbro Toy and movie studio alliance that brought you Transformers" (and really Liam Nesson, what are you doing?  Do you have some sort of huge gambling debt you need to pay off?).  But the next 4 were much more reassuring since the trailers were for Abnorman (from the director of Coraline),  Frankenweenie (from Tim Burton), Brave (the summer Pixar movie), and the new Spiderman movie.  In the end, I really enjoyed The Avengers movie.  The writers did a really great jobs with giving little side stories to all the main characters without it feeling bogged down or overly long.  The movie is about 2 hours long, but it definately didn't feel that long something that I chalk up to a very tight script and a good editor (and a director willing to cut things that don't work).  It was a really fun film with just enough humor in it to show it wasn't taking itself too seriously (which is refreshing compared to Christopher Nolan super serious Batman movies) and it was obvious that Joss Whedon et al wanted to make an entertaining and stylish film.  With just the right amount of the Incredible Hulk.