Merrick here...
Buzz Lightbeer is a frequent contributor to AICN. I know him personally, trust his tastes implicitly, and have found him to be unerringly honest in his assesments of TV and film - even when it's not necessarily in his own best interest to be so. Accordingly, when Buzz says AVENGERS is really, really good? It's a fair bet that...it's really good. A sentiment borne out by the tsunami of micro-reviews which flooded Twitter after this week's World Premiere of the picture.
Buzz was there too, and had these thoughts to share with y'all. His write-up is NOT spoilerish, but Buzz did offer a few more details about the movie to me outside of this article. It's apparently roughly 2:20 in length, but moves fiercely and purposefully. I asked about whether the film had a "TV look" - a charge some had leveled at the trailer and promo footage we've seen so far. His answer as a quick and emphatic "No."
Without further delay, here's Buzz Lightbeer!
I went to the World Premiere of the Avengers last night in Los Angeles, it was pretty amazing, wanted to share with you my thoughts, don't worry, I won't throw in anything too spoilerish.
Well the event itself was great just seeing the stars of the movie mere inches away from me talking to the news and posing for pictures was cool. And Scarlett, wooooo, Scarlett, she was on-fire, I caught a glimpse of her smile as I was going in and my heart melted. I was surprised how tall and thin Hemsworth was for being THOR, I guess all that Armor makes up for it on screen. RDJ pulled up in a convertible, such a real life badass Tony Stark move with a pretty lady in tote, he's pretty short in person, incredible how in the movies they all look size propotionate, thank goodness for Apple Boxes right?
The El Capitan theater where the movie was premiering was totally packed, but what was great was there were celebs from all walks of entertainment scattered around. There was a great energy as everyone anticipated the lights to dim, when they did the crowd erupted in cheers...the moment had finally come, the AVENGERS movie was here.
I won't reveal plot points, I dont want any of this movie to be revealed any more than the trailers and tv commericials have already. I will say this, HIGH ENERGY, non-stop action, amazing camera moves, jaw dropping effects, great snarky banter by Tony Stark, Nick Fury proving his one good eye is all he needs, Black Widow showing her unique skillset off, Bruce Banner controlling his rage until he needs it to kick ass, Loki proved to be an amazing mental manipulator...like an interstellar Hannibal Lecter, Captain America was adjusting to his new time era well and THOR seemed at home on Earth and truly the master of his hammer!
We saw this in 3-D, we didn't need to, it didn't add anything to the movie except in some scenes of explosions, laser blasts, and arrows and guns pointed in the camera's direction. Half the time I kept peeking out from behind them and the movie looked the same as with them on. Look, I didn't need 3-D when I read those comics in my room growing up to make the pages come alive, you certainly don't need it in this movie.
The aliens at the end were menacing and there was a point where you just think, ok, how can they possibly win this scenario? But in the end teamwork bands them together and their combined strength and smarts turn the tables on the bad guys and even Loki, who has an amazing confrontation with HULK which will leave people talking about for weeks to come. The explosions and effects were better and grander than I've seen in any Transformers movie, yet the movie did not distract because of them and the acting, message and direction of the film flowed steady and solid the whole way thru. For someoene who has read Avengers comics since I was a kid, this did not dissapoint in the slightest.
There was a slight hint of the next films villain at the end, but unless you're a real Marvel fan, you would have no idea who or what it is. And the leader of these odd invading aliens who tunnel thru a wormhole in space to invade New York (not the SKRULLS as I thought they were going to be) were menacing, but the CGI was weird on them and I had a hard time really believing their existence parralleled to everything else. And the leader of these aliens is a mix between Dr.Doom and Emporer Palpatine, I have no idea who this was, but I don't think after the ass whooping they got, that they'll be back to Earth anytime soon. I wasn't won over by Hawkeye to be honest, he seemed way too cocky and sure of himself and just so non-chalant when firing his arrows even when not aiming and hitting a perfect moving target, I mean for a guy w/ no super powers or strength, he just throws himself off a building and continues to fire arrows at flying aliens? Really?
Music by Alan Sivestri was great and moved the movie along. We lose a favorite character who fans may be saddened about when it happens, oh and the details on the HULK are pretty good, the hair the muscle movements, a lot better than the Ang Lee version and slightly more realistic than the Ed Norton version. We don't even see HULK in action till the last 2/3 of the film, which was great because we really got to see how much a super genius Bruce Banner is, besides when HULK is on screen, thats all you need to focus on and the rest of the movie had plenty to keep you entertained until his reveal.
All in All, a pretty damn fine experience, lot of fun and I walked out of the theater all hyped up. I'm certainly going back to see this two or three more times with my friends, I bet this movie will make a billion bucks I'm sure, it's so worth it, you can tell Josh Whedon's heart, passion and geekiness went into this in every way and fans will show their appreciation by seeing it multiple times, its that good.
Buzz Lightbeer
