Recently Viewed Movies Episode 2: The Vampire Bites Back

[Lard]

I saw Avengers today. It was okay.

I didn't like it as much as everyone else.

Hawkeye was lame - I like the character in the comics, but hated what they did with him here.  Black Widow was lame. The alien villains were lame. Give me some Skrulls or Kree god dammit!

And I don't like Mark Ruffalo as an actor. He really irritates me. Plus it *really* bugged me when

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Banner was instantly able to change into the Hulk with no angst, anger or effort in the big battle. Completely out of character.

I just don't like Whedon's writing. I always feel like he goes for character moments over plot and this was no different.

Not one I'd go back and see again.

Also, Dice - the second Hulk movie was fantastic :P

[Dice]

I'm bias for Ed Norton and Hulk "2" did nothing for me. =/
Had some of the worst editing I've ever seen too...

I saw Avengers too, and I'm with Lard.   SPOILERS A-HOY (but given the $700 mil it closed in, I don't know who here hasn't seen it).

I liked Ruffalo's Hulk, but I thought that line, "I'm always mad!!" was so hokey-Hollywood that it hurt.  I think the actual Ruffalo, on the other hand, had like...ten minutes of screen time?  Which reminds me, I think only about 15% of that movie was actually real...  Holy shit, did anyone watch the credits and see the literal PAGES of CG credits?!?!

Anyways.  The story was absolutely atrocious, but I'll cut it slack for being a balls-to-the-wall action flick, so it pretty much served its purpose (and did it well where it mattered since the action was top-notch).  But why they chose to bring back Loki, a villain who was crap in the first place, only to be brought down in two seconds by Hulk like some pansy ass is beyond me.  I realize the Avengers could take over the world, so they wanted to move to "space threats", but I think they could have done way better.  Also, the early sub-plot for Loki to get the team all "mad" at each other was minor and horribly contrived.  The alien enemy was really stupid and felt out of thin air, the "big bad" was horribly explained but they're obviously angling to an "Avengers 2" (which I'm sure was greenlit after its weekend box office).  But I was surprised and kinda excited to see Thanos in the final moments.  I thought Hulk and Thor had some of the best action scenes all in all, but Cap't America felt kinda short-changed amongst the lot.

I'm surprised people are touting this as much as they are.  It IS great, but lacked the class I think that Nolan's Batman has brought to comic-flix (...on the other hand, it's good that Avengers takes itself less seriously than Batman).

[Agent D.]

In all fairness, I would say this movie was meant to test the waters. The Avengers was never as big aa some of the other marvel productions in mainstream society, so to throw out the big villians early would be a bit risky. I mean, what if this was a stinker, and they tossed in thanos, galactus, and the kree? Wasted potential, and angry fans. I personally liked the use of Loki and the chitauri, but to be honest, I've yet to see thor, so maybe I didn't get my fill from that. The way they poke at thanos at the end was definitely coolsauce.

How come you didn't like the awesome one liner from the hulk, Lard? I thought it was the best line in the movie. More importantly, how come you don't like Ruffalo? He's so Bruce Banner, moreso than the last 2 actors by far (though Ed Norton does get kudos for being tolerable). And Hawkeye was so much more serious in this, unlike his comic character who is a bit too smart ass-y for me. I like the more serious hawkeye, but then again, I like Jeremy Renner so yeah....

[Yoda]

The generic aliens were a take it or leave it thing. They needed something to get blowed up after all. However, Loki was pretty damn awesome.

And like I said, he totally looks like some WAXTRAX industrial rocker

[Ashtrot]

I thought the Chitauri WERE the Skrulls?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitauri

[Agent D.]

I thought the Chitauri WERE the Skrulls?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitauri

Wow....now I feel silly. Course, the movie chitauri look nothing like the skrulls... and most of the stuff I've seen has always had the skrulls labeled as skrulls. Confusion I guess, but meh, what are you gonna do.

[Ashtrot]

It's based off the Ultimate universe which is far superior, so I'm not complaining.

[Yoda]

Saw Dark Shadows. I enjoyed it for the most part, but the ending and some of the story developments are lame.

First off, the trailer makes this movie look like a sort of wacky romp. There is some humor but for the most part it's pretty damn dry, almost BBC-ish. They actually emulate the style of a vampire soap opera for a good part of the movie and that's when the movie is at it's best. Depp is Depp and he's good here. The trouble is they focus a bit too much on "the family business." The ending is actiony and just odd.

Decent enough, but I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone that's not easily entertained or expecting high art.

There was a trailer for Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter and that looks fucking amazing haha

[Dice]

Eugh, that makes me sad... I had this inkling that Burton has been losing his touch the last little while, and I was one the fence about this one.  You seem to be confirming them fears. =/

[Yoda]

It's a "rent it" for sure. There's enough good in the flick to make it enjoyable but the gripes are:
-They try and pack too much in and all the great characters get lost in the shuffle
-Lame ending
-I guess that's enough. I liked the rest.

There's a sweet cameo by Alice Cooper.

[(Tunnels)]

Saw The Hunger Games. I liked it quite a bit. The use of Caesar as an explanatory tool was a really good idea, and I didn't mind the shaky camera thing. I even liked Peeta much better in the movie than the book, perhaps it was the actor's sympathetic face.

[SonicDeathMonkey]

Can anyone rec me some movies that are on Netflix? I'm so tired of sifting through it.
I did watch Dead Man the other night on it, which I would very highly recommend to anyone who hasn't seen it. (Jim Jarmusch/Johnny Depp)

[GrimReality]

Moneyball -
I really like this movie. I haven't followed baseball since I was a kid, but I still found the subject matter interesting. It really opens the door on what goes on behind the scenes. It's hard to believe so much effort can be put into something so trivial(IMHO). I understand were dealing with peoples livelihoods and
passions here, but I think it's ridiculous  that it ever reached this point. It's sad that 38 miliion dollars isn't enough money for a team to be any good. When did the game(and pretty much all other professional sports) become more about the money than about doing something that you love, and sharing it with the fans? Why does any player need to make more than, say, $500,000? Or even a million? Anyway, enough with my opinions on sports.
Brad Pitt was good, but no more than usual. Jonah Hill was...Jonah Hill. He was fine, but I don't understand why he got an Oscar nomination for this.
The string of wins was hard to believe, and very Hollywoodesque, but if that's the way it went down, then I can't argue it.
Overall, a very good movie that I'm kind of surprised I liked.

The Avengers -
Well, this was a hell of a lot of fun. I felt giddy watching this team work together to kick some ass. The movie was very well made, with everyone playing their parts well. The battles were fun to watch, and accompanied by some pretty incredible special effects. The final battle in New York was amazing, and even easy enough to follow(unlike shitty Bay movies). I especially like The Hulk. He kicked supreme ass in this.movie. I even like how they used the non "super" characters like Hawkeye and Black Widow; playing up to their strengths. The humor, for the most part, was well written and timed. The banter between between the heroes in particular. The only time I felt it was out of place was during a scene that should have been serious. Tony Stark tends to always have something funny to say, even when it seems terribly inappropriate.
Loki is a cool villain, but it's obvious right from the start that he's just another pawn. Plus, his cannon fodder minions didn't have much to do but get beat up by the Avengers. Hopefully, the inevitable sequel has more interesting enemies.
I was surprised how many people got up and left the theater as soon as it was over. Doesn't everyone know that these movies always have extra scenes? Technically, this one had two of them, but you have to stay all the way until the end of the credits. Torture, I know, for modern viewers.
From the grosses already posted, I know tons have seen this. But if you're at all on the fence, I implore you to go and have a good time. Not just comic book geeks, or action movie geeks. Any true movie lover will enjoy this. It's really that great.
p.s. I asked my son which Avenger he liked best, and I was surprised when he told me Hawkeye. He loves the bow and arrow, apparently.

[MeshGearFox]

Parents drug me out to see Avengers. I really liked the giant whale things. I think there should be an entire movie about giant robotic whales that can fly and it would explore their entire society. It'd be like Ecco the Dolphin 2 but with a whole lot of more drugs involved.

I sympathize with giant flying sky whales because I too am gay and Jewish.

Oh actual thoughts on the movie: Slow-as-hell start. Liked it a lot once it got going. Really like how it sort of turned into a soap opera about a bunch of complete nutjobs.

One thing really is getting on my nerves though: There's a billboard with Cyrillic text on it that didn't seem to actually say anything. It was only on screen for a second so maybe I misread it but it looked like it was just spelling out Zhdshcn... which... looks more Caucasian than Slavic, except the Russian dudes were speaking in Russia, so it was definitely Russia.

http://gingerfoxy.blogspot.com/2012/05/avengers-bite-size-spoiler-free-reviews.html

Oh hey this thing. Also agreeing with the whole one dude sounding Ukrainian bit. Man I haven't been this pissed off since the throbbing clusterfuck that was Zamoksva in Dragon Quest IV DS. Imma go grow a mustache and curb stomp a goose.

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Have sneaking suspicion that Phil isn't actually dead. Two reasons: 1. Never saw the body. 2. Nobody actually stays dead in comic book movies.

[Tooker]

Mesh, did you see this response to the item you spoiled?

http://i.imgur.com/mwaSz.jpg