I watched The Avengers, midnight release. I didn’t buy into the hype initially, because doing that always leaves me mildly disappointed - much like the horrible Underworld fiasco when they were still marketing it as Vampire: The Masquerade: The Movie, and I was hideously infuriated when the vampires were bullshit Matrix wannabes and the werewolves looked like Uruk-hai from Lord of the Rings.

It was good. I’d venture to say it was great. The delivery was a little too quick for my liking and you didn’t really get the best feeling for the development between the characters. There wasn’t enough dissent before they started getting all together and getting their shit straight, but to be fair that could have added another hour onto the film.

The jokes were great. It was -just- the way I like a good Marvel comic. Plenty of serious with plenty of humor. I was absolutely delighted, honestly. The Hulk got a proper amount of screen time and if you watch enough of the animated movies or read enough of the comics you can see a lot of the shout outs to other media and stories, like the Hulk vs. Thor animation where Hulk tries to lift the hammer. Things like that were real gems. Who doesn’t like a  good Easter egg?

All in all, I was very satisfied with it and I highly recommend seeing it. Avoid the 3D though, unless you really love 3D movies. There wasn’t a lot in it that made it worth wearing the uncomfortable glasses and seeing everything a few shades darker.

Also, for all you Loki Lovers out there, his tears are still golden. They should bottle Loki tears and sell them as a personal lubricant.

I am a little disappointed in the lack of the full team, but I can totally understand the reasons, plus timeline overlaps and the like. You’d think Spidey would gave a damn about what was going on in his home-town. Or The Fantastic Four, or the X-Men? But I think that movie might be a little too explosive for any screen and would be in desperate need of J.J. Abrams lens flare.

Keep an eye out for Marvel: Ultimate Alliance special attack shout outs, too.