AVENGERS: Grade, Reviews, Discuss, DVD & Sequel **SPOILERS**

[Captain Craig]

Opening numbers are coming in from the international markets where The Avengers has just opened and they are very good!!

Early box office estimates are coming out of Australia this evening where Marvel‘s The Avengers from Disney was released today for the start of its international run. And the hotly anticipated actioner is already shattering box office records overseas. It earned in U.S. dollar estimates of $6.0M in Australia and $1.2M in Taiwan and $700K in New Zealand for almost $8M from the three countries on Wednesday. Two of the nations, Australia and New Zealand were holidays: ANZAC Day, so that helped boost box office. Australia’s opening day is the second-highest opening of all time there behind only the final Harry Potter (A$7M). It is also the highest Marvel opening day ever, 214% ahead of Iron Man 2 (A$1.8M Thursday opening) and 136% ahead of The Dark Knight (A$2.5M Thursday opening), and the highest Disney opening day ever for a Disney film.

Argh, I have to wait another 9 days to see this!! If this trend continues into the North American market next week it could challenge for the OW record, which I think is $162m by one of the last Potter films.

[Admiral Buzzkill]

davejames wrote:

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Maybe Marvel should get Whedon to punch up the dialogue to at least keep some kind of consistency.

Based on their previous films, they really should.

[ElimParra]

Captain Craig wrote:

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Opening numbers are coming in from the international markets where The Avengers has just opened and they are very good!!

Argh, I have to wait another 9 days to see this!! If this trend continues into the North American market next week it could challenge for the OW record, which I think is $162m by one of the last Potter films.

Been on the other end of waiting for many movies. I think word of mouth will help those people who are undecided about the movie - push them to see it.

Plus, I think in future years, Anzac Day could be a big day for movies to start here - as the cinemas yesterday were packed. Virtually every session was sold out, and massive lines. Not sure what sessions will be line today, but it should be packed again tonight and over the weekend. Could do at least $15 million by Sunday night.

[Enterprise is Great]

My Name Is Legion wrote:

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Based on their previous films, they really should.

Maybe after the Avengers is a huge success they will.

[chrisspringob]

OK, I guess it falls to me to (sort of) run counter to the otherwise glowing praise:

I enjoyed the movie, and thought it was fun and funny, but I don't think it measured up to its potential, in that the story felt paper thin. I mean, even in a comic book movie, you ideally want to have some kind of substantive character arc for the protagonist or protagonists. Even looking at, say, last year's Thor movie....that movie had a pretty clear character arc for Thor. It was meaningful to talk about where the character was at the beginning vs. at the end.

In The Avengers, what are the character arcs? Stark learns that there's a benefit to working with others? Captain America learns how to deal with the modern world? That's extremely thin stuff. It seemed like they were going somewhere with Banner's efforts to keep the Hulk contained, but that amounted to nothing in the end. And, surprisingly, the story thread dealing with Thor's relationship to Loki was completely wasted.

Don't get me wrong. I thought the movie had great Whedonesque dialog. But it still seems like there were some pretty big wasted opportunities here.

[Captain Craig]

How would you grade it chrisspringob?

I can't say that while I've seen trailers and interviews I've thought about the arcs for characters. I want those development arcs in each solo feature, and they should be there. Since each character has had exposure the film need not really develop them, that's been done(more or less). Here the film should just establish why they are coming together and how they are going to kick ass. Even if that's thinly done, it's the spectacle that is important in this type film I think more so then character growth. They will do that back in the solo franchises which it seems is the beauty of how they've set this up.

[Admiral_Young]

Exactly. We're not going to get much character development in "Avengers" since there are still solo film sequels to come afterwards, any real development or furthering of arcs will have been left to the writer's of those films. So if you were going into the film thinking there would be some focus on that then I'm not sure what you expecting in the first place. This is a team up film. Think of the previous films as perhaps single issues and this is the first team up "crossover event" of the MCU

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I thought Thor's "character arc" was trivial and by-the-numbers; basically, a little rough treatment by Dad and spending a couple of days eating diner food in the Southwest was enough to effect a transformation in his values and world-view. A little street fight with a fire-breathing empty tin suit and we're done.

The only Marvel movie (not counting Spider-Sony) with a particularly strong script has been Captain America.

[davejames]

Yeah, none of the Marvel movies have been particularly deep or complex. The "character arcs", if you want to call them that, were always pretty standard and by the numbers.

[superdeluxe]

Zeb Wells ‏ @zebwells


Got to see #Avengers again. Seriously, if you have stock in Pfizer, SELL. Viagra is about to be replaced.

[Scout101]

Wasn't really expecting anything much deeper than "Hulk Smash!"

[Sagart]

Just back from it. It's as if Joss Whedon went back in time to when I was 8 and planted a camera in my imagination. It was wonderful and everything I dreamed of for the Avengers on screen. Thrilling, funny and, yes, heartbreaking. Whedon pulls his Serenity trick of hitting the fans with a tragic surprise and sets up a truly epic ending. I can't wait to see it again. Oh, A+, in case you hadn't guessed.

[Mutenroshi]

Shoot To Thrill!

Bring on third viewing!

[SonOfMogh]

Saw this today, awesome!!

Has to be my favourite superhero movie so far.

Puny god!

[Harvey]

My Name Is Legion wrote:

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Based on their previous films, they really should.

He already did that on Captain America: The First Avenger. But it seems like a wise thing to have him continue doing (although I expect Shane Black to be just fine on his own for Iron Man 3).