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

Exactly: "One of those places." In the context of the film, Stark looks potentially smart because he intuitively guesses the right place; but we potentially read him as a little slow for not guessing sooner because we as an audience were shown this particular reactor already an hour before. An hour. If Stark is in something like the real world, with multiple power sources and a longer timeframe, he would have to either guess fast ("It must be my reactor because ....") or would need to eliminate all other possibilities, and possibly you get SHIELD splitting its forces to protect various power supplies around the world. A film of this length can't do that, so it takes the narrative shortcut - what the viewer can't do is judge thre intelligence of the characters on the basis of the "edited version of the story/world" that we see.

 

But the question is why wasn't SHIELD already monitoring the places around the globe where such power can be generated? (Again one of those places being Stark Tower.) And it just seems off to me the connection isn't instantly made by Tony or anyone else when he and Banner are talking and they mention both Loki's need for a large source of energy and Stark Tower's arc reactor in the same conversation.

It really shouldn't have taken the two most brilliant men in the world (Stark and Banner) so long to come to the conclusion that Loki might go for one of these large energy sources. They spend so much time trying to devise a way to locate the Tesseract when they could "cut Loki off at the pass" and simply monitor the few places around the world he could go to put his plan into motion and stop him there.

 

Yeah, those are good points: the film might have benefited from a line stating that they suddenly realize Loki's need for something compact, clean and cutting-edge (and not, say a nuclear plant of the traditional design), which could then lead to Stark saying "Aha!"

 

And don't get me wrong, this is just me nitpicking an obviously very simple plot. In reality the tower's arc reactor and the Tesseract are McGuffins that are just an excuse for our heroes and villains to do things. Naturally the reason why the arc reactor wasn't thought of was because it'd make the movie end sooner. This movie was simply awesome and I can enjoy it and love it even if when scrutinized the story and some of the actions taken by the characters doesn't make much sense.

 

Yeah just as a tease, just to start to get group out there. A common character/plot that connects the whole MU

 

I can't wait to see the mass audience WTF face when they see a sentient raccoon in a spacesuit for three minutes. You thought Thanos was obscure?

 

About Clint hitting that Chitauri without looking at it:

He did that just as he was telling Tony that they "can't bank worth a damn." So I've just been assuming he can make quick mathematical calculations in his head to determine the velocity and direction of a moving target. Add to that probably extremely good eyesight and good hearing, and I totally believe it.

 

Voiced by Ray Winstone or Jason Statham lol

 

Rocket Racoon!

 

Guess they wanted Banner to do something other than just Hulk SMASH!

 

They could team him up with Howard The Duck.

 

To be fair - Loki DID have his 'one up on the Heroes' moment when he escaped the Helicarrier.

 

I liked after Thor and Loki's initial encounter Loki walks away from Thor straining and arching like he just threw his back out.

 

I'd love to see them pull that off.

 

I think that's exactly it. He had them figured out, he saw the Chitauri from the corner of his eye, he aimed and fired at where it was going to be in half a second.

Sure, Clint's just a "normal" human being...but I watched another "normal" human being fall thousands of feet in a metal shell, stop suddenly when caught and not be turned to Jello and bone shards inside that suit. I'm sure there's some comic-book techity-tech involved, which is beside the point.

 

He's probably restricted enough in the suit that any stopping wouldn't be too hard, though it would shift around the internal organs some. And regardless of the height he fell once he hits terminal velocity that's it and he'll reach that in seconds of the fall. Hulk may also have caught him with some "give' in his arm to absorb the energy of the decent. So it was more like landing on a trampoline than landing on something hard that won't give.

The Avengers was de-throned this weekend as the #1 movie in America by Men in Black 3. Which surprised me as I wouldn't have expected MIB3 to have that big a draw.

Domestic Grosses Top 10:
MIB3: $55m
The Avengers: $37m (down 33% from last week)
Battleship: $10.8m (down 57% from last week)
The Dictator: $9.6m
Chernobyl Diaries: $8m
Dark Shadows: $7.5m
What to Expect...: $7.1m
Marigold Motel: 6.3m
Hunger Games: $2.7m
Think Like a Man: $1.4m

The Avengers sits at a world-wide gross of $1.3 billion, $513m domestic. It's ranked 4th in both Domestic and World Wide Grosses.

At this rate I'm not sure it'll dethrone Titanic or Avatar from the top spots in all time grosses as it'd need to double it's current grosses to make second place (Avatar sits at $2.78b.)

Next week's "big releases" are Snow White and the Huntsman and Madagascar 3 which I think should both pretty easily dethrone MIB3 (which I doubt will have great staying power.) Avengers should still hold-on to the top 4 or 5, it's been losing half its business each week so I'd expect it to do between $15m and $18m next week. SW and M3 should both easily do that and then some. If MIB loses the fairly "typical" half of its business into the second week it'll probably see around $25m.

Next week I predict:

1. Snow White: $60m
2. Madagascar 3: $50m (I think these two will be close.)
3. MIB3: $25m
4. Avengers: $15m

 

Inertial dampers.

 

That's what I said - beside the point. It's all bullshit, so let Clint hit the goddamn Chitauri without looking. Folks laughed at that.

Biggest laugh and cheer of the night was, of course, Hulk smashing Loki into the floor repeatedly.

Does anyone actually think Coulson's dead?

 

I was thinking that too. I think there's enough "room" in things for Coulson to be alive but if Whedon has anything to say about it I doubt it. (Assuming he writes/directs the next Avengers movie.)

But if TPTB behind the MCU want Coulson to be alive they can get away with it saying Coulson was revived off-screen and his death was faked to provide that "push" to get the team to work together at the cost of his Captain American trading cards.

If Marvel wants him alive then they'll make him alive again.

 

We didn't see a body and we didn't really see a moment of death. I think the Son of Coul just might be seen again.