“Urinetown’s over and done. Right now I’m in recovery mode, which is a bit of an understatement. The (mostly) show related events of the past night have had me going to sleep closer to my typical wake up time than my bedtime. The epic weekend of epicness actually started with The Avengers.
I knew that a few of my peeps were gonna be going to the midnight. I’m usually the one who organizes such things, but I thought my survival depended on me not going. Show -> movie -> work -> show -> cast party -> show -> strike did not seem like a good plan since few of those arrows represent sleep. But then details started to assemble. It was decided that the cast party would be at my apt, so I planned to work from home on Fri so I could clean the place. That would also allow me to steal an extra bit of sleep if I didnt hafta T in to the office. Then I found out that it was a good half of the Urinetowners who planned to catch the movie. After our warm ups, I checked Fandango and found there were still tickets. It took all of two minutes for me to assemble a group of cast mates who still hadn’t joined the party and we ordered tickets. I was actually almost late getting costumed and make uped as a result. Immediately following the show we ran down to Harvard Sq. Holy \m/ cock balls was it worth it!!!
I was geeking out on so many levels at this movie. While Superman is my hero, ultimately I’ve always been a Marvel girl. With the exception of the Christopher Nolan Batman films, Marvel has always been superior. Especially last year, Thor and Captain American >> Green Lantern. But I’ve also just resonated with Marvel better. When I first heard about this movie being made, I honestly could not believe it. Each of their individual films had been so fantastic, I couldnt even fathom putting it all together, but OM\m/G I could not wait. And then, on top of all that, to hear that Joss Whedon was writing and directing it, I really swore that I had died and was living in some alternate reality of awesome.
Anyways, Avengers absolutely did not disappoint. The common soundbite I was hearing was that the film was about as good as it could possibly be, and I am in complete and total agreement. My gut reaction tweet walking out of the theater was “”If #cabininthewoods is Master Joss’s love letter to horror flicks, #avengers is his love letter to comic books. <3 <3 <3 !!!"" and I stand by that statement. It wasn't just a whole bunch of superheroes thrown in together for the sake of capitalizing on multiple franchises. Nor was it a lot of mindless explosions (I shudder to think what someone like Michael Bay would have done). Each individual avenger was treated with such reverence and respect. They acheived both substance and style. Rare feat to develop both in a big blockbuster hero flick, and even more difficult when you have multiple characters of that magnitude. There was definitely a very familial quality to the film, and in particular to the way that the avengers all related to each other. They bickered, or sometimes more than bickered which was better than any good vs bad action sequence. But they also collaborated, figuring out who fit what roles and how to play to their strengths. The whole film had a very light feel to it that I loved. So many brilliant one liners (thank you Joss). We're not talking Buffy level Joss dialogue, but enough clever to see his fingerprints on it. Hearing his type of words come out of Samuel L Jackson and Robert Downey Jr's mouths made my mind explode in the best possible way. While this may be Whedon's first real foray into big action, it was executed stunningly. A particular sequence I \m/ adored occured during the big battle where we just seamlessly went from avenger to avenger, following the action and interactions. Again, Michael Bay, take note. This is how you rock that shit. While watching, I realized a big factor in why I love all of the spandex-ed supes that have come from the mind of the indelible Stan Lee. They're all such nerds. And by that I mean there are some \m/ geniuses in the Marvelverse. It was a scene between Iron Man and Hulk that had me particularly nerdgasming, but as you think thru that pantheon brains is the unspoken superpower of so many characters. The examples that came to mind with Marvel far outweighed the DC ones. For the cast, our repeat avengers lived up to expectations, and our newbies certainly did not disappoint. Mark Ruffalo was perfect as our replacement Bruce Banner. I dont wish to speak ill of my fave actor Edward Norton, but I do think he was a bit of a miscast for his turn in the purple shorts. With Ruffalo, you could see the constant inner struggle hiding behind the subdued exterior he portrayed. I'm kinda curious to see what he'd do with a full film. All the ladies and certain boys in the Urinetown dressing room the next day were talking about the hot that was Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye. Oh baby. Now there's one that I really want to see take on his own film. Quite intriguing the way his character fit in early on, but he was certainly the break out avenger. The honorable mention repeat performer that is noteworthy is Tom Hiddleston. I'll admit that using Loki as the big bad seemed a bit strange to me at first. I can't quite put my finger on why, but it just felt out of place. Watching him though, I could totally buy it. He commanded attention with such hellbent force that was just this side of crossing the campy line. Overall, I could not have been happier with this movie. The one drag was that it did take things a little while to progress and get going, but once there I could not have asked for anything more. Protip: Be sure and stay thru all of it. There is a midcredit scene AND an after the credits one. Worth the wait! The Avengers - \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/