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1. How can a movie with three great, snarky, equally treated, badass, competent, smart female characters so utterly fail the Bechdel Test?
2. About that Coulson incident: no body, we didn't seem him actually die, the medical personnel were right there (and there's no way medical personnel just let someone die and move on except in the most dire circumstances), we heard Nick Fury's report of the incident rather than seeing it, Maria Hill calls Fury on being manipulative five minutes later, and we know he lied about at least one thing - where the cards were. Conclusion: Coulson's alive.
3. Each of those "who's strongest" battles should have lasted about three seconds, with the exception of the Clint and Natasha fight on the Helicarrier, which actually meant something. Thor vs Tony vs Steve in the forest was particularly ridiculous. If you're going to use Thor to supercharge Tony, that should be a plot point, dammit!
4. Oh, Natasha, how were you so wonderful? I was cranky that she (or the Wasp) didn't get a movie of her own, but since it meant she was the one who got almost all the character development in the biggest of the movies, I'm feeling better. And now a Black Widow movie, please! (I did appreciate that they name-checked Jane and face-checked Peggy, even if they weren't in it. Can't remember if we saw Bucky though?)
5. Bruce's face when he realised that he'd deliberately avoided hurting people was wonderful. Bruce is rather dull as a main character - everyone wants to see The Hulk, but this means Bruce has failed, so the excitement of the movie/comic is built around watching someone be terrified and angry and fail again and again - so this was the perfect forum for him. All good runs of The Hulk in comics have been built around a large and interesting supporting cast. Other good appearances have been in ensemble comics...like Avengers!
6. This is what a movie looks like when the men and women are equally sexualised - they're sexy and powerful, not posed pornographically. Comics, please take note.
7. I really liked this take on Loki. He was scared, ashamed and a bully. The worst aspects of his nature were on show and both the heroic old man in Stuttgart (I loved watching the rest of the crowd standing up throughout that brief fight with Cap) and Coulson were right about him: he contained the seeds of his own defeat because he didn't really want to rule over the Earth and hand the tesseract to the Chi'tauri. The only part he seemed to enjoy was tricking Thor. This Loki was a far cry from how he was in Thor and I am most interested to see where they go next with him.
8. It was stranger than I thought to see Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill. While she was entirely convincing, especially in the action scenes, my mental image of Ambiguously Mixed Race Maria Hill from the comics was a lot stronger than I had anticipated.
9. Weirdly enough, I think I prefer it when a US movie just stops pretending that "destroying the world" means "the world" and concentrates on its real interest, the US. No random Sydney Opera House destruction to prove it's really world-threatening, no crowds in Mumbai running into the street to cheer the US Saviours at the end of the movie. (Please search-and-replace "Britain" and "TV show" for new Who and Torchwood!)
10. Even though I was pretty sure Joss was going to kill Coulson, I was waiting for a double punch like in Serenity and for Hawkeye to go next (or a triple punch to up the ante further: Maria Hill). Since that wasn't the twist, I stick to my "Not Dead" theory.
2. About that Coulson incident: no body, we didn't seem him actually die, the medical personnel were right there (and there's no way medical personnel just let someone die and move on except in the most dire circumstances), we heard Nick Fury's report of the incident rather than seeing it, Maria Hill calls Fury on being manipulative five minutes later, and we know he lied about at least one thing - where the cards were. Conclusion: Coulson's alive.
3. Each of those "who's strongest" battles should have lasted about three seconds, with the exception of the Clint and Natasha fight on the Helicarrier, which actually meant something. Thor vs Tony vs Steve in the forest was particularly ridiculous. If you're going to use Thor to supercharge Tony, that should be a plot point, dammit!
4. Oh, Natasha, how were you so wonderful? I was cranky that she (or the Wasp) didn't get a movie of her own, but since it meant she was the one who got almost all the character development in the biggest of the movies, I'm feeling better. And now a Black Widow movie, please! (I did appreciate that they name-checked Jane and face-checked Peggy, even if they weren't in it. Can't remember if we saw Bucky though?)
5. Bruce's face when he realised that he'd deliberately avoided hurting people was wonderful. Bruce is rather dull as a main character - everyone wants to see The Hulk, but this means Bruce has failed, so the excitement of the movie/comic is built around watching someone be terrified and angry and fail again and again - so this was the perfect forum for him. All good runs of The Hulk in comics have been built around a large and interesting supporting cast. Other good appearances have been in ensemble comics...like Avengers!
6. This is what a movie looks like when the men and women are equally sexualised - they're sexy and powerful, not posed pornographically. Comics, please take note.
7. I really liked this take on Loki. He was scared, ashamed and a bully. The worst aspects of his nature were on show and both the heroic old man in Stuttgart (I loved watching the rest of the crowd standing up throughout that brief fight with Cap) and Coulson were right about him: he contained the seeds of his own defeat because he didn't really want to rule over the Earth and hand the tesseract to the Chi'tauri. The only part he seemed to enjoy was tricking Thor. This Loki was a far cry from how he was in Thor and I am most interested to see where they go next with him.
8. It was stranger than I thought to see Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill. While she was entirely convincing, especially in the action scenes, my mental image of Ambiguously Mixed Race Maria Hill from the comics was a lot stronger than I had anticipated.
9. Weirdly enough, I think I prefer it when a US movie just stops pretending that "destroying the world" means "the world" and concentrates on its real interest, the US. No random Sydney Opera House destruction to prove it's really world-threatening, no crowds in Mumbai running into the street to cheer the US Saviours at the end of the movie. (Please search-and-replace "Britain" and "TV show" for new Who and Torchwood!)
10. Even though I was pretty sure Joss was going to kill Coulson, I was waiting for a double punch like in Serenity and for Hawkeye to go next (or a triple punch to up the ante further: Maria Hill). Since that wasn't the twist, I stick to my "Not Dead" theory.
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I do see your point. *is still enraged about The Day After Tomorrow, and the flame war I started by complaining about Americentrism.*
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I never know which I hate more: the people who are wrathfully angry with me, or the people who take it on themselves to tediously explain why their America is different than I have characterised, using information anyone who consumes American media already knows.
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There were AT LEAST as many closeups of Steve's butt as there were of Natasha's, weren't there?
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ME TOO. I mean, not that I'm FOR US-centrism, but at least it didn't go into (mostly) white savior mode (aside from the Bruce Banner intro scene).
Bruce is rather dull as a main character - everyone wants to see The Hulk, but this means Bruce has failed, so the excitement of the movie/comic is built around watching someone be terrified and angry and fail again and again - so this was the perfect forum for him.
That's a good point! And why he should guest star in a Black Widow movie (or three!) instead of Marvel making more Hulk movies.