The Avengers (spoiler free)

Or why it's taken me so long to write about seeing the movie.

As it turns out, I saw it twice on the same day, with the end result that I felt I'd spent most of the day in the Marvel universe, and kept expecting to run into Thor or Hawkeye in my dormitory. (The next twenty-four hours were, accordingly, disappointing.) And, since I didn't get back from the second showing until after one in the morning, I spent most of the next day walking into trees and staring off into space, which wasn't conducive to writing a blog post.

And then there was the Week Of Procrastination.

So, I've finally made myself sit down and write about it. No more excuses. Hopefully.

Let's just start by saying Joss Whedon is brilliant. As one friend commented, he's really good at writing ensemble casts, so no one character gets excluded, and Avengers was no exception. Everyone gets character development, even Hawkeye and Black Widow, who didn't even have their own movies to work from. Heck, he even made me like the Hulk, who has always been one of my least favorite superheroes. (Oh, Bruce Banner and Tony Stark. You two are adorable when you're doing science together!) And, of course, there were the strong female characters. There's even a minor strong female character who doesn't die, and saves Fury at at least one point. Unfortunately, it doesn't pass the Bechdel test... but it does treat its female characters in such a way that I'm not going to complain too much about it.

And then there was Loki. Loki, who I was throughly prepared to sympathize with. I did. But he acted in such a way that I couldn't wait to see him lose. I still wanted to take him home and feed him cookies, though, despite the whole "I don't get the throne of Asgard so I'm going to have a tantrum and conquer Earth" thing. The nasty gendered insult he throws at Black Widow almost broke the sympathy thing (though I hope that the portrayal of the incident gets people to understand what it's like to be on the receiving end of the objectification and hatred entailed in such a situation. I'm looking at you, mikespamming cretins), but Tom Hiddleston managed to play him in such a way that even I still felt somewhat sympathetic to him. But this Loki is very definitely a different Loki than the one in Thor. The Loki in Thor is sympathetic, an angsty, unhappy teenager. This one has edges and is actually dangerous. You have to wonder what happened to him between the two movies.

The interactions between our heros are wonderful, and I am happy to report that Pepper Potts has recovered from her terrible characterization in Iron Man II (but then again, Joss Whedon). I highly recommend this movie for a bit of fun. I also recommend that you stay through ALL the credits. There's  an absolutely vital scene at the very end...