Watership Down

The Avengers, MBO Subang Parade – met up with Natalie on Friday night and we went & watched The Avengers :) Two thumbs up! It was AWESOME! The movie has heart, heroism and humour all in abundance.

It has a team of ultimate superheroes (a super soldier, a genius-billionaire-playboy-philanthropist-with-a-flying-armour, a scientist that turns into a giant green rage monster, an Asgardian God of Thunder, a master archer & a very beautiful master spy), it contains rapid fire one liners, funny dialogue, fast pace, great action, stunning visual effects, iconic homages to the comic, an Asgardian angst, sardonic Stark wit, Fury attitude and many more. What I simply love about the director and his team is that they manage to give every one of the superheroes a chance to shine in the movie. Each superhero plays a vital part in the entire movie and no one is there to just make up the numbers or to be a cannon fodder like the X-Men movies use to treat their lesser-known characters. Of course when you have all of the super heroes around together at one point of time, their egos & strong personalities gets too big and they eventually clash as expected.

I find Captain America, Hawkeye, Fury, Black Widow & Thor were so-so, they are actually quite lacking in terms of personality & style. Of course, Captain America was charming, sweet & old-fashion but he doens't really  stand out as in really representing the true hero of America in championing patriotism. Hawkeye was skillfull but lacks the character to step up and contribute more to the team. I wish Black Widow have more fight scenes and some love development in the future with Captain America. As for Thor...cartoonish, very stone.
  
However, I love Tony Stark who plays Iron Man – he is is stylish, cocky, sarcastic and he steals most of the best lines in the show. But the real comic genius in the movie is surprisingly, is the Hulk. Yes, he’s the green mean machine. He’s angry and surprisingly funny too. Mark Ruffalo’s version of Bruce Banner is probably the best version so far. Toning down the angst and anxiety that was so prevalent in Eric Bana & Edward Norton’s version and making him a lot more calmer and Zen-like which makes for an even greater contrast when he finally lets ‘the other guy’ out. I also like Loki – deliciously evil, a formidable character that delivers both class and unruliness.