Amanda Hocking

So yesterday I finally saw The Avengers. I didn’t go see it opening weekend, partially because I want The Dark Knight Rises to win the best opening weekend for any movie since the history of the world, and it would make it slightly harder for it do that if I saw The Avengers.

That’s not to say that I don’t like The Avengers or I don’t want it to do well – because I do. I just like Batman more, and if you didn’t know that, then you must be new here, and I want to extend a warm welcome to you.

Anyway – The Avengers. It was a terrific film, as I’d expected it to be. Joss Whedon always delivers, and I love summer blockbuster with superheros more than I love being alive.

I’d seen all the precursors to The Avengers with the exception of Thor. (I just didn’t get around to seeing it for some reason. I think, in my mind, I kept confusing it with The Immortals and that other movie that looks exactly like the The Immortals but isn’t apparently, and then I would think that I didn’t want to see it.) But I bought Thor on Bluray last week, and I plan on righting the wrong of not-watching it very soon.

On a side note – are either of the previous incarnations of the Hulk (starring Edward Norton and Eric Bana respectively) meant to be related to this series? Or are they only connected in the way that Tim Burton’s Batman is connected to Christopher Nolan’s Batman?

And Spiderman – is he going to be in the future Avengers endeavors? I know the Toby Magquire Spiderman is dead, but will Andrew Garfield end up a part of this franchise?

(Oh! I just remembered. It was Clash of the Titans. I kept thinking that that was part of The Immortals series until Eric set me straight. Thanks, Eric!)

So, yes. I saw  The Avengers. And I liked it. But here’s what I don’t understand – Captain America was my favorite. It doesn’t make any sense.

Tony Stark is sarcastic and cavalier, which is kinda my thing, plus Robert Downey Jr is one of my all time favorite actors (along with Michael Caine, River Phoenix, Sam Rockwell, and Michael Wincott). And Chris Hemsworth – how dreamy is that guy? For real. That long hair throws me off, but those eyes are ridiculous.

And as we’ve already established, Batman is my favorite thing out of anything. Doing a compare and contrast between the Marvel and DC universes, Iron Man would be the Batman to Captain America’s Superman. So using that logic, Iron Man should be my favorite.

(Iron Man’s more of a dark horse, playboy billionaire whose only powers are being super smart and the ability to build/buy fancy gadgets, much like Batman. Captain America and Superman are both all-American, boy-next-door-types that possess super strength, and are more likely to play by the rules than Iron Man or Batman.)

So, Captain America is my favorite, and I don’t know why. Sometimes I think I just like people when they seem really earnest and nice. Captain America was that way.

Oh, and it’s super nuts how the guys look now. Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth in particular. They actually look like action figures. They’re built like He-Man dolls. The level of their buffness is kinda obscene.

Mark Ruffalo was also in the film. I thought he did a good job. Everyone was talking about how great the Hulk was (note: Everyone is Patton Oswalt one time on Twitter), so I was perhaps a little overly psyched for his performance.

My one issue with the film was Loki. (And to answer the question I’ve gotten a hundred times over the past week or so – Loki in my books was not named after Loki in Thor films. They were however both named after the same Norse god. Most of the characters in the Trylle books have Scandinavian names since it’s based on Scandinavian folklore, so that’s how Loki comes into play).

Loki just didn’t do it for me as some kind of ultimate villain that needed all these super humans to band together, especially since Thor and the Hulk are damn near indestructible. Like if it had been Loki plus Juggernaut plus Red Skull plus Iron Monger uniting together, that would’ve made more sense to me.

I know Loki opens a porthole to space-hell and robotic sandworms come out and chase Chrissy from Growing Pains. So it ends up making sense. And the sequels have to room to grow, because you know there will be sequels, not to mention each individual character has their own series with their own villains.

And I do love when monsters attack New York. I don’t know why. The only thing better is when monsters attack Chicago. I love battles involving skylines.

As an added bonus before The Avengers, I got see The Dark Knight Rises trailer on the big screen. Full disclosure: I teared up. I’m beginning to fear that I’ll probably bawl at the end of the movie, which will embarrass me in front of all the cool midnight show attendees at the IMAX where I will be watching it.

I made a realization, though. I’m very excited about Tom Hardy being TDKR, but I just figured out that I will not be able to see his face or hear or his voice, so it sorta defeats the purpose. Oh well. I’ll know it’s him, and so will he, and that’s what counts, right?