The Avengers

Finally saw the Avengers over Memorial Day weekend.  Great movie - it definitely lived up to the hype.  In case you haven't heard, the Avengers just passed the Dark Knight to become the third-highest grossing movie of all times, behind Avatar and Titanic.

I'm a big fan of Joss Whedon, and I'm thrilled that this movie did so well.  I think Joss did a great job of balancing all the different personalities and quirks of the superheroes.  It also helped that Tom Hiddleston brought a much needed gravity as Loki.  He could have chewed the scenery more and turned Loki into a caricature, but I actually felt Loki's pain and the delusions of grandeur.  Yay for Alexis Denisof showing up as the creepy alien Other - always fun to see a member of Whedonverse.   I can't help but think of Robin Scherbatsky when looking at Cobie Smulders, though - she seemed a little out of place as the Nick Fury's right-hand woman Maria Hill.

It also helped that none of the actors tried too hard, even Samuel L. Jackson.  Robert Downey, Jr. was the showiest, with Iron Man cracking jokes and one-liners left and right, but it never felt too much.  I still feel that the weakest one is Chris Evans as Captain America.  I don't quite buy him as being that earnest, but in an ensemble movie it wasn't as jarring as it was in his own movie.  Mark Ruffalo was a big improvement as the Hulk over Edward Norton, and the CGI version of the Hulk was also so much better.  It was nice that they modeled the Hulk's face after Ruffalo's.

The teasers at the end were interesting.  Thanos is one of those iconic Marvel villains, and has been around for over 30 years.  Marvel did hint previously that he might show up some day - there was a brief glimpse of the Infinity Gauntlet in the halls of Asgard in Thor.  In the comics, Thanos used the Infinity Gauntlet to kill half the universe.  Yes, he's quite the badass villain.  Now the question is whether he's going to show up in the next individual movies (like Thor 2 or Iron Man 3) or in the next Avengers.  I'm inclined to think that he'll be the big bad for the next Avengers - he doesn't have a close tie to any specific Avenger.

Another question is whether they will ever introduce the Ant Man and the Wasp to the Avengers movie universe.  In the comics those two were founding members and were usually integral parts of the Avengers.  However, they are also probably the hardest superheroes to sell to a typical audience member, so Marvel might decide to keep them on the sidelines.