Monday Movie Review: The Avengers

"Barton, I need you on top of that building... Iron Man, cover the skies... Hulk, SMASH."

This movie was so, so goddamn awesome. I saw it Friday night and I'm still thinking about it. Every night I go to bed wishing I had a flying aircraft carrier (that cloaks!); every morning I wake up with movie quotes in my head.

I'm not the only kid that enjoyed it. The Avengers shattered a few records when it opened to over $200 million. Of course, for any true geek, part of the joy is seeing Joss Whedon succeed at something so big in such a big way. My favorite takes on the movie are these pieces on Whedon in GQ and Kotaku.

Whedon was exactly the right director for Avengers is because it's an ensemble movie. It's about a group of misfits coming together. And nobody does ensemble adventure/dramas better than Whedon. Buffy was an ensemble of Misfits, Firefly was, and so was Dollhouse. GQ seems to have found the key: the movie "doesn't flatline when its characters are just standing around talking, because in Whedon's work that stuff is the meat, not the bread."

There were three other people who carried this movie:

Robert Downey, Jr: Tony Stark's acerbic wit counteracts the movie's inherent tendency for camp. This is a superhero team-up that includes a Norse god with flowing blonde hair, a big green monster, and a really good archer. That can get really campy really fast. Only Downey has the jaundiced meta-awareness to deflate the goofiness as it builds up on screen.

Tom Hiddleston: Speaking of camp, when your villain is also a Norse god (known for being a trickster), dressed in green robes and wearing horns, you need an actor who can give him a soul. Hiddleston manages to show us the pain (from his sibling rivalry with Thor) that's twisted him and driving his evil takeover.

Mark Ruffalo: Quite simply, Ruffalo is perfect. For most of the movie, you think you've got him figured out, that the underlying emotion he's portraying is fear (fear of the monster, fear of being used by the government, fear of losing control). But gradually, and then all at once – with his almost quiet but very poignant reveal: "You wanted to know my secret? I'm always angry." – you understand exactly what's been underlying his performance.