UKC

Watched this the other night and have to say it was a huge disappointment. It gets really good reviews: 8.5 on IMDB yet I just can't understand why.

It's basically just another superhero movie with the de rigueur special effects and not much else. There's nothing new or original and it has nothing interesting to say. The alien space ships look like a scaled up version of those used in the Matrix.

Anyone else seen it?

In reply to stp: Mrs Peel, we're needed...

In reply to stp:

Banner was pretty much the only good thing about it. I saw it in the cinema (in 2D) so it was a passable evening out but in retrospect overlong and uninvolving. I don't know the characters so well, but it seemed that they had very little use for those without "showy" special powers i.e. Black Widow, Captain America and Hawkeye. At least Hawkeye was able to cover vast distances and spectacularly kill some of the "villains" in the climax. Poor Black Widow and Captain America were mostly stuck on the ground firing pistols or punching people.

People seem to worship anything that Joss Whedon does, but this was quite a let-down. Agent Hill's slim-fitting uniform was nice though.

In reply to stp: This is the best film ever, and yes, I am being serious.

In reply to toad:

Now that would be a film worth seeing. Rachel Stirling could play her mum's part...

In reply to Dave Garnett:

Did you not see the Ralph Fiennes version? Uma was great in that, but the last-minute decision to chop 45 minutes from the film just a few weeks from release, made it a muddled mess and a terrible flop

In reply to Blue Straggler:

No, I missed that completely. I may have to visit Amazon.

In reply to Blue Straggler:
but the last-minute decision to chop 45 minutes from the film just a few weeks from release, made it a muddled mess and a terrible flop

I didn't know that, though it probably explains a lot. Having said that, I'm a great believer in not trying to remake stuff that was of it's time (The Prisoner, for eg)

In reply to Nick Harvey:


So what was it that made it the best?

In reply to stp:
I have to say I really enjoyed it. Infact it was probably the best superhero film I have seen aside from the Dark Knight trilogy.
What I liked about it was the pacing and that the humour was not over done. It felt like a film that did not take itself too seriously but also did not fall into the realm of stupidity. I particularly liked that minor characters were developed and that by and large the actions of the characters had internal consistency. I did not find myself thinking too often "They wouldn't do that!" which seems to be the hall mark of a lot of films. My take is that it was a superior beer and pretzels film, entertaining with no great message to deliver, in fact a lot like a comic.
I thought it better than Watchmen (which somehow failed to deliver the premise of the book and although it looked good seemed to lack soul) but probably not as good as V for Vendetta, which despite mucking about with Alan Moore's story still delivered an intelligent hero film.
Stark was as usual very entertaining as was Hulk/Banner. Thor came across better than I expected and only Cap America looked a bit lost. The rest of the cast were excellent too but these were the flashy ones

In reply to stp:Hey the film is worth seeing purely for Scarlett Johansson. I have a very soft spot for her! Admittedly the film was rather entertaining to!

In reply to Duncan Bourne:
I have a gut reaction on seeing a film that I always go with on a sliding scale top to bottom.
1 leave before the end and erase from memory
2 Waste of money
3 OK worth a watch
4 Would see again
5 Would buy

Avengers was a 4/5 for me