That trailer midtro was pretty good, but the "She-Hulk" in particular really killed it--much like Hulk did in the movie, funny enough.
As for the movie itself--I liked it a whole hell of a lot. There are flaws (the first 10-15 minutes in SHIELD was a little weird to understand even for me, whom I saw all the previous movies, how Loki and especially Thor got to their part of the story was pure hand-waving and never explained, and the Iron Man/Thor fight got boring real quick), but there was also a LOT of great moments.
Hawkeye...I didn't hate him like Alex did, he has some good moments, but he was kind of the least interesting guy on there.
Black Widow was pretty awesome in it too--I liked how they explained why this super-spy decides to become a superhero.
This Hulk was definitely the BEST Hulk I have ever seen in other media--in fact, I'd say he was damn near better than a lot of takes in the comics too.
I wasn't a huge fan of Cap's helmet in the movie either--he looked SO much better once the mask got ripped off him and he was just going around in the regular uniform.
On deleted scenes--I know I heard Whedon say there was originally a scene where Cap met with an old Peggy Carter.
I kinda hate the character of Maria Hill in general, so if they had cut her in general, I would have been perfectly fine.
The Coulson thing...I really should have expected it, since Whedon feeds on the tears on his fans after the death of his characters. That said, on the iFanboy episode for the movie, one of them mentioned talking to one of the execs for the movie, and with that, he said two things: "1. We name-dropped Life Model Decoys. 2. Fury lies."
With the Thor movie--yeah, his arc in that movie was a little rushed, but I think the way they did it made sense. As for the final sequence, it didn't have a big action pop, but it did really well the thing that really mattered, which was the relationship between Thor, Odin, and Loki.
I was kinda surprised that they had Cap do that "there is only one God" line--I mean, it makes sense for him as a character, but I'm kinda used to the comics, where they don't really say anything about any of the big iconic character's possible religious affiliations, less they potentially offend people.
The aliens in the movie were the Chitauri.
Oh, the "Puny God" bit was absolute poetry.
The Counsel thing was interesting--I'm kinda curious to see who they are.
I'm not a huge fan of Gweneth Paltrow either--I don't hate her, and not because I don't see her as "not hot" or some shit, I just find her annoying. It also doesn't help that I keep confusing her for someone that was on Friends, which I despise with every fiber of my being. That said, I didn't hate her in the one scene she had, and like what Corwin (?) said, the fact that she was with Tony made his arc cool. I liked the moment when he was trying to call her as he was guiding the bomb into the portal to say goodbye.
Thanos was pretty awesome. I had just recently read Infinity Gauntlet shortly before that was revealed, so he's pretty much my favorite Marvel villain right now. It was pretty surprising too, because I would have expected someone like Kang before Thanos.
Honestly, I don't think I really want them to try to make it more "realistic"--I hope they use the more insane aspects of the Cosmic Marvel U in the movie. If they brought in Rocket Raccoon, I would buy every exec/creative person in the room a wheelbarrow to hold their massive, swelling testicles.
After this, I'm not sure if I even want to see a Justice League movie of this caliber--because I was so hyped for this movie and I'm not even a huge Marvel/Avengers nut. If they had a Justice League movie like this, I'd probably get arrested in the theater for indecent exposure.
And yeah, agreed with Alex on the GL movie--they should have either kept it on Earth or kept it in space when they got there.
My ranking for the movies so far would probably:
1. Captain America
2. Iron Man
3. Avengers
4. Thor
5. Iron Man 2
6. Incredible Hulk
I only rank Avengers that low is because both Cap and Iron Man felt more like complete stories, and Cap is a little different, less like a standard superhero/action movie and more like a retro serial adventure, like Indiana Jones. Of course, it could rank higher once I see it again.
I actually think the Ang Lee Hulk is MASSIVELY superior to Incredible. It changed some things, but, again, it felt unique and interesting in comparison to the standard action superhero movies of the time, doing something more operatic and experimental. Incredible was just a lame snorefest with a lot of bored, disinterested actors sleepwalking around a mass of CGI bashing around each other. It was by the writer of X-Men 3 and the director of The Transporter--that should really tell you everything you need to know.
The post-credit scene was very hilarious. What I liked was that I heard a little bit about it, I expected some Whedon-esque banter, so them just sitting there eating was an unexpected surprise.
I think Serenity was a great movie and Whedon directed it well, but I think the fact that he had an actual budget for the Avengers really helped. As for getting the big money--from what I've heard, the only one who got the big money was Robert Downey Jr.
I had just recently heard of Rage--that has a lot of unfortunate implications, but I kinda love the guy because he apparently threw a cupcake at Doctor Doom.
On Alex's Hal -- I like that idea a lot. I've always had in the back of my mind that the perfect approach to parody him would be making him more like Billy Bob Thorton in Bad Santa--a sad, worthless drunk who gets cheap thrills out of bumping and grinding into young girls.
My FCBD Pull went as follows:
DC New 52
Serenity/Star Wars
Lady Death: The Beginning (I heard good things about the recent series so I decided to give it a shot)
2000AD
I've read a little bit of Hickman's Ultimate Comics Ultimates. Horrible title, but interesting story--they've made Reed Richards evil, and he's pretty much fucked the world over. I'm curious to see how they beat him, because I honestly can't imagine how they can.
Good episode guys.
