The Avengers And The Marvel Movie Marathon

The Avengers Assemble on May 4th!  To prepare Venessa (who is my movie watching buddy) and I had a Marvel Movie Marathon this week, watching Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor and Captain America.


As I embarked on my journey of Marvel movies, starting with X-Men, I never really read comics.  X-Men piqued my interest in comics and before I saw the movie, I did my homework.  But if you know anything about comics, you know there is a lot of backstory and crossovers and reboots and what not.  In other words, THERE IS A LOT TO READ.  I mean, A LOT.  I appreciate the art and the care and devotion that go into a comic.  But after getting, maybe, ankle deep into the X-Men universe, I’ve basically limited my comic reading since then to some Deadpools, some Star Wars and the Elf Quest series.  So when the first Iron Man movie came out, I was excited to see the movie, but time and circumstances were not what they were when I did the type of homework I did for X-Men.  I still think about reading through the comics, but I really like just enjoying the movies as they are without knowing all the established comic history of Iron Man, The Hulk, Thor and Captain America.  Too often I’ll read the source material of some movie or show, and as much as I try not to, I will still compare.  It’s been fun enjoying these movies without some kind of expectation I’ve built up in my mind.


It’s funny that I even had this marathon though.  We, rather, Venessa and I, watch these movies ALL THE TIME.  But I haven’t had a chance to talk about them on my blog so now I get to!


I’ve already expressed my thoughts on Thor and Captain America here so I won’t repeat myself.  Though I will add, having never seen any movies with Chris Evans in it, I was skeptical of Captain America.  I really knew nothing about the actor or the character.  But Chris Evans is very good, and makes Captain America, a character that could come off as corny and a little too perfect, very likable and sincere.


Iron Man, is, and likely will always be, my favorite.  I’m a fan of Robert Downey Jr. so knowing he was in this movie I had to see it, especially after his career missteps.  To me he was the best thing on Ally McBeal before he was let go and once he was gone I stopped watching that show.  It was great to see him back and that he’s been consistently good in the movies I’ve seen him in since.  He’s so good that even my husband, in the middle of our Iron Man 2 viewing, randomly threw him a compliment with, “That guy is good.”  Yes, he is.


Iron Man 2 seems to generate some controversy from commenter’s on sites like ew.com and movies.ign.com.  I like it.  The first is still better but I enjoy the second one and I liked that Tony was really tested in this one.  And how can you not like Sam Rockwell or Don Cheadle as James Rhodes, who I wish had played Rhodes in the first movie.


Now, for The Incredible Hulk… Well, Venessa liked it enough to want to watch it again.  This was the first time I’d seen it and I can see why fans, from some of the comments I read on the internet, didn’t like it.  It was a bit dull.  I could see the actors were devoted and wanted to make it work.  It just didn’t for me.  I didn’t find the characters all that interesting.  And just before the action started, I got up to throw some clothes in the wash not too worried about what I would miss.  I figured Venessa could fill me in.  I was just not feeling that one.


But I’m still really excited about seeing The Avengers.  I’ve been hearing good things about it on the internet and the reviews have been positive.  Even better that it’s just in time for Mother’s Day, which, to me is the best Mother’s Day present!  It’s become a tradition for me to see my Marvel movies on Mother’s Day.  For the last two years, it just happened that way.  In 2010 I saw Iron Man 2 on Mother’s Day, and in 2011 I saw Thor.


So who else is excited to see The Avengers?