Date Night
May. 7th, 2012 11:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogThe two of us tend to stay away from most of the Big Summer Blockbusters, at least in theaters; I'll see some with Emily, or a guilty pleasure or two alone, so it's a treat to have the beloved along for one. This weekend, after a glowing review of The Avengers from Em, it was the one Eleanor wanted to see, and see now, and see even after a long workday for her. So I scored tickets for 7:30, half an hour after her quitting time; we had a quick in-store dinner of a pre-ordered large Wegmans sub; and got to a surprisingly sparse auditorium in time for all of the lame previews (Battleship being the latest toy-transformer offering from Hasbro, which I MSTized into "My Little Pony is coming, and she's pissed!").
The feature presentation lived up to every expectation and good review. Eleanor often has trouble with dark action pieces, but this one was just so well written- as you would expect when you have Joss behind the screenplay as well as the lens. Despite the top-level plot being, really, just an update of the Rolling Thunder Revue leaving most of Manhattan in its wake, the lines of all the superheroes, and even some of the not-so-super ones, were perfectly written, and just as perfectly delivered, by this troupe of professionals who were clearly having fun out of their minds with it all.
This particular bunch resonated especially with me, because the four main Marvels here made up the first four nights of their badly-animated and worse-written syndicated block from the 60s: Captain America threw his mighty shield on Mondays, Hulk smashed on Tuesdays, Iron Man stuck to the refrigerator Wednesday nights, and Thor, duh, made Thursday night Hammer time. (The only one missing was Sub-Mariner, who held down the tank on Friday nights, and who wouldn't have transitioned well into an above-ground format.)
For undergraduate reasons, my favorite line in the piece got tossed at Loki about halfway through, and without the context I don't think this will spoil anything: "Shakespeare in the Park?" Not long after that, Eleanor got off her best MST3k of the night while Loki was standing on a rooftop, rams horns recently bared, and she just pooh-poohed him: "Oh honey, the Pride parade isn't until NEXT weekend!"
Samuel L. was his usual badass self, Colson was a scream, and the occasional cameos were fun. I haven't seen any of the recent crop of Marvels with any of these actors in it, and mostly remember the backstories from those weeknight syndicated shows of long past, but we didn't need any of that for this to make sense, play out well, and amount to a good two-plus hours of fast-paced, city-wrecking fun.
Yes, we stayed for the scene after the credits, and the other scene after that. Both were worth reading all the names (I lost track of how many different visual effects companies were credited, much less the thousands of people credited among them).
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm still a little Thor.
The feature presentation lived up to every expectation and good review. Eleanor often has trouble with dark action pieces, but this one was just so well written- as you would expect when you have Joss behind the screenplay as well as the lens. Despite the top-level plot being, really, just an update of the Rolling Thunder Revue leaving most of Manhattan in its wake, the lines of all the superheroes, and even some of the not-so-super ones, were perfectly written, and just as perfectly delivered, by this troupe of professionals who were clearly having fun out of their minds with it all.
This particular bunch resonated especially with me, because the four main Marvels here made up the first four nights of their badly-animated and worse-written syndicated block from the 60s: Captain America threw his mighty shield on Mondays, Hulk smashed on Tuesdays, Iron Man stuck to the refrigerator Wednesday nights, and Thor, duh, made Thursday night Hammer time. (The only one missing was Sub-Mariner, who held down the tank on Friday nights, and who wouldn't have transitioned well into an above-ground format.)
For undergraduate reasons, my favorite line in the piece got tossed at Loki about halfway through, and without the context I don't think this will spoil anything: "Shakespeare in the Park?" Not long after that, Eleanor got off her best MST3k of the night while Loki was standing on a rooftop, rams horns recently bared, and she just pooh-poohed him: "Oh honey, the Pride parade isn't until NEXT weekend!"
Samuel L. was his usual badass self, Colson was a scream, and the occasional cameos were fun. I haven't seen any of the recent crop of Marvels with any of these actors in it, and mostly remember the backstories from those weeknight syndicated shows of long past, but we didn't need any of that for this to make sense, play out well, and amount to a good two-plus hours of fast-paced, city-wrecking fun.
Yes, we stayed for the scene after the credits, and the other scene after that. Both were worth reading all the names (I lost track of how many different visual effects companies were credited, much less the thousands of people credited among them).
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm still a little Thor.
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no subject
Date: 2012-05-08 11:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-08 01:09 pm (UTC)Oh, and I found audio for all of the old tacky theme songs. They're now linked above.
no subject
Date: 2012-05-08 01:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-08 01:52 pm (UTC)Then again, perhaps the best single line in the movie is one hardly anybody heard- Loki getting his God comeuppance. We were too busy laughing and applauding.
no subject
Date: 2012-05-08 03:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-08 03:47 pm (UTC)Then again, perhaps the best single line in the movie is one hardly anybody heard- Loki getting his God comeuppance. We were too busy laughing and applauding.
Yes, that was *highly* amusing (& I say that with Loki as my fav character).
no subject
Date: 2012-05-08 04:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-08 04:38 pm (UTC)If she didn't? Go with her. It's so much more than just the shoot-em-up-bang of summer blockbusters. Even Eleanor, who walked out of at least one Batman movie, was captivated for close to three hours.
no subject
Date: 2012-05-08 05:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-08 05:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-08 05:31 pm (UTC)"You'll think you're looking at Aquaman
I summon fish to the dish,
although I like the Chalet Suisse
And I like the sushi cause it's never touched a frying pan."
No, I have no idea what that means, either.