Awesome Avengers

Earlier this week I wrote about my excitement about the eagerly awaited release of Marvel's The Avengers. I went to see it on the day of release and then had to wait several days before writing this blog so I didn't incite the wrath of any friends for giving away any spoilers!

I think most have seen it now and those who haven't, well tough - i've given them long enough so if they choose to read this anyway and see any spoilers then it's officially not my fault!

SPOILER ALERT..... SPOILER ALERT!!!


Ok, now that we've got the spoiler warnings out of the way, let's begin.

First of all I would like to thank Joss Whedon for not letting me down, this truly was the awesome movie I was hoping it would be and probably a whole lot more that I hadn't expected. Fantastic storyline, great casting, well scripted, fantastic moments of emotion throughout ranging from the very sentimental and touching through to the most perfectly timed moments of side-splitting laughter.

This film was adrenaline fueled, geektastic awesomeness personified - and it wasn't afraid to admit it.

The biggest laughs came from moments of classic slapstick perfectly placed in unexpected scenes to help change the mood at exactly the right moment - and in the case of this film, exactly the right cast member - namely The Hulk. The audience erupted in such abnoxiously loud hysterical laughter at these moments that they actually managed to drown out the cinema sound system!

As a massive Whedon fan one of the things I was most looking forward to was spotting his "Whedonverse Cameos/References" - for those who are unaware of this let me briefly explain. Joss Whedon likes to connect his projects and often casts the same actors in all his projects or throws in references in the background or script. Arguably the largest of Whedons creations is Buffy the Vampire Slayer and he had already referenced The Avengers in his most recent issue of the canonical "Season 9" comic book series - so it was every fans assumption that there would be at least one Buffyverse cameo or reference in The Avengers - and we were correct.

Actor Alexis Denisof who played the character "Wesley" in both Buffy and it's spin off show Angel (and also husband of the lovely Alyson Hannigan - "Willow") had been cast in the film as "The Other" a character who if I identified him correctly was in heavy prosthetics - which I am not ashamed to admit caused me to miss this particular cameo. Actor Enver Gjokaj from Whedon's more recent TV show "Dollhouse" also had a small part as a police officer taking orders from Captain America in one scene.

My personal favourite however was near the start of the film and made me grin from ear to ear was the destruction of the Shield base in the same style and with an almost identical scene down to the camera angle to the distruction of Sunnydale (and the hellmouth) in the final episode of Buffy. It was a nice touch and one that only a true fan would have noticed, a nice big obvious shout out for Buffy fans but almost as if it was in a secret language that didn't take anything away from The Avengers for people who didn't understand the reference. I officially take of my hat to salute Joss Whedon for the creativity of this reference.

Daytime cinema screenings of superhero films tend to be full of the hardcore geeky fans who can't possibly wait until an evening showing for such a momentous film release, and The Avengers was no different. Come the end of the film, some got up and left but most of us waited to see if there would be a bonus credits scene relating to some future sequel and boy were we happy we waited around. I won't say who or what happened in the scene, you can google it if you really want to know, but I will say this - I was actually rendered speechless and so was my friend who went with me to the showing.

The next sequel cannot come fast enough, and I hope with all my heart that Joss Whedon gets put in the driving seat once again because he was truly made for this type of film and the standard of this film compared with all the other recent Marvel releases is out of this world.

Rating: 11 out of 10

Awaiting Avengers

This humble geek is very excited for this week an insanely long awaited film finally hits theatres near you! Yes i'm talking about Marvel Studios latest offering "The Avengers" or as it is annoyingly called here in the UK "Avengers Assemble" - why I hear you ask, well that's because of a rather annoying and very rubbish old british tv show which also went by the name "The Avengers" and subsequently inspired a movie of the same name back in 1998 starring the ever delightful Uma Thurman and that annoying Voldemort guy wearing a bowler hat!

Marvel's Avengers however is going to be a work of cinematic genius, I say that confidently because of how much faith I have in the man behind it - Joss Whedon! As a huge and lets face it eternal fan of Buffy i've watched everything the man GOD known as Whedon has produced since and i've not been dissapointed yet. When you combine that genius with the Marvel universe it's safe to say that this is going to be the event of the year for this geek so I thought it only appropriate to blog before and after to fully do it justice.

I honestly don't know what part to be excited about most, the big screen appearance of more than one of my favourite superheroes in one film, the extensive eye candy for me to drool over. The knowledge that hidden somewhere in this film there are likely to be some casting choices or cameos from the Whedonverse to satisfy Whedons compulsions to join all his projects together somehow. The presence of How I Met Your Mother star and all round awesome Canadian Cobie Smulders is part of the cast or the fact it's being released in the UK before it gets released in the US!

It's all very exciting and it's only a few days away, this thursday I shall be taking my seat with a friend and fellow Marvel fan who no doubt is just as excited as I am about this momentous cinematic event.