P-C, I was worried about the same thing, but seriously, this is Joss at his best. I went to see Cabin in the Woods last weekend, and while I found it entertaining and well-written, Avengers just blows it out of the water. I loved that even during all the battle scenes, it wasn't just violence for violence sake. Every fight exposed more and more of each character and who they were. Seriously, I'm going to go back and wallow in it. Also, expect to miss some of the better lines in the movie, because the entire theatre will be laughing at a quip and then a zinger comes back that the laughter just rolls right over and you miss it.

SailAweigh is an especially good scientist.

I AM DYING OF THE WAIT.

That is all.

(We're going to a 10:20 show, because of the way the times fell, that was the best choice to make sure we got there on time since Tim works late sometimes. But I am SO TEMPTED to just go to an afternoon show right the hell now.)

DYING.

I can't remember seeing an audience so INTO a movie as they were with Avengers. Even blew the midnight show of Dark Knight out of the water in terms of audience response. Granted, Avengers is a LOT more fun than Dark Knight (which I appreciate for its serious darkness), but it was also a smaller theater last night.

You're not helping, Sail!

P-C, I think your strategy is to focus on all the little things that were wrong with recent Marvel superhero movies: the loss of narrative focus in the second Iron Man movie, shoe-horning Black Widow in without fleshing out her character so she's just a fancy cameo, the lack of an emotional hook in Thor, or even how much better Captain America's costume looked set in the 40s.

Focus on the negatives going in and then when you watch the actual movie you won't be comparing it against The Platonic Ideal of the SuperHero Movie, but on how/if Joss can address those issues.

I will kill time by going to buy a Captain America shirt. (Why yes, I am a slacker.)

One of the things I really enjoyed was watching all these groups of women coming in together. Kind of explodes the myth that women don't like comics. For a while, the women in the audience outnumbered the men. We decided it was because women were less invested in seeing the movie in 3-D. (The 3-D line was almost exclusively male.)

One guy asked me if I was a "supportive mother" because, admittedly, I'm 20 years older than all my friends that I went with, and he was quite surprised when my friends immediately spoke up and said "oh no, not related to any of us, she's a nerd girl like us."

the loss of narrative focus in the second Iron Man movie

You misspelled "Tony's drunken dance party in the Iron Man suit." Why did moviemakers not learn from Spider-Man 3? The Batusi should never be emulated.

the lack of an emotional hook in Thor

Shirtless Thor aside, I felt there was plenty of an emotional hook. Sure, the plot's been done a million times, including by Shakespeare, but it worked for me.

Shirtless Thor aside, I felt there was plenty of an emotional hook.

Compared to Capt. America it felt a little emptier, more bombast. But whatevs, I enjoyed Thor but didn't think it was as good as the first Iron Man or Captain America.

Compared to Capt. America it felt a little emptier, more bombast.

Cap definitely got the bigger emotional wallop. Rightly so, I think. Just a different hero's journey. (Steve throwing himself on the fake grenade kills me every time. Damn.)

Thor is the Golden Boy, acts like a jackass, banished, sadface, learns his lesson, heads back home. Not the deepest of all emotional journeys, but it worked.