I think one of the things I really loved was Natasha's fear. Even in the hut with Bruce and those soldiers outside: fear. Chased by the Hulk? It did make him scarier for me, instead of just a big CGI dude with anger issues. It made me not take the Hulk for granted. Maybe she could have sucked it up a little sooner, but I appreciated her reactions to him. Consistent or no.

Say, I've been reading some comics and some fic, and what's the deal with how sometimes Natasha is called Natalia?

I don't know about in canon, but my Aunt Natasha was sometimes called Natalya just because. Russian names are kind of fluid like that.

See, in the hut with Bruce I got a totally steely but understanding response to a potential threat way outside of her capability to stop. She didn't strike me as the sort of woman who needed to see the Hulk in action before she understood it. I thought she clearly already did, and she had looked the potential in the eye and pulled a gun anyway.

Not the lip wobbling though. Didn't like it at all.

When she was running from Hulk on the helicarrier and hid, I thought it was more that she was in really bad pain and the wibble came more from that than fear. Her leg had been nearly crushed and I know I would have been crying like a weenie. When she went to confront Hawkeye, she was still limping pretty badly.

Show me one guy who got hurt enough to sadface, and I'll be a little less tetchy. I think Cap poked his side once, and Tony did all that grunting to get his servos working, but she had enough of an adrenaline dump to run with no favouring of the leg, so I'm not in love with that explanation either.

Still on the Avengers tip, but not whining about anything, this article: [link] has some nice (but too small) images from the displays on the helicarrier, as well as Tony's HUD. I'd love to see some better views of those--they're beautiful.

Via Atrios, I found this list of top 200 grossers in real (probably 2012) dollars interesting.

[link]

Note that the Avengers is 45th, but that has to be partly because it has been playing a comparatively short time. I'll bet by year end it will be at least in all time top 20.

Natalia is the proper name, Natasha is the nickname.

Sail, thanks for chiming in - that makes a lot of sense to me.

I did see Natasha favoring her leg at first when she starts to run. I think that her not being able to reason with the Hulk was an issue, and I also assumed it tapped into some backstory that I didn't know.

Tony got minorly emotional when he decided to sacrifice himself and Jarvis called Pepper.

Clint hurt his leg swinging into the building - he lies on his back gasping after - and has that knee propped up in the second post-credits scene.

Jessica, this was also the first time I liked Ruffalo in anything.

As for Loki wanting to enslave the humans, I thought the whole "Kneel before me, subjugation is your natural state" thing was an indicator. I don't think he's a details kind of dude, though. Chaos.

I did previously like Ruffalo when he was on Colbert. And he was perfectly okay in You Can Count on Me. I didn't love that movie in general but the performances were good.

i'm enjoying reading everyone's thinky thoughts on The Avengers. i saw it a third time today. i am wondering about ita's hate-on for Renner though.