The Avengers: Take Two

I finally had the chance to re-watch The Avengers last night. I originally watched it during its opening weekend. The theater was packed and everyone was experiencing the movie for the first time. We were all amazed by the spectacle, and our laughter would sometimes drown out the lines that followed. It's one of the reasons I wanted to re-watch it; I felt like I missed so many things.

This time, the theater was almost empty; there were probably about 15 people there. It was such a different experience. My friends and I knew what to expect and we would sometimes laugh right before a funny line was delivered. I'm sure there are a few other people at the theater who were there for their n-th time watching as well. So this time, I was actually paying more attention looking for little details that I've missed.

I wouldn't go as far as to say that The Avengers is the best Marvel movie – Iron Man still holds that spot for me – but it is pretty damn awesome. It's definitely a great feat to accomplish; well done, Joss Whedon! To be able to give these huge characters equal screen time and witty lines and decent stories, only Joss could have done it.

I've read so many reviews of The Avengers, and I tend to agree to most of them, that I don't know what I can write. I think it's a very good, highly enjoyable movie. Maybe the story itself isn't the best, but for an action move, the dialogue is brilliant. Especially Tony Stark. Joss Whedon's snark and Robert Downey Jr's delivery make the perfect Tony Stark.

The best part of the movie, for me, is definitely Tony Stark and Bruce Banner. Coming in to the movie the first time, I completely forgot that both these guys are genius scientists, and that they would probably get along really well. The progression of their relationship was a joy to watch, and I really wish there are more of it.

Iron Man 3 better has Bruce Banner/Hulk involved in some way. Or just Stark and Banner having fun at the Stark Tower's R&D floors; that would make me very happy. It would make a lot of sense to have Iron Man 3, which will be out next year, pick up where The Avengers left off; they can tell the story of how Iron Man (and hopefully The Hulk) continue his life after working with these other superheroes. The same underlying theme can be continued on the Captain America and Thor sequels, and they all would lead up to The Avengers 2.

Also would be nice: if we get to see more of Stark Tower in Iron Man 3. We see Stark and Pepper Potts rebuilding it at the end of the movie, so the ideal Iron Man 3 would have the tower freshly rebuilt and Banner hanging out with the pair there.

Fan theories

I've been reading quite a few fan theories these past couple of days and I found a couple good ones regarding The Avengers.

The first one is about how Loki actually won in the movie. What Loki really wants is to rule Asgard; he doesn't care about Earth. Both Thor and Stark touched on this issue a little bit, that there's no scenario in Loki leading the Chitauri in attacking Earth can result in Loki's "win". It makes more sense if this whole thing is just a distraction. To Loki, attacking Earth would both distract Thor from Asgard and take the Chitauri off his back. I really like this theory and I think this would make a very interesting plot for the upcoming sequels (yes, I'm expecting at least 3).

The other one is something that I really, really want to be true: that Agent Coulson isn't dead. In the earlier parts of the movie, Stark tries to avoid Coulson's phone call (video not mine. SCR quality, not sure how long it'll be before YouTube takes it down):

So, isn't it possible that instead of the real Agent Coulson, it was actually a Life Model Decoy (LMD)? LMDs are SHIELD's, so it's likely that Stark knows about it from SHIELD. Like Fury said, they needed the push. Maybe – wishful thinking here – the whole thing was planned by Fury/Coulson, just for the little push. And Coulson even donated his mint Captain America trading cards to be destroyed. Fury was also the first person on scene; he could somehow deactivate it before the medics arrived (I need to read up on LMDs to get a better idea). But yeah... I usually hate it when movies or TV shows bring back people they've killed, but just this time...

In any case, amazing movie, very interesting fan theories, and I'm super excited for the upcoming Marvel movies. I recall reading somewhere that they're trying to have The Avengers 2 in 2015; can't be sure, but I'm hopeful that we only have to wait 3 years.