Some may say that my love for The Avengers is biased because of my loyal discipleship to director/writer of the movie, Joss Whedon but to them I say, “PSHAW!” The Avengers was a fan boy spectacle of comic book-to-movie entertainment that has been in the theaters in a long time — nay — it was an experience. It was everything that a summer blockbuster movie should be — funny, action-packed, visually stimulating, and a high octane ride of Whedonisms.

Now that I have finished swinging on the movie’s nuts (and they deserve to be swung on), let’s take a deeper look into what made the movie so good. First off, Whedon made it crystal clear that he knows these characters, their world, and how to handle them. In countless interviews, he has proclaimed himself as a geek and he is a bonafide geek. He created Buffy the Vampire Slayer gave the world Firefly and Serenity. And who can forget the brilliance that is Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along Blog? He even penned a handful of comic books from the Astonishing X-Men series. I believe that he deserves the title of Geek God more than anyone.

Sure, the story of Loki-taking-over-the-world (played pitch perfect by Tom Hiddleston) was executed with the careful and discerning eye of Whedon, but what people want is a full blown CG-extravaganza of superhero battle sequences — and the movie does deliver. There are plenty of good guy/bad guy fisticuffs and in some moments, our heroes are fighting each other much like bratty brothers do.

Even with all of the anticipation of blasts and smashes, there is a focus on a storyline that gives the movie reason. All of it revolves around Loki snagging something called the Tesseract which is a glowing energy cube from Asgard that can destroy the world and/or save it. Mr. Loki wants to use it to open a portal that will let a bunch of aliens into midtown Manhattan. By doing so, he will take over the world. (Hmmmm…portal? Evil beings pillaging the land? Apocalyptic consequences? Can we say: THE HELLMOUTH AND SUNNYDALE?)

For two and a half hours we sit through this, but Whedon, with his clever hand, keeps things interesting with his merry band of Avengers. The quick-witted, serious-but-not-too-serious banter holds the movie together and humanizes the characters. Led by the watchful eye of Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), each hero get their opportunity to shine: Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) does her super-agile fighting and we learn a little about her sordid past and the same goes with Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner). The two share this mysterious assassin/spy bond (that probably could be read more about in the comics) that is teased enough in the movie to make them more than just killing machines. Is it really exciting? Not really, but it makes them more than just a pretty face. Thor (Chris Hemsworth) summons lightning with the greatest of ease and shows his funny demigod naivete, but we also get to see that he has a conflicted softspot for his bro — who just happens to be the enemy. Mark Ruffalo steps in as the newbie. With him, I think Marvel has finally solved the Hulk dilemma. Then there’s Tony Stark (a.k.a. Iron Man a.k.a. Robert Downey Jr.) — the most efficient, fearless, and astute of the group. He gets the job done and has the best smart ass one liners: he calls Thor Point Break; refers to Hawkeye as Legolas and calls out a guy on the hellicarrier for playing Galaga on his computer. Finally, there’s Captain America (Chris Evans). If The Avengers is an on-going 6-part franchise, then this installment would be Captain America-centric. Despite being plucked out of his time and plugged into the 21st century, he rises up to be the leader of the group — and does a decent job.

Watching The Avengers was like watching the moment where Voltron came together or watching all my favorite G.I. Joe characters came together to fight Cobra in the animated movie. It’s exciting. It’s full of action; it’s well-balanced; there are pretty people — it’s what a summer movie should be. It’s a fan boy’s magical wet dream come true.

That said, let’s read some of the best tweets about The Avengers that I painstakingly farmed from the popular social media site:


The Avengers opens in theaters today. If you weren’t one of the millions of people who watched a midnight screening, then go watch it. It’s fun.