I went and saw The Avengers yesterday, which, excluding the films I saw at TIFF, was the first film I’ve seen in a theater since The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo last December. While I watch a lot of films on DVD or streamed online, I usually only go to the theater once or twice a year. It may be that they’re a bit special, or that I feel they need to be seen on a big screen. BTW, theater seats here suck compared to the ones in Tromsø.

The Avengers was pretty interesting because it was a crossover of multiple film series. To me, a film series requires at least two films, so Iron Man and Hulk were their own series, while Thor and Captain America were not. They are all part of the same Marvel universe, but last year’s Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger were meant to lead up to The Avengers, While the Hulk films and Iron Man films were made probably before they had a firm idea for The Avengers. By now, all the principal characters have been established, so the audiences have an idea what to expect. It’s hard to imagine seeing The Avengers without having seen any of the previous films. Since it is very likely to have a sequel, the same characters are almost certain to appear, though it would be interesting if they included some other Marvel film characters as well, such as Spider-Man, the X-Men, or the Fantastic Four. On the other hand, they might fuck it up.

Given that this film had so many major characters, it would have been easy to screw up The Avengers, but Joss Whedon did a good job of balancing the different storylines from the other films without shunting some characters to the side in favor of others. The film was very much about teamwork and it had the characters working together for common goals, despite some personal frictions. Overall, the film was enjoyable. Filled with action and more than a few punchlines. The only downside was the whole aliens-come-through-a-wormhole bit reminded me a lot of Howard the Duck.

As for other films coming out this summer, the only one I know I want to see in the theater is Prometheus, the semi-prequel to the Alien series.