Day in the Life of an Idiot

 I'm going to put down money right now that I'm going to be awfully grouchy when I leave the theater tonight.  I suppose I ought to put my speculation as to why I think so under a cut, as I did INTENTIONALLY spoil myself a little.

( Angry ranting with definite general spoilers to End Game (read at your own risk) )

My other problem, of course, is that I'm not normal. I remember the first time I wondered if there was something wrong with me because I got far too attached to people in a story. I no longer remember what show had been on the TV. It was science fiction, I know that much, but everything else is a blur. Honestly, I think I forgot the details out of trauma and embarrassment. I have a vague memory of my parents saying something to the effect (probably trying to comfort me) of, "You don't need to be this upset. It's not REAL." I knew the show wasn't "real." I have always played a lot of pretend, but I never had any trouble separating fantasy from reality.  

Vividly, I remember lying in bed that night wondering if there was  something ACTUALLY wrong with me for feeling so strongly about something that was entirely imaginary, in its own way. I lie there, awake, trying to figure out WHY I cared so much. 

I still don't know.

It still makes me stand out, even among fans.  I'm still that one person, giving f*cks about Bleach, when everyone else has managed to find a way to shrug their shoulders and move on. Hell, I'm still spitting mad about Phantom Menace. (All these people who whine about their childhoods being ruined because suddenly there are girls and PoCs in their sandbox, and I think WHERE WAS YOUR OUTRAGE OVER MIDI-F*CKING-CLORIANS!!??? You want to talk about a ruined childhood! The movie wrecked everything. Suddenly, I couldn't study hard and become a Jedi. I had to be BORN to it. ALL THOSE CLASS PERIODS TRYING TO MOVE A PENCIL WITH THE FORCE WERE WASTED. If you weren't devastated about that, let's talk about who is a True Fan, my friend!!.) 

Anyway.

Speaking of True Believers, as the late, great Stan Lee used to call us, the only comfort I have is that I have long had to mentally assign the MCU "alternate universe" status. In the comic books, Tony Stark didn't create Ultron, Henry Pym did. Yet, when the MCU made that change, I thought, "Sure, why not? Close enough," which is how I have reconciled all of the disparities. Marvel comics has a long history of changing authors, riviving old titles, changing leads (Beta Ray Bill, anybody?), and literally writing their own alternate universe and "What If?" comics. So, whatever happens on the screen tonight is just one version of the story.

Not that it's going to help. I'm still going to be mad.

First, I want to say: library day was a big success. I ended up reading the first three Manga volumes of Naruto. (I'm totally hooked!) Mason read the newest "janitor" book as well as one called JINX, which he'd had on hold. It was kind of cool to pick out books, check them out, read them while sitting there, and return them before we left for the day. We also had money on a Noodles & Co. gift card we got for Christmas, so we had a free lunch (and they say there's no such thing!)

In the middle of the day I got a text from my Marvel Movie buddy seanmmurphy. He's been wicked busy, so he finally had some time to go see Iron Man 3 and did I want to go? Of course I did!

A lot has been said about this movie. I read Charlie Jane Anders' review in io9 and so I was expecting big things. Entertainment Weekly also gave it a A-.

I... was less impressed. As I've said on Facebook, I was never a huge Iron Man reader back in the day, so my comic book canon fu is low when it comes to villans and story lines in the Iron Man title. ("The Wolverine" is going to be a tougher sell for me because Silver Samurai and the whole Japan storyline was a favorite of both Shawn and mine back in the day.) But what I'm saying is, my problems with Iron Man 3 had nothing to do with any kind of canon fail... at least not in a nit-picky kind of way. But it also meant that the SPECTACLE of the suits worked for me, but only so far...

I will say in what I hope is a spoiler-free way, that Marvel very carefully gives its heroes weaknesses that are critical to the character, and I felt, at the end, perhaps Tony Stark's was severely undercut.

I think my problem was very simply that Tony Stark never changes. A bunch of stuff happens to him in this movie that sort of parallel Thor's fall from grace, but, unlike with Thor, I never felt a real transformation from Tony. I never bought he was humbled by any of it, because he remained the quippy, surface guy he was in the very first Iron Man movie (well, more like who he is in the 2nd Iron Man and Avengers, because at least in the origin story he has to go from military industrial playboy wanker to superhero playboy wanker.)


But what about the panic attacks, you argue? My problem there was that, while they were a good character moment (and possibly the first on-screen version of superhero PTS) he got over them INCREDIBLY EASILY and, more importantly, they never happened to him during battle, when losing his nerve could have actually cost himself his life OR SOMEONE ELSE's. Thus, they were kind superflious to the plot... and honestly to his character development. He doesn't seem to learn anything having gone through them, about the perils of being a hero. Sure, he's worried about Pepper and throws away his electro-magnet heart, but I just don't buy it. He'll be back. He's Iron Man. He says so at the end, which, again undercuts any real tension and character development.

So, yeah, I felt Iron Man was sort of Iron Meh.

I finally saw "The Avengers" last night with the usual crew.  Stop now if you haven't see it.  I know, I know, I could put this under the LJ cut, but I'm lazy and I don't want to.  If you haven't seen it and you don't want spoilers:  AVERT YOUR EYES.

Okay, so there were a lot of squees from the nerd herd about this movie when it first opened.  Thus, I ended up having a lot of expectations going in.  Plus, all the previous movies more than met my expectations.  And, in the case of "Thor" easily surpassed them. 

So... I liked the Avengers a lot, but I didn't love it.

I think the Hulk ended up being the star of this show.  He and the Black Widow had, by far, the most fleshed out backstories/storylines. Banner's big reveal about his anger was the weightiest and most awesome part of the entire film.  Also, Cap's order to "Smash" and his line about "Puny God" were the best "money shots" in the entire film.  (One of the thing I loved about Thor is how Kenneth Brannagh had the sense to give Thor fans everything they wanted.  The twirling hammer, the lightning flashes, the flying with the hammer out front, all the visual candy we'd been craving.)  Whedon failed the money shots.  There wasn't even one moment when Captain America shouted, "Avengers Assemble."

WTF.

The Black Widow got a lot of really awesome moments as well.  I really enjoyed her bit with the Russian mafia and how that played into her ability to trick the Trickster.  Amazing.  Her pathos around her "red ledger" was nice, though I wondered at her sincerity when she repeated that line verbatum to Hawkeye.  Regardless, that abiguity only served to make her more interesting to me.  I'm glad that they gave Hawkeye a murky past (the Budapest line was a nice moment between them, ie, "I think you remember that differently.") because I always liked Hawkeye's messed up past in the comics.

The focus on Hulk and Black Widow was cool, but a problem because the story ought to have been ABOUT Loki.  Eleanor and I suspect something happened to Loki when he fell into the void, since he looks very beaten at the beginning of Avengers.  But we never learn what that is.  His rage/lonelines has really twisted here, and that's cool, but I could have traded a few explosions for more Loki talking.  More Loki.

Lots more Loki.

I thought there were some missed opportunities in the moments when Thor and Loki talked, because Loki is so very HURT and Thor is so EVER-LOVING.  Thor should not have let Loki get away with saying, "You threw me into the void."  Because we all saw the movie.  Thor is reaching for Loki when Loki lets go.  Thor should have said, "No, my brother, I tried to save you.  You were the one who let go of my hand.  Why?"  THEN, Iron Man should have snatched Thor away, because Loki's answer is always the same ("because I was never loved," yada, yada, yet-still-tragic-and-true.)

So, yes, MORE Loki.

But, I was made happy by the fact that Captain America leads the Avengers.  He ought to and he does.  Thank you, Mr. Whedon.  The other Cap moment I liked was with the police officers who ask, "Why should we listen to you?"  Nice.  I was also made happy by the awesome that is Thor's hammer slamming down on the vibranium shield.  As I whispered to Eleanor, "Yes.  That is how it WOULD HAPPEN." 

But, unlike the rest of you all, I found the storytelling somewhat disjointed.  Probably because I wanted the central character arc to belong to Loki.  Or maybe Nick Fury.  One of the villians at any rate (and yes, I did just say that with Fury in the sentence.)  That's kind of how it works in the comics, and it kind of works here. 

Though there could have been more Loki.

Did I mention that?