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[ebonlock]

After a second viewing of The Avengers I came to a conclusion, much as I adore Tony Stark and love Iron Man my movie crush is definitely on Bruce Banner in this one. Also I prefer Mark's take on the character to Edward's, something I wouldn't have thought possible because man do I love me some Edward Norton. Still there's something so much more vulnerable and broken about the Bruce we see in The Avengers that I find utterly irresistible if I'm honest about it.

And I've found a new fandom OT3, Tony/Pepper/Bruce. I know, a little weird when you first think about it, but on a strange level it actually works. Or maybe I've just been lucky regarding the fics I've read in the genre so far...

Also saw Prometheus last night and my recommendation to everyone is...don't. I mean Michael Fassbender is fabulous in it and his character is far and away the most interesting in the film but even he can't carry this mess across the finish line single handedly. Let's just say I ended up laughing a lot more than I gasped or cringed. There was certainly enough of the gross to appeal to those who are looking for that, but the level of stupid of most of the characters kind of cancels out a lot of the good stuff buried beneath it. And this was the script that Ridley Scott thought was good enough to go with? Sad.

Comments

[tavella.livejournal.com]

Bruce is great in the movie. I love the way Ruffalo plays it superquiet, even to that last line about "I'm always angry". Real sense of barely controlled rage.

And I will continue to not go see Prometheus :)

[esmerel.livejournal.com]

I thoroughly enjoyed Ruffalo's performance at Banner. Norton did pretty good, but with Ruffalo I really felt more like there were two sides to the character instead of just the tired guy on the run.

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

I kind of agreed with my friend A-'s take on it, that Norton's Banner was just a little too confident and self-possessed whereas Ruffalo's came off as completely insecure and beaten down by life. Norton's Bruce came off as too together, too sure of himself and while that works well for pre-Hulk Bruce it works less well with post-Hulk Bruce. However, without Ruffalo's performance I doubt I'd have even noticed it.

[tersa.livejournal.com]

Ruffalo's came off as completely insecure

This nails what I was thinking while watching it the second time through.

I think I fell in love with Ruffalo's Banner then. :)

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

I think I fell in love with Ruffalo's Banner then. :)

There were several moments for me:

1) "Oh no, this is much worse" delivered in a self-deprecating, fatalistic way as the helicarrier takes off.

2) The half amused look on his face when Tony pokes him, I think he's bemused by Tony's guts but also kind of charmed that Tony doesn't seem to be afraid of him and will even touch him.

3) When he cops to having tried to kill himself. This is the biggie for me, both in the tragedy that he was driven to it in the first place and for the fact that he has no way out of his predicament. Even death is beyond his reach as a means of escape.

4) Admitting that he's always angry, it's a subtle moment where you realize just how narrow a line this poor guy has to walk every minute of every day. He basically sees himself as a nuclear bomb and as much as he'd like to be close to people and have friendships and relationships he knows that eventually he's going to end up hurting if not killing them.

[esmerel.livejournal.com]

I also really liked how Ruffalo's banner made the transition from "Tormented guy" to "brillant scientist" when he was chatting with Stark - there wasn't as much of that in Norton's. I mean, there were scenes where you felt like he was supposed to be the supersmart guy, but in Avengers, I really "Felt like" Banner was not *just* the uncontrollable ragemonster, but a freaking genius.

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

Honestly the fact that Tony immediately decided they were science BFFs (and damn near heterosexual life partners by the end) charmed the socks off me. I was expecting the writers to do much more with Tony and Steve on that front and quite surprised when it went in more of a Tony Bruce direction. And yeah I think Bruce was won over when Tony brought up the fact that he both knew and respected his science work before bringing up the "giant green rage monster".

[tehprincessj.livejournal.com]

I agree, Mark Ruffalo is the best Banner in the history of ever (although for me, the OT3 would be more like Tony/Bruce/Science :p ).

And mmm... Michael Fassbender.

Ahem. Yes. 'Prometheus'. My biggest issue, buy far, is that the film raises more questions than it answers. And that's pretty unforgivable in a prequel movie. That said, I do love the franchise (aside from 'Alien 3', hated that film), so perhaps I'm a bit more forgiving than I should be.

I'm so tired of movies thinking they don't need to include proper endings because they may potentially, do a few sequels. The latest 'Underworld' film did this. 'Captain America' did it. And now this.

I would have preferred if the film had ended right when the last woman standing was shipless and screwed. Not a happy ending, but a better ending, for sure.

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

Totally agree on the creating more questions than it answered point about Prometheus but I think I could've forgiven that if they'd just given us one intelligent scientist in the film to hang our collective hats on.

I mean the scene with the biologist and the geologist is supposed to be horrifying but I was too busy laughing at bio guy doing his, "Hey let's poke the alien life form and see what'll happen!" Seriously, I felt like Tim the Enchanter, "Look at the BONES!" Gah. The only character who seemed to consistently use her head was Vickers, and when she grabbed that flamethrower and said, "No you do not bring any fucking infection on my ship!" I wanted to hug her.

[tehprincessj.livejournal.com]

Ew, those snake things were just... that whole thing was wrong.

My hubby and I keep joking about, "Hey. Something tripped the motion sensors a while back. But it was probaly just a glitch. Goodnight!"

"No you do not bring any fucking infection on my ship!" I wanted to hug her.
Yeah. She had a Ripley moment. She should have been the one to live (although, I totally got that the big man was her dad early, early on).

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

Yeah. She had a Ripley moment. She should have been the one to live (although, I totally got that the big man was her dad early, early on).

Yeah I worked out the dad angle early on too, basically as soon as she booted up the holographic message and he made the comment about David being like a son to him.

Would have happily watched an entire film about David, though, and I think I was happiest when he was the only one awake on the ship. Sad that the robot was the most interesting and three-dimensional character, though.

Also was it just me or did the Prometheus have the most ineffective decontamination protocols ever?

[tehprincessj.livejournal.com]

Yeah. That's seriously why I likened her to Ripley. It wasn't really the flamethrower (although that was fantastic), it was the "Um, No. People with messed up foreign planet weirdness don't get back on the ship".

That didn't really work out for Ripley, either.

I think a lot of space travel fiction likes to gloss over all of that, really. One micro-organism from Mars could wipe out an entire shuttle from Earth. And if it got back here it could destroy the entire planet. And it doesn't even need to be a "we grew this as a weapon of mass destruction" organism. I think it's dumb to assume that even a private firm would allow civilians to go into space with absolutely no astronaut training. Quarantine before a flight keeps astronauts from being able to say goodbye to loved ones. This business of hopping on and off your ship through a cargo bay works in 'Firefly', but not in "OMG, Alien life!" films.

And we can see that Ridley Scott doesn't trust androids. :) I liked that Bishop was a savior, Ash was psycho, and that David seemed to be evil, too, but for whatever reason, it was endearing (still blame my crush a bit for that), but you get that watching Shaw's dreams drew him, and he had his own motives. He didn't do what he did "for the good of the Company".

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

And we can see that Ridley Scott doesn't trust androids. :) I liked that Bishop was a savior, Ash was psycho, and that David seemed to be evil, too, but for whatever reason, it was endearing (still blame my crush a bit for that), but you get that watching Shaw's dreams drew him, and he had his own motives. He didn't do what he did "for the good of the Company".

Honestly I think he really did see himself as Lawrence of Arabia to a degree, he's smarter, faster and stronger than everyone around him and basically treated like a pampered son by the richest guy on Earth. He expects to be respected, to be treated as more than just a machine and I think he gets honestly hurt when he isn't, especially by Holloway. His choice of Holloway as the first experiment kind of confirms this. He could've infected anyone but goes with the one guy who'se treated him badly from the get-go.

Also his question about why his kind were created, and his response to the answer Holloway gives him are fantastic. I was all, "Uh-oh, he's going to go Geth on 'em!" :)

[esmerel.livejournal.com]

definitely. I think it also played nicely into Stark's tendency to try to get a rise out of everyone; imo it kind of shows that he actually respects Banner immediately rather than being competetive/domineering the way he is with most other people. The "FINALLY, someone I can RELATE TO."

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

It occurs to me that we clearly need to watch this film together when it's out on video. I have, of course, already ordered my copy :)

[esmerel.livejournal.com]

AM TOTALLY BUYING OMG YES.

Hell, I'd watch it over and over just to watch Tony smirk, Loki be... Loki, and all the asskicking.

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

Also I want to watch the final battle sequence over and over and over again. Then I want to slow-mo it and watch it again, then once more with the audio commentary...If there are storyboards on one of the discs I may well expire from pure joy.

[esmerel.livejournal.com]

I... don't see how that's a party.. :D

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

It's a date, my friend.