I watched it with leanstein and to give you a non-spoilery, above-the-cut reaction, let's just say that when we stepped out of the movie house, I was basically like this--





Everything was perfect and omg omg omg. I want to be Black Widow when I grow up. Maria Hill is awesome and Nick Fury blew up some stuff and it was awesome as well. The screenplay was tight, witty, and funny. It's visually stunning as well. It's very Joss and you can really see it in the film-- he even put in the tropes that he likes using in everything he's done. There's also a bit of Firefly/Serenity Big Damn Heroes vibes in the end. To paraphrase leanstein, it's Joss Whedon's awesome x Tons of Money = The Avengers.

So. Major plot spoilers below.

I totally did not expect Hawkeye to be mind-controlled by Loki during the first half of the movie and be a ~baddie~. It was a serious WTF moment for me when Loki showed up in the first few minutes of the film and then mind controlled Hawkeye and Stellan Skarsgard. JUST. WOW. I mean, sure, Hawkeye isn't as physically powerful as Iron Man, Thor or Captain America, but he's a really good soldier that gets the job done. He was quite a formidable enemy.

Black Widow also got a lot of screentime, which I totally appreciate because I was expecting that she wouldn't be featured as prominently but hot damn she was as awesome as everybody else. Like, seriously guys. I could not believe that she was given that much screentime and radiating awesomeness from her pores while onscreen.

I expected that Joss would kill off somebody. I also expected that he would kill off Coulson, but didn't really think he'll be the one who'll bite the dust (because Joss loves him), so when he did die, I was all "DAMN YOU JOSS!!!!!" (mentally. Because obviously, that would be a really really... distracting thing to do in a movie house). Joss wrote Coulson in such a way that you'll love him and THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN A SIGN THAT HE WAS A GONER. My creys for Coulson.

The way Joss treated the Hulk was also very well done. He got some of the best moments in the film. And Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner was also excellent-- he and RDJ played off so well. Well, the whole cast played off so well, especially the part where they were all arguing in Banner's lab and then later on when they were fighting together as a team.

I also love that Pepper's in this.

ajsdfald;ak;afdk; I really don't have any more words for this movie. I need to watch it again.

OH YEAH. ENVER GJOKAJ IS IN THIS. He had a few lines too. I didn't see Alexis Denisof anywhere, but he's in the credits so I'm guessing he was the alien second-in-command.