This is just a great, insightful post. Very well stated all the way round. I think too that in the wider scope, the movie is about each hero realizing s/he can't always win by her/himself. Cap can't beat Loki alone: he needs Iron Man's help to bring in a foe that potent. Natasha saves Barton out of loyalty and, we think, affection. And Barton needs her, as it turns out, to save him. Hulk needs Stark to convince him he can control the Other Guy. And so on. Here's why what you're suggesting is impossible. Stan Lee is not an actor, and his presence is immediately disrupting to the audience, who laugh at the gag (if they know who he is) or, alternately, chuckle at his awkward line delivery and hammy mugging. For a grave moment such as the one in the streets of Nuremberg, the last casting decision you want to make is one that will lead to giggling and pointing in the auditorium. But Stan Lee had no hand in creating Captain America. Jack Kirby did, with Joe Simon of course, and for the last 20 years of his life (at least) Jack railed against Stan for stealing the characters that he, Jack, created, and for pretending/lying/defrauding the public that he, Stan, had created them. So, whether Jack's claim to sole authorship of Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk, the X-Men and yes, even Spider-Man, etc. etc., is true, or exaggerated, or complete bollocks, the act of inserting Stan into a major moment for Jack the King Kirby's iconic co-creation, namely Cap, would have been a slight against the King. Sorry, but that's just the way it is. The Kirby fans (including yours truly) would have been incensed, along with, quite likely, the Kirby estate. I was, incidentally, extremely pleased to see Jack's name in the end credits twice, one (with Lee) for The Avengers and one (with Simon) for Captain America.
They don't shapeshift, that much is true, but they look enough like Skrulls in the striated, skull-like quality of their jaws and dentition, that I'm willing to accept them as "movie Skrulls" into my own personal Marvel cinematic mythology. They explicitly share an alternate name of the Skrulls, invade the Earth under the fist of an insane, hooded leader, and are generally rank-and-file extraterrestrial invaders. They don't shapeshift is really all you're left with; but then again, maybe they'll do that in the sequel.
Point. Rhodey is a soldier after all, and he's bound by whatever orders given to him by his superiors. Unlike the Hammer incident (aka. "industrial accident"), a full fledged alien invasion would have had every military on the face of the planet on high alert. The Pentagon tells him to stay out, he's got to stay out.
They are more like Battle Droids than Skrulls, given that as soon as the mothership blows up, they all deactivate. Dey all brokey!
And for a moment there I thought that scene as going to be the Stan Lee obligatory cameo. I do have the feeling there is some deeper meaning to the cameo and the scene but it eludes me... Reminiscing yesterday, I was sort of amused by the post battle news montage, how it degenerates from scenes of admiration and adulation of the Avengers to the critisicism and fear of their presence and of the widespread destruction caused on New York by the battle waged by them and their foes. Well New Yorkers...get used to it. When superheroes start calling the Big Apple their home, expect battles like that on a weekly or daily basis even. And as the battle waged (which in all honesty, I would've been a pain to try to follow on 3D), I was thinking to myself "yup, after these some opportunist suits and contractors are gonna form their own version of Damage Control, Inc.". They'll be hideously rich and NYC will likely go bankrupt unless Stark and the so-called Security Council bails the city out from time to time.
I'm told the US version of the movie has an extra extra scene at the very end. Not having seen it since I live in the UK, can someone break down what happens in said scene?
Well, technically Steve is sleeping, Banner is taking methodical bites of his shawarma and nodding, and Tony appears to be thinking that he imagined it tasting better, while Thor is just munching on his.
Damn. Why the hell did they cut that out for the international markets? Even that bit sounds awesome as hell.
Actually Steve is hiding his beard with convenient hand placement, as he was in the middle of another movie when they called everyone back to shoot the little epilogue scene.
His eyes are closed, I'd say that qualifies as sleeping/resting, convenient as his hand placement may be.
Right, but that was all I got out of it. I, too, was wondering if there was something more to the Stanton cameo other than a, y'know, cheap Alien reference. I kept thinking "Was he in any early, early Marvel anything the the Hulk TV show?" But apparently nothing...
So was anyone else as surprised/tickled as me when the credits rolled and they realised that the Other (the Mouth of Sauron alien guy) was played by Alexis Denisof a.k.a. Wesley Windham-Price? Also pretty sure I noticed Enver Gjokaj (aka Dollhouse's Victor) playing a cop earlier in the film, too. The younger one hanging out with the guy Cap orders around.
I was. ESPECIALLY because it was Fillion who punked Whedon at Comic-Con by asking at the mic if Whedon would be finding a place for his good, dear friends in the film... It may make sense if Denisof and Acker were the two leads in Much Ado that he was filming and he got each in another film, but other than that -- no clue. I also seem to recall that Alexis was a part of Whedon's home readings of Shakespeare (just imagine every one of your favorite people from Buffy, Angel, etc. plus some others being invited to someone's house to drink wine, sing and read lines).
