5 Reasons Why You Should Be Excited About The Avengers

The closer we get to May 4th, the more my excitement for The Avengers threatens to hit critical mass point.

Whether you happen to be a fan of Marvel comics, a superhero movie junkie or a long-time Whedon aficionado, The Avengers is the movie to see this summer. Unfortunately, summer is still a long way off and in the meantime we are going to have to make our own fun. In that spirit, I have put together a list of five reasons why you should be excited for The Avengers, which is admittedly mostly just an excuse for me to preemptively geek out over what is destined to be my (and your) new favorite comic book movie.

Joss Whedon is the great equalizer. We all love him. Now he is at the helm of the biggest blockbuster of the year.

If you have been following his career since his Buffy the Vampire Slayer days, it’s hard not to feel a sense of pride at seeing him finally get a shot at mainstream recognition, but if you are unfamiliar with his work, I’m here to tell you to have no fear. Whedon is known for putting characters and story first. He gets emotions, he gets that the audience needs to be able to connect with the characters in front of them, but he also gets that sometimes it’s just really fun to watch stuff blow-up. He’s a fan first, and that means he is devoted to getting these iconic heroes right.

One viewing of his film, Serenity should set Marvel fans’ nerves to ease. With Whedon at the wheel, I have no doubt that The Avengers will hit all the right emotional beats and still be the action-heavy superhero romp we are all craving.

The Hulk has been a victim of bad CGI for far too long, but technology has finally caught up with the bright green personification of anger we’ve come to know as The Hulk.

This time around, rather than looking like a computer-generated over-sized space alien, The Hulk looks like a large, livid version of his portrayer, Mark Ruffalo. One good glimpse of the new and improved Hulk was all it took for me to start counting down the days until I get to see him in action.

What better way to usher in the season of loud, shiny geeked-out blockbusters than with a monster-sized ensemble superhero movie?

With winter firmly behind us, the first thing we’ll see at the movie theater this summer will be Iron Man hanging out with Thor and Captain America. By August we will all likely be sick of seeing caped crusaders and hearing earth-rattling explosions, but in May? It’s exactly what we need to prepare us for the next three months of prime movie-going time that lies before us.

Jeremy Renner is on the verge of becoming the superstar his fans already know he is and his brief appearance in Thor made it clear Hawkeye is going to be a standout character in The Avengers.

His weapon alone screams awesome and when combined with the simple black costume, it becomes clear that Hawkeye is in contention to out-cool Tony Stark himself. While there are no plans for a solo Hawkeye movie just yet, maybe The Avengers will change that. Hey, a girl can dream, right?

Nothing as ambitious as The Avengers has ever been attempted before.

Marvel put serious work into setting up this movie by planting the seeds for it across five movies and four separate franchises. They weren’t just creating a super-sized comic book movie; they were establishing a universe where all of these characters coexist– just like in the comics. It’s exciting stuff, even for a mostly non-comics reader like myself, for the simple fact that it’s creating a serialized cinematic experience that rewards viewers for watching all of the films.

If The Avengers is successful, it will no doubt lead to the further expansion of the Marvel universe on film, giving us more adventures to look forward to in the future, and that is a win whether you just enjoy a good action movie or if you have fallen for the wonderful characters that populate the Marvelverse.

Those are my five reasons (of many) to be excited about The Avengers, but I would love to hear your reasons. Tell me why you’re psyched to see The Avengers in the comments section!

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