Mirror, Mirror - Lily Collins is cuter than a fistful of buttons, but I had a hard time finding a point to this film.

Avengers - not sure if I can add any praises to this, but my God did Joss Whedon knock it out of the park.

1. Teamwork - this is what sets Avengers apart from the X-Men films - Whedon figured out a way for the heroes to function as a team, not just a set of superpowers. By the climax each had a role appropriate to there respective skills and powers. Everyone played to their strengths.

2. Interaction - if it's a Joss Whedon film, you're gonna have a lot of snappy bickering dialogue. Mission accomplished, but he kept them in character. Stark sounded like Stark. Fury like Fury. Cap like Cap.

3. Pacing - I have read several reviewers complain that the film drags until the third act. I must have seen another film. The pieces were put into play in rapid succession. The third act required a setup but that was handled at a brisk pace. The helicarrier sequence was no letdown.

4. Anger Management - Ruffalo nailed Banner. Or more precisely, Whedon characterized Banner perfectly. Banner seemed embarrassed, like a sex offender who knows what he's done but can't help himself. To me there was no confusion about the Hulk ultimately 'joining the team.' Banner found a purpose that allowed him to atone for his past, and the Hulk followed suit the best way he knew how.

5. Obligatory Post-Credits Foreshadowing - How are they gonna pull this off???

Isn't Lily gorgeous? But man she cannot act.

The Avengers fighting an incredibly powerful being who is in love with Death herself, and is all for the killing of countless millions...I so want to see that movie!

I think they're gonna continue the Tesseract angle...

I'll spoilerize...

As a few people have pointed out, I think we're now likely to see Infinity Gems popping up in the individual movies, then coming together in Avengers 2. That makes sense; having the main plot be a "scavenger hunt" would be pretty awkward, but scattering them throughout several movies could really work.

That was resolved by our watching the Portuguese dubbed version, which is also seems to improve the acting of Steven Seagal.

While we're spoiling things, would anyone like to tell me who the hell that guy in the mid-credits sequel-teaser was supposed to be? Here or via PM, whatever. Please tailor your answers to the comprehension level of someone who knows both jack and squat about Marvel superhero comics.

I PM'ed you.

They've already sort of done this, on a much smaller scale--not just Nick Fury popping up in a few movies to say, "Wanna join my kickball team?", but also

SPOILERS
Agent Coulson, who looked like a fun, but not critical, recurring character. His death turned out to be one of the emotional linchpins of the film, and it worked because of how established he was in this particular universe. Whedon gave him some great scenes--that last bit was so, so good--but the movie got a lot of mileage out of him being a familiar face. Sort of like with a TV show; the death stings more. So I can see them gems having a cool, cumulative effect in a different, but sort of similar way; "Oh hey, I've seen those enough to know they matter, I wonder HOLY 1upmushroom."

Oh, and I dug this movie quite a lot.

I respectfully disagree. There's action off the bat with Loki attacking Shiled. Then we get cap vs Loki, Thor vs Ironman. Unlike many 'action' films that have been made in the past few years, I like the pacing. I was entertained through the entire film. Eager to read your review when it gets posted though.

Speaks out amid the din of Avengers buzz.

Hey guys, I saw Norwegian Ninja over the weekend and, while it reminded me A LOT of a live action update of Gerry Anderson's hyper-realistic marionettes from the 60s, the overall result was REALLY MEDIOCRE!! ......... *crickets*..........

Gerry Anderson? Weird. I guess I can see the connection.

We mostly took it to be the bastard child of the found footage documentary, 80s Ninja movies, and Wes Anderson. I enjoyed it, especially when I found out more info about the history it weaves into the story. All that being said, it was definitely not something I would wanted to have paid to see.

Immortals - Unlike the recent Clash of the Titans, which was aggressively stupid, this was only aggressively mediocre. The human elements are pretty cliché (lowly hero takes on powerful tyrant) and the myth elements, whenever they pop up, tend to be pretty silly. The Titans are portrayed as a bunch of wall-crawling super-zombies with Greek helmets. The final, gory kung fu blow-out between the two groups of immortals was fun to watch, but the film on the whole was no great shakes.