Avengers

This past weekend I took Ryan and one of his buddies to see The Avengers. Truth be told I think I was looking as forward to this film as they were, although I didn't count down the hours and minutes to movietime like Ry did.

I had joked with him about going to the midnight show when it was released because we were anticipating it so much. Well, half joked - I was the only middle aged woman without a tween in the theater at midnight when The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King came out. That was a 3+ hour movie and morning came quick the next day. But this release was a school night so they had to wait till Friday. I did buy the tickets online in advance and we showed up 45 minutes early which was a good thing because we were about 40th in line at that time (and that was the 2D screen)!

The Avengers did not disappoint. It was seriously spectacular and accomplished the rare feat of not just meeting, but exceeding my expectations, which were in fact, pretty high. It's not easy to develop a variety of characters in any story and the more characters you have the greater the challenge. I'm not sure how they managed to give equal time and attention to so many big personalities without sacrificing the dialogue or the plot, but I'm glad they figured it out.

I can't explain my appreciation for superheros or fantasy film, and it doesn't all appeal to me. I'm eager to see the next Batman film, but not Spiderman. I love X-Men. Fantastic Four wasn't even a blip on my radar. I'm not a comic-con purist who knows how far the movies stray from the original characters, I would never dress up for opening night as a character and I don't have a preference for Marvel over D.C. or vice-versa.

You could just chalk it up to entertaining action heroes with good acting, good directing and amazing special effects. But I guess what really appeals to me is a group of people (or I guess in some cases, otherworldly people) sacrificing for others. Yeah I'm sure there's a bit of an ego trip bonus for some heroes (yes, I mean you Iron Man) but ultimately they are people who use special gifts to benefit the underdogs. They defend the downtrodden, fight for the marginalized and often take the place of those who can't stand up for themselves.

There's something Christlike about that.

And when there's a whole team of them it's a little bit like displaying the body of Christ - many members of one family all with different functions and all serving a purpose.

Maybe that's why I like Superheroes.