I saw a midnight screening of the movie last night. I was one of the first 5 people in line so I got a double sided theater poster (worth about $40). I also got some dinky small Avengers poster too for buying some popcorn deal.

Ok anyway, the movie was way better than I could have imagined. I've been hearing that the Avengers is as good as or even better than the Dark Knight and what I heard was right. It's kinda hard to compare the two movies because the tone is so different, so I won't say the Avengers is better, but as far as comic book movies, it's at the top with the Dark Knight. Actually, as far as any type of action movie, it's at the top.

One thing that surprised me about the movie was the well placed comic relief that was actually funnier than a lot of comedy movies (but make no mistake, this wasn't a comedy). My favorite was the guy playing Space Invaders (which I just now realized how clever that really is considering the villains in this movie). By the way if you're wondering who the aliens are they're the Chitauri which are basically the Ultimate Universe's version of the Skrulls. It's been rumored that the Skrulls are tied up Fox's Fantastic Four license, so this is probably Marvel Studio's clever way to get around that.

Like every other Marvel Studio film, this one has a bonus scene hinting to the next movie (as well as another bonus scene at the very end of the credits). The bonus scene reveals the main villain for the next movie and damn it's a fucking good one. I accidentally yelled "oh my god" when I saw his face. I could tell who the real comic book nerds were after that because it's a big villain in the Marvel universe but most non readers have no clue who he is.

For those curious:
Spoiler