This week my son came home from his first year of college. We had told him that we’d do something special, so yesterday afternoon I looked at him and his two sisters and asked, “How’d you guys like to go see the midnight premier of The Avengers?”
All three were thrilled. Luckily, the girls are both in the middle of some state testing right now at their schools and didn’t have to be at school til 10ish this morning. So the timing was perfect.
I’ve taken my kids (14, 16, and 18) to one midnight premier before, Rise of the Planet of the Apes. The crowds are always fun at these midnight showings; nerds in costumes, dire-hard fans, a ton of energy, so my kids were really looking forward to it. This time we were able to convince Lori to go with us, so that was a bonus (She’s not big on staying up after midnight… but we twisted her arm). We were pretty sure that we would be the only “family of five” in the theater.
We Fandango’d the tickets to reserve a spot, then we showed up only 90 minutes early (which isn’t very early for a premier like this), hoping to find that delicate balance of not waiting forever in a line, but also being early enough to find decent seats. Those who follow me on Twitter saw that they had just let everyone into the theater at 10:30. We were able to grab some of the stadium seats a few rows apart, Lori and Alec together, and the girls and I several rows above.
Some people were in costumes, but most were just fans like us. One guy walked in dressed as Thor, held up his hammer and screamed. The entire theater cheered. My kids were loving every moment of it.
By 11:30 the theater was packed. We sucked down a Coke trying to get some caffeine and stay awake…and then…the room darkened.
Previews were awesome: the new Dark Knight trailer that I Tweeted about a couple days ago, the new Spiderman. The theater literally roared when these titles came up, but then immediately silenced to hear the preview. It was an interesting phenomena. They were excited, but at the same time were serious about the film so they were respectful enough to quickly silence their cheers and laughter for the next line.
And then… The Avengers.
The film was sheer brilliance. It was far better than I even expected. It was laugh-out-loud hilarious first, in no way lessening it’s appeal as a phenomenal action film. The cast was amazing, and the script practically perfect. All this with Joss Whedon at the helm… it was a nerd’s paradise, but something every audience will love.
Yeah, I know that I just wrote only one paragraph about the actual film, but I just posted our official review of the film, how age appropriate it is, etc. on our MOVIE REVIEWS & QUICK Q’s page along with some discussion questions and a passage of scripture. Be sure to check that out.
Oh… and stay until the end of the credits. NOT just to the surprise in the “middle” of the credits… but until the VERY end!
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