At this point I've seen the movie three times. Now before you judge me let me explain. It isn't as bad as that sounds.Well... maybe it is.
It all started with the midnight premiere. (Yes I know this doesn't help my "I'm not that crazy" argument) I went with my usual midnight movie friends Eric and Rustin. And like any midnight movie event we met beforehand for food and drinks. The difference this time was the "beforehand" event was more of an all-day event. I even took the day off work to fully enjoy our geekfest.
I knew this movie was going to be big when I realized that every single theater in the megaplex was showing the Avengers at midnight. Most movies warrant one or two theaters for the crazy late night crowd. When you've got 24 full theaters at midnight you know it's something special. Even better when 10% of all those guests are in costumes of some sort. I'm not talking just a Captain America t-shirt. I'm talking about painting your body green and wearing shredded pants for your best Hulk look or putting on a stupid helmet and carrying a hammer to look like an overweight and out of shape Thor. It was like Comic-Con had thrown up its rejects all over your local movie theater. Perhaps my favorite character attempt was made by an 80 pound dude who tried to dress up like Hawkeye but ended up looking more like Katniss Everdeen.
Two days later I took my kids to see it. Yes, my kids are 5 and 3. Yes, they are way to young to go see a movie like this. Yes I knew this even as I was buying the tickets. At the same time I knew they would love it. So... much to my wife's chagrin, I took my tiny humans to see one of the best super hero movies ever made.
Here is a list of rationalizations for taking my kids to see this movie:
- My lady wife was out of town and I was in single dad mode. She is usually there to be the voice of reason for my impulse decisions. (She was definitely a voice of something else when she found out...)
- It was Free Comic Book Day. This has been a yearly tradition for us and this movie fit the theme (except the free part!) so well I couldn't possibly resist.
- Parker and Ellie spend half their day playing super heroes, they know more of the character names than any of my friends outside of the midnight crew. I thought they could use this to develop their super characters further. (Before the movie they argued about who would play the bad guy, now they argue about who has to be the Hulk See how that worked out?)
- Parker has been sleeping with his Captain America shield while wearing Spider-Man jammies for almost a month now. Once you've seen that you can't deny him anything super-hero related. Just try it!
- There were little girls dressed up like Captain America in line for the movie. This blew Parker's mind. After all "Captain America is a boy!" He made sure to tell them when they sat down behind us in the theater. Such a charmer.
- Ellie only spent the first 20 minutes of the movie asking, "Daddy are you sure this movie is for kids?" before falling in love with it.
And finally, my most recent trip. When lady V got back from her work trip we dropped off the kids at Grandma Barbie's and went out for a dinner and movie date night. Of course the movie was Avengers followed by a hot bowl of Pho on a terrifically rainy night. V was as blown away as I was. Perfection!
(She may have even semi-forgiven me for taking our kiddos... stay tuned)
So there you have it. I saw Avengers 3 times in its first week not because I'm crazy, but because I wanted to share something awesome with my loved ones. That said, if anyone hasn't seen it yet and needs a movie buddy I am totally in! By now I think I have enough movie rewards to pay for my ticket.
