I'm a film nerd. I admit this freely. It increases with each passing film release, and being a film nerd, as
well as a geek, well, imagine my excitement when I heard of
The Ultiment Marvel Movie Marathon and the fact that it was playing at the local Movie Theater. I immediately called Tobi.
"This is my birthday present." I demanded. "Someone is getting this for me, and we are going to this. Case closed. It's happening."
Sure enough my wonderful parents fufilled that quota and Tobi, I and Harvey all packed up and settled in for 15 glorious hours of superhero movie goodness. It started early in the morning with Hannah arriving extra early to save seats from the and retrieve our custom Marvel goodies, as well as a jumbo refillable bag of popcorn that would ease me throughout the next wide-eyed fifteen hours.
11:30 - pre-movie. We're wide awake and rarin' to go! Neither of us had been to a movie marathon before and were surpised when we got bags of swag. The coolest things were the custom 3-d specs (though we were all happy the not all the films were in 3-D, thats just a little bit more than my brain can handle). Also included were hilariously blatent advertisments for a chain of hotels disguised as an Avengers comic book. Harvey and Billy (guest star of today's adventure) spent most of Hulk reading it. They're slow readers (and Hulk is an even slower movie).
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| No. Seriously. More Popcorn. |
-1:30 hours : Post Iron Man. So far so good! Although all of us have seen Iron Man tons of times its still probably the best of the Pre-Avengers movies and seeing it on the big screen again was fun. Iron man perfectly captures the sarcasm and humour of Tony Stark, and manages to handle the real world super hero in a way that doesn't come across as forced or kitschy. However, after an hour and a half, the first bag of popcorn had been thoroughly decimated by me (the resident Popcorn-beast) and it was time for more! Luckily there were good sized break times between the movies for bathroom runs or resnacking. However, the crowds sometimes made the wait unbearable, and since it's sacrilege to leave before the post-credit teaser, I found it best to make snack runs during the movies that I found the least engaging.
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| POPCORN! |
-4:24 hours : Post Hulk. Only two movies down and the gang is already asleep on the job! Well, not technically asleep (I can't actually sleep in anything but a bed) but definitely feeling the strain. Hannah is nappy, Harvey is unconcious and Billy is whacked out on blue slushie. Hulk is far and away the worst movie of the series. It's dull, predictable and very uninteresting. Although it has some great actors, for the most part the subject matter is really hard to get into. The Hulk doesn't carry a movie on his own very well. He was great in the Avengers as a supporting member of the cast but as a central plot, its really just a monster movie with none of the emotional depth it was aiming for, and some pretty serious plot holes; (not the least of which is a main character who is frequently reduced to a giant green beast who has the vocabulary of a very angry toddler). We were all ready for a bit of a break, and something a bit more engaging then
Hulk Smash!
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| Even Harvey and Billy were unsatisfied. |
- 6:55 hours : Post Iron Man 2 - Halfway done! Are we tired yet? ...naww...
Iron Man is, like I said above, probably our favorite among the lot. Iron Man 2 is just as good as the first (in my opinion), and really perked me up after sitting through Hulk; not that you'd be able to tell through the overnight-bags under my eyes. The audience seemed to rouse a little bit (though the halfway break did a bit to help that out too. The audience at this thing was fabulous. Nothing but nerds who spent every break picking apart the movie plots and debating comic-book canon, and doing the obligitory Stan Lee cheer every time he appeared on screen. It was lovely. By sheer chance I ended up sitting next to a non-nerd who had come with her boyfriend. She was, understandably, a little overwhelmed by the sheer geekery. She turned to me, as a fellow female, hoping I would understand her discomfort. Sadly she failed to notice my trademark geek-speak and Captain America pajamas.
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| It's like Pajama Sam meets Stan Lee! |
- 9:35 Hours : Post Thor - It's actually late at night now. Harvey and Billy were soundly asleep in the chair next to us, though the nerd herd were keeping themselves going with copious amounts of rage-debate and blue mountain dew. Tobi and I were tired, but not out of the game quite yet! We had overcome Thor, which neither Tobi nor myself have a very high opinion of, and there was only one movie between us and Joss Whedon-y goodness. Thor is not at all my favorite superhero, nor is his movie particular well made in my opinion. So I took no shame in taking the time to go on snack breaks or hit the bathrooms. It was also the first movie in 3-D which was not only a drain on my tired eyes but also the painfully high-pitched "Hammer sound" was beyond necessary in the surround stereo. If there is such a thing as Audio-induced epilepsy, Tobi has it; and the ringing call of Mjölnir was the worst trigger of her flailing, yelping, beat-Hannah episodes to date.
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| I clearly wasn't the only nerd bored by Thor though. Even the projectionist forgot to turn off the lights for half the movie |
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| Find the Harvey! |
By this point, the theater was a veritable campground for Nerds. There were blankets, pillow forts and the accumulated waste of 9+ hours of Nerd Rage. The two grown men behind me debated the about which Batman villain was "awesomer", one nerd was asking another couple to spoiler their discussion of Game of Thrones; and a man wearing a Dark Knight mask was running through the theater yelling "I AM THE BATMAN", and the poor girl next to me was looking increasingly displeased with her boyfriend's choice of date venue. There were loud stock-market-esque "3-d spec" trades happening from theater corner to theater corner. In a word, it was Nerdvana. And over all of the hubab, was the solid knowledge that only one more movie stood between us, and Avengers.
- 12:15 Hours : Post Captain America - Captain America is a great movie. It's cheesy, yes, and it's a super hero movie down to it's patriotic shoe polish, but it's a great movie. It actually turned me on to the whole Captain America canon, which had never really looked into before, and while I can't consider myself a real Captain America know-it-all yet, but I can definitely say I'm a fan. It was a great last movie, and a great reminder of the histories of the characters as well as the history of the Avengers as a whole. But, as much as I like Captain America, nothing could really get me to focus on the movie as much as I wanted to. For it was almost midnight, I had just sat through five movies of Marvel Superhero goodness, and what's more, it was time for...
Avengers.
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| WE'RE GONNA SEE AVENGERS! |
12:01 AM: Joss Whedon's "Avengers" - We made it. We watched 15 hours of Marvel Movies, and, even though I only vaguely remember Avengers through a haze of sleep, fake popcorn butter and nerd-citement (Nerd can be a prefix to any word, right? Totally right.), I do remember that it was one of the best birthday presents I ever got (even if I did prod my parents for months to get it for me). There is something truely amazing about the comradery of events like that. Much for the same reason I enjoy Comic conventions, going to gatherings where large groups of generally anti-social people live in a small space for a long span of time; you make friends and talk to people in ways you never would in any other circumstance. Also, Avengers was awesome. I may not remember all of it, but I remember laughing a lot, and loving Iron Man (like I do) and know that
spoilers: Phil was doomed from the get-go, and also knowing that he wasn't really dead the moment they killed him. I remember being extremely pleased with how Whedon handled the Hulk, typically my least favorite character, but also wishing Captain America was a little less grumpy, though the irony that he was in fact a crotchity old man is indeed amusing to me. Harvey, also with the soul of a crotchity old man, agrees. At the end of it all, we'd had some hilarious conversations, some great photo-bombs of the guy dressed as batman, we'd seen six pretty great movies and we'd had a purely excellent time. Harvey, Tobi, Billy and I all look forward to our next chance to movie marathon. We'll be there with pajamas on.
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| And to all a good sleep! |
We found ourselves right at home. I myself had never been to Archie McPhee's (which is a bit of a crime for a dyed-in-the-wool Seattleite like myself) so it was nice to see such a warm and familiar welcome. (Or was that creepy and slightly uncomfortable welcome? With Archie McPhee's it's never quite clear). 
Finally after a long day of browsing, my first ever photobooth experience, costuming and the wearing of hats we left Archie McPhee's with our weirdness quota for the day almost full. Archie McPhee's is definitely an adventure that every person who passes through the Emerald City should have. Only a block of two from Dick's Burgers and just a few more blocks to the University of Washington; this region of Wallingford is the penultiment urban Northwest experience. Harvey, now sporting a stylish (and totally natural looking) beard, totally agrees. 
