Full blogger’s disclosure: I have been a comic geek since before I could actually read. I used to secretly flip through my brother’s “mint condition” comics when he wasn’t around, making them slightly less mint as I tried figure out what those word balloons and panel descriptions said.

So it might surprise many to find that it took me a full week after Marvel’s The Avengers debuted for me to watch the movie. But that doesn’t mean I wasn’t as excited as all the other fanboys. I just wanted to be cautious. I didn’t want it to be the start of a year of comic-movie letdowns, like in 2003 when both The Hulk and Daredevil made money but lost much of the soul and heart of the original characters due to inferior writing and directing.

But for the past week or so, all I heard was praise for The Avengers. Again, I approached it with cautious optimism. After all, it was breaking records mostly on the backs (and wallets) of non-comic-fans who don’t know their Black Panther from their Tigra.

Now, I’m happy to say that I’ve seen it and thoroughly enjoyed The Avengers. Sure there were plenty of flaws. (As a writer, I’m still aching to see someone really flesh out Captain America’s fish-out-of-water psychology. And as a stunt guy, I disliked how some of the fight scenes were afflicted with the annoying close-up, shaky-camera syndrome.) But overall, the screenplay balanced multiple storylines, packed in good setpieces, and punctuated the whole experience with witty humor. But most of all it satisfied my fanboy cravings by respecting the source material while simultaneously updating it.

And most of the credit must go to writer-director Joss Whedon of Buffy fame. From one comic geek to another, great job, Joss.

Now below is my four-line review:

Roses are red.
Violets are blue.
The Avengers has many marvelous parts,
‘Cause Joss Whedon is the glue.

Its setpieces are probably some of the most innovative I’ve seen in a long time, though they did get repetitive after awhile. Here’s my poem-as-a-review:

Roses are red,
Violents are blue.
The Raid‘s action was refreshingly violent
Though its story stunk like a big pile of poo.

Roses are red.
Violets are blue.
The predictable plot is a rehash,
And the action scenes look like poo.

My last line refers to the seizure-inducing, shaky camerawork and shoddy editing, which sadly has become standard fare for Hollywood movies these days.

This “Game” gets a score of 6 out of 10.

Hossein Amin wrote the screenplay (based on the book by James Sallis) with such sophistication that it actually appears very simple, while director Nicolas Winding Refn’s long takes and unique aesthetic provide such a cinematic breath of fresh air. Anyway, here’s my four-line review in the form of a poem:

Roses are red.
Violets are blue.
Drive was uniquely deliberate;
Sporadically violent, too.