Dear Joss Whedon

This weekend I saw the Avengers. Well actually I spent the entire day on Thursday May 3rd in the movie theatre with my fiancé and his best friend. I spent the day watching the only movie marathon I would ever pay $40 to watch. I will tell you this, it was worth it. So Mr. Joss Whedon here is a letter from my heart.

Dear Mr. Whedon,
Can I call you Joss? I know you don't know me, but you might have a pretty good idea of the type of person I am. I am an Avengers fan. From cradle to recently buying my own house, I have been waiting for this day. Marvel is the only super hero franchise I can get behind. I'm not interested in Batman and the 50 movies the make and remake about him. I am interested in the Fantastic Four and the Avengers, but mostly the Avengers. So I have been waiting.
I know you may never read this, but I need to say something to you. Thank You. Thank you for making a movie about the formation of a team. Thank you for showing us how an unlikely group of people can come together for a common goal. Thank you for not throwing us into epic battles as soon as the movie starts. Simply put: THANK YOU!

I HATE super hero movies. They are never all that good and the stories become old fast. These days it feels that super hero movies are only created to be flashy and about who can use the most special effects to make the best battle scenes. Generally they make one good movie and sequels are flops. They are dumb an I hate them.

Then Iron Man came along. I fell in love. I knew something good would come out of this. Then HULK came along and I cried for a long time as I thought all hope was lost for my favorite group of heroes. Then Iron Man 2 came along and it got better. THOR was pretty good and I loved how the story was presented to us. I even loved that Hawkeye made an appearance. Then Captain America came along and I knew that if Marvel could make a movie this good, there was such great hope for an Avengers movie.

When I found out you were directing the Avengers I was so excited. I have been a fan of your work and your ability to develop characters. I was scared at the same time. This was the one super hero movie I wanted more than anything in the world. It was the one I would pay to see multiple times (and I have plans to). It needed to live up to so many expectations I had. I was afraid that we would get thrown into a battle. Afraid that we wouldn't see how people learned to work together and the uniqueness that each hero brought to the table. I just wanted it to be perfect.

So on May 3rd I was willing to take a vacation day from work. Ask anyone I work with and they will tell you how hard that is for me to do. I was also willing to spend an entire day inside a movie theatre to watch the movies of my favorite heroes. To see how their stories intertwined with one another. I was excited.

The Avengers was everything I hoped for. It was everything I have waited for. To me, a fan, the Avengers was perfect. The perfect mixture of funny and serious. I loved the fact that we watched them come together. To learn to trust one another and work with one another. I love that we watched a team develop but also learned that our heroes aren't perfect. The Avengers is made up mostly of ground heroes. Heroes that can't fly. Ground heroes are easy ways to remind us that the heroes are human. They show us why our heroes are heroes. I was excited to see that the ground heroes stayed ground heroes. That was perhaps my favorite part.

There is so much good that I can say about this movie. So much love that I could send. For right now, I just want to thank you. I want to thank your team and your cast. I want to thank you all for staying real and creating a movie that blew my expectations out of the water. A movie that was perfect.

I know others will disagree. However, I still have not met someone who did not like the movie.

So from the bottom of my heart I thank you Joss Whedon. I think you did a wonderful job. I hope we can see more from you.

Signed,
Lauren
A fan of the Avengers

(I don't have a favorite hero. I love the team).