The Avengers review

The challenge of this review will be to attempt to bottle up my bursting at the seams enthusiasm and insane joy and love for this movie. So basically:

OH MY FRAKKING GOD THIS MOVIE IS AWESOME!

I'm gonna be 31 in June, so it needs to be noted that I remember a time when comic book adaptations (and any adaptations for that matter) were not handled with care or respect for the source material. In the last decade in a half, things have gotten much better. But for every Spider-Man 2 there is a Catwoman and Green Lantern. So it's obviously not perfect, but my sincere hope is that the Avengers will show Hollywood unequivocally that this is how it's supposed to be done.

Hollywood's 80's idea of the Avengers...

From start to finish, this is an extremely fun and well-crafted flick. It's funny, smart, hip, interesting, enjoyable, and always entertaining. It's a massive steroid shot of excitement that serves to totally remind us this is why we go to the movies. I've already seen it three times with all intentions of seeing it again. And maybe again.

That's not to say it's dumb fun, quite the contrary. If you want dumb fun, Battleship is about to come out...have idiotic fun with that (I won't be bothering, FYI). Actually, the Avengers is an extremely cerebral movie. It has to be in order to retain all the excitement and yet still contain interesting, fleshed-out characters, smart, witty dialogue and an interesting story with a pace that doesn't stop moving without making you feel lost.

For all intents and purposes this movie should not exist. And if it did, it should look something like the image above. The fact that we got such a faithful interpretation while being so vastly enjoyable is simply astounding. Shocking, even. As in the kind of shock you suffer that can kill you!

In case you've been living under a rock, I will tell you very briefly what this movie is about. Within the Marvel world there is an artifact known as the Tesseract or the Cosmic Cube which is a source of great power but also a big unknown in terms of what it really was made for, what it can do and where it came from. SHIELD is a Government agency that is like the FBI for extreme, paranormal, supernatural and other worldly threats. They have the cube and they've been keeping an eye on Earth's mightiest heroes (Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, etc.) when Loki, the brother of Thor comes calling to collect the Cube with claims that he has an army ready to commit war upon the planet. SHIELD assembles the Avengers in due time and the fun begins.

Again, unless you live under a rock, you should be aware that Marvel has been producing superhero movies since 2008 to introduce individual characters from the Avengers with the sole express mission of putting them together into one movie. This movie.

The idea of putting all of these grandiose characters together was a daunting one. Many didn't think it would work. Personally, I always knew it would. For two reasons:

1. It works in the comics...and whatever works on the page will work on the screen.

2. Joss Whedon was hired to write and direct the Avengers.

I've been a massive Whedon fan for years. Ever since Buffy the Vampire Slayer came bursting onto television sets kicking ass and taking names with a little stake called Mr. Pointy. Most people write off Whedon once they hear that he was the mastermind behind works like Buffy and Angel (not to mention Firefly/Serenity). I've always felt that's highly ignorant. Regardless of whether this is your THING or not, if you just gave the show a chance and watched a couple episodes, you would at least see the genius of Whedon and why people fall in love with his shows. He writes genuinely real and interesting characters while weaving stories that are tragic, happy, fun, touching, serious, and inspiring all at once. The man is a master of handling ensembles and because he understands his characters so well, can write their dialogue in a very satisfying way. I cannot speak more highly of the man and I've been waiting for him to have an audience large enough to finally show his power and talents on the grand scale.

And so the master has arrived and hopefully schooled some of the morons within the industry. Meaning maybe now he'll get some proper goddamn respect.

BADASS

Bringing together these characters and this story could not have been easy, yet nothing about the film feels heavy-handed or awkward. Indeed, the characters don't generally like all of each other when our story begins. It's not a seething hatred, but there are some interesting ego's at play here that don't initially vibe.

They all sort of think THEY are the best hero in the room, 'who are these other guys and why do we need them?' With the exception of Tony Stark and his outlook towards Bruce Banner (who form a very quick, likable and easy-going friendship) not everyone is happy having to be in the same room with each other. But as the story unfolds and everyone is forced to rely on each other, an unspoken respect and bond starts to emerge and these very individual people start to work as a team. It's really quite thrilling to see Thor and Hulk battle a giant monster or to watch Iron Man have Captain America's back only to soar upwards and protect Hawkeye as he snipes targets - all within one tracking shot btw.

By the time we reach the end of the film (about two and a half hours deep without even feeling it), there has been death, sacrifice, heroics, conspiracy, and intrigue, but the Avengers stand strong. It's entertaining and highly satisfying. Between the one-liner's (Hulk's, "Puny God" might be the best), the character interaction and what they do and how they do it, Whedon GET'S it and get's it done RIGHT.

I remember worrying that the balance wouldn't be right. Hawkeye and Black Widow would get left out in the cold while Iron Man got too much time because it's Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man. But unbelievably, everyone get's their shot and their time to shine...and it feels effortless. Sure Iron Man get's a lot of play here, but it works and it's not at the sacrifice of any other character. It makes sense in the scenes why Iron Man is the focus when he is the focus, just like it does for any other character. Black Widow was pleasantly surprising in that I've always found her kind of boring, but in the flick she has some great scenes and interaction with ALL of the characters. She sort of centers the movie and Scarlett Johansson really stepped it up. She doesn't get lost among the big boys at all, she's here to play, and in many ways, outshines the guys. This being a Whedon project (who always loves putting strong women on screen), I should not have been surprised.

For that matter, there's been a lot of good comments about Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/the Hulk. And while I agree, and always thought Ruffalo was a good choice, the comments are something like, "I really liked that guy as the Hulk, he might be the best yet." OR, "I wish Norton had come back, but he did a good job." - I DON'T KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS. The truth is that most people no nothing about how Bruce Banner should be portrayed or whether a portrayal is accurate or not. Not to mention, who cares how Banner is portrayed or who he's portrayed by? I wanna see the Hulk...and the Hulk is CGI, so I find these comments completely unnecessary and slightly ridiculous. It's just a bit bizarre that I keep hearing this, and I almost want to counter with, so tell me a bit about what you know of Banner and how he should be played?

But who can sum up negativity in the face of something like this:

There is a scene where the Avengers are finally coming together and Captain America starts handing out orders...I seriously could have died and been okay with it. Something that I thought I would never see has come to pass.

My ONLY complaints are so minor I barely have the energy to type them out. In the flick, Nick Fury, leader of SHIELD has to answer to a shady, unnamed American council that is constantly undermining him and showing up to be annoying because it really doesn't make sense that a handful of politicians would have any say or control into an organization like SHIELD. The only good thing I can say about the scenes with these idiots is that they make a decision towards the end of the movie that plays out like a real world twist that you didn't really see coming in a story that has a giant green man leaping from building to building. Let's just put it this way, if an alien invasion started happening, how would our military really respond?

Tracking on this movie always had it as being a huge success, but man, oh man, I have never seen such positivity towards a film. No one has anything bad to say about it. As the reviews continue to sweep in they are outstandingly great, no not great, amazing, no not amazing...PHENOMENAL. Not only is this movie making tons of money, but it's making people happy and bringing them back to the theater's for multiple viewings. The continually growing positive reaction over this film coupled with the fact that it really is a good movie just blows me down. Amazing!

As for the end-credit sequences. The first is actually a MID-credit sequence and set's up the future of the franchise, with the second being an actual end-credit scene and more of a fun team moment. I really loved the end-credit sequence but if you stay for it, don't expect anything huge. There's no dialogue and it's just a cute little ending to the movie. The mid-credit sequence is another story. Stick around for that and ask a buddy who that was.


12 / 10

His name is Thanos.