After years of planning, and sneaking in tidbits at the end of movies, Marvel’s movie roadmap meets it’s convergence point in The Avengers (or in this country The Avengers Assemble, a title I refuse to use) as all of the previously depicted superhero’s are mashed together in one big hulking, action packed, film. I had more than a little reservation about this movie; I’m a fan of the Marvel universe, I love the Iron Man movies, and whilst Thor and Captain America were flawed they were at least fun. So how will a movie with all of those big characters (and stars), along with the Hulk, Black Widow, and Hawkeye, manage not to get tangled or bloated? Well the answer is damn well brilliantly. The Avengers may be the best comic book adaptation ever made, and one of the best blockbuster action movies for some time.
The story begins by setting up the antagonist and the principle plot; Loki, last seen in Thor tumbling off into space now guided by some yet unidentified alien bad guys, comes to earth to enslave the human race by using the power of the tesseract (blue glowing cube from Captain America, and the post-credit sequence of Thor) to open a door way to allow his army of new friends in. Cue fights, explosions, the destruction of the S.H.I.E.L.D. base and one mightily pissed off Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury). From here Fury assemble’s a team of available heroes, plans to use the smarts of Tony Stark and Bruce Banner to track the tesseract and stop Loki’s evil scheme
Directed by Joss Whedon (hot off his clever and crazy The Cabin in the Woods), this movie is a prime example of what happens if you give a movie to someone who has reverence for the source material, is aware of the movies that have already been made, but is willing to really sink his teeth into it. For all of the large characters none of them pull focus over the others and yet each has their fair share of moments, the movie flows between the characters various scenes and in particular at the end action sequence there’s a beautiful shot that flows through each of them fighting in turn. The story moves forward at a quick pace, but is not rushed and takes time to explain and expand on what it needs to. Whedon has also made sure the film is very well shot, take notice of the constant use of reflective surfaces and mirrors to frame characters – the effect is straight out of a comic book page.
The Avengers is also surprisingly hilarious; there are moments of riotous comedy in the interactions between all these heroes that wonderfully break up what could have been a movie that takes itself too seriously or puts each character on a pedestal. Tony Stark is his usual witty, sardonic self. Captain America is the same boorish, tiresome goody goody that he always is. Thor is the bulging demigod coming to terms with his siblings messianic tendencies and murderous rampage. The Hulk steals the show with some of the best action punch lines. Black Widow is fantastically manipulative. And Hawkeye completes the gang as a kind of weak link, he’s a damned good shot with a bow, but Jeremy Renner is just a bit of a wooden actor. As the antagonist Loki is a brilliant, egotistical enemy, whose need for pageantry and drama make him the perfect showgirl.
There’s plenty of bulging, bounding, exploding action as the gang of disparate misfit ego’s learn how to work as a team rather than a bunch of moody teenagers (admittedly they would have to be genius, steroid ridden teenagers) in order to thwart the lank haired, moody eyed, spoilt drama queen Loki. The final action sequence set in Manhattan is a stunning accomplishment of CGI and looks fantastic in 3D. If you like 3D this uses it well. If you don’t like 3D see it in 2D, the movie will hold up just as well.
It might seem like I’m merely gushing praise for The Avengers, and its true I am, but I was genuinely impressed with it, much more so that I had thought. The few gripes I have with it are minor, as in really minor, 30 seconds of tacky background score here or a couple of off lines there – they’re inconsequential to the whole. I’m sure some people might attack some elements as being too fantastical, but I just don’t see that – you’re watching a movie about super hero’s… In that context, everything in this movie is not only believable but expected.
The ending obviously sets itself up for a sequel, with almost every character also having forthcoming solo sequels (Captain America 2, Thor 2, Iron Man 3…), and considering how much fun I had watching this I’m looking forward to it so lets hope that Whedon returns for that as well. The Avengers combines so many massive personalities into a truly entertaining spectacle, one that is improved by the time taken to set up the characters in their own movies. It might even rival Iron Man or The Dark Knight for best comic book movie adaptation. Go and see this movie.
The Avengers is in theatres from today.
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