So in answer to the question as to whether or not I liked "The Avengers," the short answer is an easy "hell yes." But since I like to dive into movies a with a bit more depth than that, I also need to be the one to admit that the film is not perfect. Some of my friends are touting it as the new gold-standard, the greatest comic book film of all time. But I think they say that with each new comic film release. And while I'm not sure which film truly deserves that title, I wouldn't go that far over "The Avengers." But I will call it fantastic summer entertainment.
To best appreciate "The Avengers," audiences really need the back story provided by the earlier films in the Marvel franchise. One of the strengths of this film is that it leaves origin story-centered exposition out, but writer/director Joss Whedon is only able to do so because most of the superheroes who make up this dream team have already starred in hours of back story. In particular, last year's "Thor" is perhaps the most necessary for understanding "The Avengers" and, to some extent, watching either of the two films made about The Hulk are probably the least important, so long as you grasp the concept that when Bruce Banner gets mad, he turns into the green guy.
Still, it wouldn't be a comic book movie without an exposition-laden first act, so here we get Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, who looks like a cross between a one-eyed Blade and an extra from "The Matrix," trying to assemble a team of superhero fighters. It's up to Fury, as a leader of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate), to form the group that can stand up to the menacing Loki (a fantastic Tom Hiddleston), who happens to be the adopted brother of one of the film's heroes, Thor.
The film's conflict goes through three distinct acts. The first act is all interpersonal conflict, since superheroes often come with super egos. Fury brings in the idealistic and recently unfrozen Captain America (Chris Evans), the slightly primeval Thor (Chris Hemsworth), who has recently returned home after being banished from Asgard, and a reluctant doctor named Bruce Banner who, when provoked to anger, transforms uncontrollably into The Incredible Hulk. Rounding out his team are three mere mortals with unbelievable skills: Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), a sure-shot marksman whose arrows have seemingly limitless abilities, Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), a Russian spy who also appears to be a Russian gymnast as well, and Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.), whose billions of dollars and deep knowledge of weaponry and technology have led him to his alter ego of Iron Man.
The "you guys are going to need to be able to get along" conflict is a little obvious and heavy-handed, though it makes for some witty and entertaining moments, culminating in the second central conflict of the film, wherein different combinations of the Avengers team formed to work together instead beat the shit out of each other. There's Hulk vs. Thor, Captain America vs. Thor, Black Widow vs. Hawkeye (who, to be fair, is under Loki's influence), and so on.
Finally, the team reunites for the film's final and most cinematically satisfying conflict, which comes when the six of them face, as a unified front, an army of hard-to-explain-robot-insect-thingies unleashed from a time-space portal by Loki. It was during this final and thrilling third act that I was thankful that I didn't pay for 3-D; there were so many crashes and smashes and moments of tightly-filmed chaos and loud explosions that I'm certain I'd have thrown up.
Given the film's box office take in just its first few weeks, there's a good chance that plot summary is a waste of space because everyone has seen the film already. So I'll move on to point out a few specific things I liked about the movie, and a few I had a problem with.
LIKED
1. For a superhero movie, I thought "The Avengers" had one of the strongest human elements of any superhero film I'd recently seen. In particular, I thought Clark Gregg as Agent Phil Coulson was one of the highlights of the movie. Coulson has been woven throughout other Marvel films up to this point and it's great to see him so prominently featured here.
2. Though the writing gets a little formulaic when Whedon spirals off pairs of Avengers for little mini-conflicts between them, some of these moments provide for some of the best acting in the film, not to mention some of the movie's best lines. An intense discussion between Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner and Downey's Tony Stark is one of the film's acting high points, and a scene when Black Widow interrogates Loki in a prison cell (or is she being interrogated?) seemed to be lifted right from "The Silence of the Lambs," and I mean that in the best possible sense of the word.
3. The Hulk was used properly! Some felt the constant reminder of "you don't want The Hulk to come out" got a little heavy-handed, but I think Whedon knew how to build suspense to the boiling point before it finally exploded. He took just the right amount of time to do it, and the payoff was evident. And once we finally saw the green guy, he looked fantastic. Clearly a product of CGI work, the monster bore a passing resemblance to Ruffalo, which was great.
DISLIKED
1. The one problem with The Hulk came in the final section when, with no explanation save for one line of dialogue from Ruffalo indicating that Banner has a modicum of control over his ability to transform, The Hulk goes from being absolutely uncontrollable to being a methodical team player in the fight against Loki's army. How, exactly, does he shift from having whoever is in front of him as his enemy to knowing exactly who to hurt and who not to hurt and being able to take directions? Clearly, the team needed this kind of Hulk, but how was that possible? I hope an Avengers 2 film would clear this up for me.
2. Loki's army certainly looked horrifying, but I would have liked a little more clarity concerning where they came from and how they were summoned. Loki's abilities felt slightly altered from those he possessed in "Thor," and I would have liked more of an arc to connect the two.
3. The film's length, I'm sorry, was a bit too long.
Given the fact that my dislikes are largely issues of script logic and fan boy quibbles, the fact remains that I enjoyed "The Avengers" a great deal and would gladly watch the film again. The film accomplishes what it should hope to accomplish and, in the hands of Whedon, probably exceeds any expectations I would have had for it in someone else's possession.
3.5 out of 4
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