He's baaaaaccccckkkkkkk! TM & © 2012 Marvel & Subs. www.marvel.com.
The Avengers hits US theatres today, surely set to obliterate box office metrics on its way to blockbuster gold, financial nirvana, accolades for the actors and kudos for the studio. Millions of people will watch it and be thoroughly entertained. A small group will watch it and be thoroughly underwhelmed. An even smaller group still will watch it and bemoan the continued decline of everything – society at large, superhero genre filmmaking, democracy as we know it, the ozone layer. These people are always annoyed at something. Their sentences often begin, “When I was a kid…” as if the world was any less a shithole when they were 10. Not surprising, most are grandparents.
I’m not here to judge or compare the film’s designs, the visual effects or the cinematography, as intrinsically, they don’t particularly interest me at first blush, as they probably should. I don’t study films that way. Mind you though, I like a good death ray as much as the next person. And when someone who really knows film explains the great use of lighting in a particular scene, I just nod my head in agreement and try not to fall asleep standing up.
What I am prepared to discuss, however, is whether or not I enjoyed the film, on what grounds, for what reasons, and whether or not I think you should go see it. On those fronts, I’d have to say The Avengers is as good a reason as any to go to the movies, filling the big screen with enough action, humor and good acting to make it worthy of your time and attention. Plus, the Hulk kicks ass, finally.
Whedon's take on the Hulk is a huge win for the film, as is Ruffalo's performance. He must have worked with a trainer for centuries to get fit for the role.
Some random thoughts:
- My single greatest concern leading up to the film’s release was just how well the filmmakers could get the various Avenger characters to play nice with each other and not trample each other onscreen. More to the point, how would characters entertaining enough to command their own feature films find the right amount of quality screen time as an ensemble without smothering each other in the process.
- To its credit, the film’s greatest achievement is the patience and care it shows in giving each superhero the time, the space and the opportunity to develop in front of the audience. They hold their own against and in concert with each other, sharing something intimate about themselves with the audience, showing believable vulnerabilities in ways that make the circumstances and specifics of their battles almost secondary. We learned something compelling about all of them as they became much more human in their super-humanity. Even Tony Stark, all smug and good looking and wealthy and brilliant and Iron Mannish. That glimpse of realism gives the audience something to grab onto. Yes, it’s called character development. It’s done so abysmally in so many movies, movies where the director inherently distrusts his own material as well as the audience’s ability to discern a sensible story, movies where the director resorts to careless and unnecessary visual mayhem to mask the lack of anything sensible to grab onto or root for except a swift end to the film.
- By the end of the movie, I was happy the action finally letup. I’d had enough. However, I could have sat for much more of the Avengers themselves, a dysfunctional buddy movie set of characters where no one is really that friendly, but ultimately, all become friends. Which is how things really are. Best buds are boring and trite. Grumpy and egomaniacal geniuses, preening Norse gods, silent assassins and a one eyed man with contempt for authority, forced by circumstance to work together against a greater peril, given lots of weapons and high-tech gizmos, much more interesting. I could have watched another hour of the interplay between the characters. People can handle a good story. In this context, The Transformer movies are mere anomalies in their lack of coherent storytelling.
- The humor was well timed. Not too campy or childish, not too overwhelming. Like the injection of needed laughs in the recent Mission Impossible movie, the ample use of well written humor was a central reason everything came together in The Avengers as well as it did.
- Tony Stark’s Iron Man did not overwhelm the proceedings. He’s the asshole with the mostest and he put on a much better show here than in Iron Man 2. Without boundaries, his character is like a beautiful bright light – you’re mesmerized, but you can only watch it for so long before you have to turn away. Joss Whedon put the brakes on him a bit and the film was better off for it.
- The Hulk stole the show, by design. Finally, Marvel got it right. Mark Ruffalo was a brilliant casting choice, though honestly, Edward Norton and Eric Bana before him were fine choices as well. Ruffalo’s Hulk is so much more than a big green monster. Though as a big green monster, he handles himself quite well. This is the first time the Hulk was portrayed as more than a cartoon character. A showdown between the Hulk and Loki late in the film takes your breath away, it’s so funny.
- An early interrogation scene with Scarlet Johansson’s Black Widow chews up the screen, as good as it gets in this genre. Sexy, smart, lightning fast. Brilliantly done.
- Much like the hours Mr. Anderson and Agent Smith spent bashing each other (it seemed like hours) in the Matrix films, I’m amazed when movies devote so much time to fisticuffs between immortals. Surely, the characters know they can’t kill each other. Surely, more could be made of the angst, the anger, the frustration, the real reason such creatures take each other on. It seems like a waste of energy, screen time and audience focus. After a minute or so, I find it boring. Yes, you’re both badasses. Now do something interesting.
- Faceless hordes of aliens? The sheer terror of the idea that aliens have invaded the Earth, done with such meaning and so skillfully in films like War of the Worlds, is non-existent here. It’s a shame. A real lost opportunity.
- The wanton destruction of an entire city, building by building, glass splintering into a thousand million pieces, as a means to cinematic and visual effects bliss, should soon be a thing of the past, and good riddance. The ship has sailed. It’s boring, it’s unrealistic, it’s lazy writing and it serves no purpose. Served up to audiences, as films do these days, as spectacles of visual overload, they aren’t frightening, they aren’t suspenseful and they serve no purpose. Without any real consequences, no population in peril, no actual death or fear of death, there is nothing at stake. With nothing at stake, why fight? With nothing at stake, there’s no drama and ultimately, nothing of interest. Trying to put an audience-friendly face on the imminent death of several million people is absurd. So filmmakers opt for the opposite, turning the destruction of a city into the equivalent of a barroom brawl. Frankly, it was the weakest part of the film and the least interesting to me.
- Without deliberately trying to spoil the third act, I kept telling myself, wait, I’ve seen this before. That’s right – in the last Transformers film. Not sure what to say that I haven’t said already – a wasted opportunity to use mayhem as a harbinger of real dread and doom.
A ginger Mata Hari armed with more than just curves and an alluring smile. Sweet.
The Avengers is a fun movie. A real fun movie. It’s quite funny at times, quite unbelievable at times, quite a bit much at times. Much of the acting is solid, much of it better than solid. If you’re looking for a film to get you off your couch, this should not disappoint.
