Greetings everyone, I'm sure we all saw (or at least 99.9 % of us saw) Marvel's The Avengers last summer. It was a monumental success in the box office (seeing as it's now the 3rd highest grossing movie ever), and I'd say about 90% of the reviews have been positive. It was a great film overall, each actor from Robert Downey Jr., Tom Hiddleston, Mark Ruffalo, and all of the others did a fantastic job at their roles. The visual effects were some of the best, and the action was hands down the best action of any CBM to date. I'm sure many of us would feel that this film is the greatest comic book movie of all time.
But, is that really true? Is the story really that great? I give you my issues with the Avengers film, and what I liked most and disliked most about this film. So, without further ado:
Things I disliked about The Avengers movie.
Iron Man OVERLOAD!
Now, don't get me wrong. I love Iron Man as a character, with his ingenuity and innovative genius, he's definitely one of my favorites. But you have to agree, the other characters got overshadowed by Iron Man. He took the spotlight for himself on many different occasions. Granted, Iron Man is just as important as all of the other Avengers. But Tony Stark was quite simply, overused in this movie. And I know it's due to his popularity, I just wish he wasn't as overdone as he was because many of the Avengers (Cap, especially) deserved more of the spotlight than he did. I mean, Captain America is their leader. If anyone is going to get extra screen time it should be him. I guess they should've just called it "Iron Man and his Amazing Friends".
Zombified Hawkeye
This one was another big letdown for me. I mean, I hear that Hawkeye is going to be in the Avengers movie. I get excited, but they left out the tiny little detail that Hawkeye is a zombie for pretty much the entire film up until the end. It was a major letdown for me personally. I'm a real Hawkeye fan, (and the answer is no, if you're going to accuse me of being a post-avengers Hawkeye fanboy, I've loved him since his beginning) so I was really upset that he literally had no character development at all. Hawkeye is one of my favorite Avengers, and he was made into a mindless zombie almost the entire time and it was quite disappointing.
They went with style over substance.
This is the most major one for me, like I stated before. Style and action are what this movie is about, it had the best action of any superhero movie to date. But, as far the story goes there really wasn't much to it. It's actually quite simple, the movie didn't have a deep, gripping, emotionally compelling storyline. It was basic at best, this is why I have no problem stating that Marvel's The Avengers IS NOT the greatest comic book movie of all time. The story was seriously lacking, it wasn't poorly written or poorly directed. It just wasn't all that great of a storyline, it wasn't terrible but wasn't awesome either. It was just basic, badguy wants to take over planet. Badguy assembles an army and begins to take over planet. Good guys assemble and take out badguy...that's pretty much the entire storyline right there. Not bad, but not great either. Style over substance is something I wish had been done differently.
There are two minor issues I have with the movie that I will address in this paragraph. First one, was Captain America's costume. I just don't get why they wanted to change it. His outfit in Captain America: The First Avenger looked awesome and was actually pretty close to the comic book. But in the Avengers, after he got a supposed "update" he looked like a piece of plastic! An action figure! A toy! That's what it looked like to me. Secondly, was the appearance of Black Widow. Now, I don't hate the Black Widow as a character. I just don't think she brings much to the team, they already have a master assassin/spy and that's Hawkeye and Clint is way cooler than Natasha. They already have a master martial artist and that's Captain America, and believe me Widow ain't got nothing on Rogers when it comes to the martial arts. In fact, I'd say her gender alone was the only reason she was included. Without her it'd be an all-guys party...no girls allowed! That's the only reason that makes sense as to why she should be with them. Personally, I don't think she should've been used in the movie. If they needed a female character than they could have gone with Ms. Marvel or Spider-Woman, both of which bring a lot more to the table than Widow does. (and a lot more than Wasp too for that matter)
Now, on to my favorite things about the movie.
Mark Ruffalo's performance as Hulk/Banner.
Mark Ruffalo did an outstanding acting job as Bruce Banner. I loved the way he played that role, every time from his initial appearance to when he's in the helicarrier to when he finally becomes Hulk. You just know, when Ruffalo gets screen time, yeah that part is going to be entertaining. I felt he stayed true to the character, which I loved. He did an absolutely fantastic acting job, in fact. In my opinion, he did the best acting job of all the actors involved. I'm a huge Hulk fan (my absolute favorite comic book character ever), so naturally I would be skeptical. But Ruffalo did such an amazing job, he played the character flawlessly and I give him major props for that.
Tom Hiddleston's performance as Loki.
This was one of the major highlights of the film, and of the MCU as a whole. Tom Hiddlston is an outstanding actor, he did a great job in the Thor solo movie. In fact, I'd even go so far as to say that Tom Hiddleston (Loki) was the only thing I really liked about the Thor solo, that and the Hawkeye cameo. Anyways, he did an even better job in the Avengers. I really loved how Tom took this character to heart and gave us one of the best performances in a superhero film ever. This was one of the biggest highlights for me personally.
The Action.
Yes, just like I said before. The action in Marvel's The Avengers was the best action of any superhero film up to date. Granted, the story was pretty weak. But the action was part of what made this movie great, everything...every scene was great. Everything from Captain America vs Thor vs Iron Man...to Hawkeye vs Black Widow in the helicarrier...to the Hulk chasing Black Widow scene...to Hulk vs Thor...to Cap and Iron Man fighting Loki in the beginning, and my personal favorite. Hulk smashing Loki around like a rag doll near the end. Every single one of these scenes was perfect, the action worked perfectly overall. Even though the story wasn't great, the action almost (I say "almost") makes up for it.
Cap got to be the leader, even if it was only for a few minutes.
This part was rather short, but I still absolutely loved the fact that the producers and directors acknowledged the fact that Captain America is the leader of the Avengers. I was waiting for this to happen throughout the whole movie, and at some point I figured that it wouldn't. But when it did, and Cap used his superior tactical skills to direct and lead the team and to tell Thor to light e'm up and Hulk to smash. I was just overjoyed, I was so glad that they had at least given Captain America one scene where he is looked at as the leader. I wish it would've been longer, but I'm happy it was there at all.
Thanos cameo.
This last one will be quite short, I love the fact that Thanos received a cameo at the end of the movie. This really brings excitement to all comic fans as well as the general audience who are now excited for a sequel. With his rumored appearance in Guardians of the Galaxy, and The Avengers 2. I think this was a great way to launch off Phase 2.
Well that's all, The Avengers IS NOT the greatest superhero movie of all time, and the story wasn't that great. But it was still an awesome film in it's own right and at the end of the day the good outweighs the bad...
If you enjoyed my article, please give it the thumbs up and tell me what you liked and disliked about this movie, and please be civil.
Thanks for reading!