I'm not gonna lie. I loved Marvel's The Avengers...however I felt it was sligthly inferior to the first Iron Man. I don't know why, I just felt like I was more entertained by IM 1. Maybe its because I thought that movie would be comeplete garbage from the previews and then it exceeded my expectations by a mile. I knew the Avengers was gonna be awesome, and I got what I paid for. With Iron Man, I didn't expect it to be so entertaining. Oh well, just thought I had to get that off my chest. Now onto the real point of this article.
Is The Avengers flawless? Not even, no movie is 'flawless'. Fanboys throw that term around too much. Casablanca is not flawless. Does this movie deserve to be in the hunt for best picture? Are you kidding me? Don't get me wrong, The Avengers is the makings of a great, epic pop corn summer flick but its not Oscar material. Its a smart super hero movie, but it doesn't have enough substance for the Academy. So here below are my positive and negative things I found in Marvel's The Avengers.
***POSITIVE THINGS***
1. The comedic relief.
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Just like his work with Serenity, Joss Whedon was able to incorporate comic relief into serious subject perfectly. The comedy in this movie is spot on and comes at the exact right moment. The scene where Loki taunts the Hulk about how nothing on earth can harm a god and moments later the Hulk his swinging him around like a rag doll was the best and funniest scene of the movie. Joss Whedon is a professional at this aspect of filmmaking, and if any of you has not seen Serenity, go watch it. Like, right now.
2. The Witty dialogue.
Once again this is where Joss Whedon shines. In order to have good dialogue, the screenwriter needs to sit back and think, 'how would these people react to one another in this certain scene? What would they say to each other?' Joss Whedon knows how to type up relevant dialogue between two people or a group of people. And when the Avengers project landed in his lap, it must have been Christmas for the guy. I noticed right away that the dialogue between each of the characters was realistic as well as witty and funny.
3. Hulk.
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My main concern before this movie was released was that the Hulk wasn't gonna get enough screen time, or Bruce Banner's importance wasn't going to be as big as the others. Fortunately,that wasn't the case. As matter of fact, The Hulk/Bruce Banner as probably the 2nd most important character in the movie. Just like in his previous projects, Joss Whedon was able to give the characters relevance to the story, and The Hulk has a big part in the Avengers (Literally) He only Hulk's out twice in the movie, but when he does its exhilarating. And at the end of the day you ask, who was the best Hulk? That's a tough one. I thoroughly didn't like the Ang Lee Version, but I thought Bana did awesome. Nortan did equally as good, and Ruffalo did a good job as well. Its good know that Mark will stay on as the big green guy for awhile.
***NEGATIVE THINGS***
1. Captain America's Helmet.
This one's minor, and it didn't change my thoughts of the movie in the end, but It was one of my complaints. Cap's helmet in the First Avenger was by far the better one; it was darker, grittier looking and most of all, wasn't as corny. I know, I know he wore one in the comics, but the way the movie played out, the helmet was irrelevant. He didn't need it what so ever. Like I said its a minor complaint, but everytime I saw him wearing it I found myself snickering...but not in a good way.
2. Thor kinda just 'shows up'.
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Now, I did state that Joss Whedon gives equal importance to the main characters of his movie and this is the case for the Avengers...to a certain extent. Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, Black Widow and Hawkeye each have a short, and awesome introduction into how they're being drawn into the movie's main plot. Agent Colson interrupt's Stark and Pepper's romantic night...Rodger's wants alone time, he doesn't want to be apart of modern society just yet and spends his time brutally destroying punching bags before Nick Fury approaches him with a proposition, one he can't refuse. Black Widow is on a case and escapes the clutches of a few gangsters before traveling to pick up Bruce Banner, whom is in hiding in India. Hawkeye starts out with Nick Fury in the beginning but is put under Loki's spell. And THor? He kinda just shows up. While yes minutes after he just appears from the sky, he gets into a fight with Iron Man and Captain America. Thor is my favorite Avenger, always was, and always will be. I thoroughly enjoyed Thor (2011) last year, even though I thought it needed some improvement. With Marvel's Avengers, the characters have great backstory's, but Thor just shows up to the party uninvited. He eventually fits in, but what would have been better would have been a 3-5 minute scene on Asgard. Here's what I would love to see..we would see Thor chillin' on Asgard,thinking about Jane, when his companions tell him that Odin has requested his presence. Odin is standing on the rainbow bridge, being finalized in construction. He then proceeds to tell Thor that that there is trouble on Earth, and since knows of Thor's love of the humans, he explains that Thor must go, because there has been speculation of Loki's presence there thor, worried about the human race and more importantly the life of Jane, rides the bifrost to Earth....that would have been an awesome addition, but instead, Thor shows up without any introduction like that. He fits in, but its something I just would have liked to see in the film.
3. The Avengers: Dark of the Moon.
So you have to be a total asshole not to see some of the obvious parallels between Marvel's Avengers and Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon. How? Well the final battle says it all-a large, brutal alien force comes through a portal, raining destruction upon one of America's largest cities while some big time super heroes attempt to stop them, then eventually they start to defeat and push back these mindless aliens and shot a bomb through the portal, thus destroying the Aliens' home world. Before I get trolled by some ignorant fanboy, I'd like to say that Marvel's Avengers is by far the better movie, and in no way did it copy Dark of the Moon from start to finish. There's a better plot, relevant characters, and a great pay off in the end. I just couldn't shake the feeling that I was watching a better version of Transformers 3 in the final battle. The only thing Michael Bay's movie has over the Avengers is that the special effects in his movie are more polished than this year's Superhero assembly.
In the end, Marvel's Avenger's raises the bar back up to the First Iron Man, even though in my humble opinion it falls short of Jon Faveru's masterpiece, The Avengers packs a powerful punch and its the best way to kick off the summer since the Star Trek reboot. I loved it. I'd give it a solid A. Each of the actors brought their A game and the final 25 minutes were spectacular.
Unfortunately, however, this will be the last great marvel movie we will see for quite some time....
Why? Yes, this movie may have raised the bar, I highly doubt Iron Man 3, Cap 2, Thor 2, or any of the Hulk sequels will ever touch the heights of this year's Marvel's Avengers. and I seriously doubt the sequel to this movie will be as good as it was. With Disney involved, the Avengers may be the next Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy-with the first one blowing people away and the next two sending off a tired and formulaic vibe.
That's it for me. So I wanna know your positive and negative things you found in the Avengers. Comment and let me know!
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