I woke up at 6 am to leave to see a preview showing of Marvel's The Avengers. Needless to say waking up that early, driving 45 min to the theater, and waiting outside for around 2 hours has never been more worth it.
It's hard to explain The Avengers. It has so much room to fail with the enormous cast, and the largeness of the scale. This movie really came down to three things for me: the acting, the directing, and almost more importantly, the writing.
What this movie did was accomplish something that has never been done before. First of all, it created the first true cinematic universe (not like the loosely related Tarantino universe) this truly brought characters in from four different franchises, and brought them together in a way that was comprehensible to the audience. It makes sense how all these strange characters came together. It's hard to say which character was my favorite, as it probably changed from scene to scene depending on who was on screen at the time. I do know this, the Hulk truly shines. Not only does Ruffalo play an excellent Bruce Banner, he is also the first actor to also truly play the Hulk thanks to motion-capture. His character is the source of a lot of problems, and a lot of humor throughout the film. Hawkeye also is one of the most interesting characters because we know the least amount about him, and haven't seen much of him. He was exciting to watch in action, and I personally think it would be cool to see him in a solo flick. The other characters: Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, and Iron man all get there screen time, with Iron Man very potentially having the most, to know ones surprise. All in all it works however. Each character gets there due diligence, and each keep to the core of their character that we have seen in their solo films. The acting is as good as it has ever been for a Marvel movie.
The directing is not something most people are consciously aware of. But when watching this movie as a whole by the end you recognize the importance of it. The amount of man power, and hours/months spent working on a movie like this is crazy. And yet all this is controlled by one person, it is one persons job to make this vision come alive. They get lots of help from very smart and creative people, yet it is still up to them to make the final decisions. Joss Whedon created a movie that many people believed was not possible to make. The largeness of this film in scale is insane. It is very much Black Hawk Down with superheroes. The final battle scene probably comes in around the halfway mark, maybe 60% through the film. That means that final battle lasted somewhere in the range of 30-40 minutes. And Joss made it all come together in this beautiful masterpiece of a superhero film. What he created is the perfect Avengers movie.
Considering how much work Whedon did directing this movie, we forget that he also did the writing. The story is perfect. It allows each character to shine at times, and also fall back and let others take the spot light. It is a simple plot line, but executed to perfection. When bringing these clashing egos together he truly nails the discorse and confusion of these people trying to work together. They very much want nothing to do with each other. So what is it that can make people band together to form a functional team? How about a traumatic event, that effects every character personally? That is exactly what happens. It is perfect how this even effects the group, and allows them to see what must be done. It is truly a sad scene, but necessary in order to make these egotistical superjocks see what they can be. It is a stellar screenplay, kudos to Whedon once again on this front.
All in all this is a fantastic movie. It is unlike the other Marvel movies yet similar. Each franchise has it's own feel, and this one is no less special. It is hard to imagine that these men pulled this off successfully, but that is exactly what happened. I can't wait to be able to go see it again at midnight on opening weekend. And I know you all can't wait too. It's totally worth it.
Get
Follow Me Buttons