Well, I have now seen The Avengers twice and have come out of the film with some mixed feelings. While there is no doubt it is a great film there were somethings that really bugged me. During this article I will breakdown my problems and explain why I think The Avengers is great, not amazing.
Captain America and Iron Man:
Whilst it was certainly interesting to see Tony Stark and Steve Rodgers lock horns, I feel they missed an opportune moment between these two characters. In The First Avenger, Howard Stark is a prominent character throughout the film but is hardly touched upon in this movie. What I was waiting for was Steve and Tony to have a little heart to heart about his father. I just found it odd that Tony was not particularly curious about what his father was like when he was younger. I know it is something that would intrigue me.
During Steve and Tony's argument, I was expecting Steve to say something along the lines of " you are not half the man your father was". This I feel would have worked better as way of causing some serious friction between the two characters. These two in particular are connected to each other, via Howard and I just thought that could have been featured during the building of their relationship.
Weak on Emotional Depth:
Before I begin with this problem, I am fully expecting someone to say "well you don't go to an action movie like The Avengers and expect emotional depth". To this I strongly disagree. No matter what the film is, if it lacks emotional depth it makes it harder to get behind the characters. Now I can appreciate that is what the solo films are for but I was just a bit disappointed that there was nothing that really pulled me in. The characters came off a bit hollow at times because of this. There was no moment in the film where I was particularly worried about the characters well being because I was not emotionally invested.
For example: When Agent Coulson dies I was shocked but I wasn't particularly sad. It all happens so quickly that you almost forget he has been killed. I wanted more from his last words with Nick Fury. Something to make me sympathise with the character because he has been one of my favourites in the MCU. Unfortunately that didn't happen and made his death very lacklustre.
Hawkeye ? :
This was one of my biggest disappointments with the film. Hawkeye was unfortunately completely under-used and as a result felt very disconnected from the team. For over half the movie he is Loki's zombie/slave, which unfortunately gave the character no real time to develop. It was very important for us to see and understand Hawkeye as a character because he is only featured as a cameo in Thor. You have to remember whilst there are many of us who will know who Hawkeye is, the majority of the general public won't. I personally feel that Hawkeye's time could have been used much more effectively in telling the audience who this guy is and what his own motivations are.
Is The Hulk a good guy or villain? :
Hulk was a fantastic addition to this film but there were some really wishy-washy moments with his character. During the helicarrier sequence he loses control and attacks everyone. The in the final battle he can control it. Now I know in the helicarrier he was most likely under Loki's mind control. This however, was not particularly clear and made it a bit confusing. Then in the final battle he can completely control his transformation and helps out his team mates. Also I felt there was no real motivation for him to help his fellow colleagues. Yet he turns up in the nick of time and rescues them. It was very glossed over unfortunately.
However I would just like to add, The Hulk had some of the best moments in the film. His action-sequences were top-notch and was one of my favourite characters.
I have removed The Tesseract point in this article because it has been cleared up by some of the commenters ! So instead I will add in a couple more things I feel prevented the film from absolutely amazing status.
Loki's Army ? :
This was quite a small gripe for me. Now I know the film already has enough to cram into it's 2hr 22 minutes time slot, but I feel it would have been nice to elaborate on them a bit more. They were pretty much an expendable army and had no development. They were also not much of a threat to The Avengers and that is why I feel it made it difficult to become worried for them. There was nothing that made me think The Avengers could be defeated, which unfortunately took away some of the tension.
Where was The Red Skull ?:
This I found disappointing because at the end of The First Avenger, we see The Red Skull teleported by the Tesseract. On immediately seeing this scene, the first thing that came to my mind was, he will be in The Avengers. Now I know the trailers leading up to The Avengers, didn't give any indication that Red Skull would be appearing but I was hoping this would be a surprise in the movie. He would have fit into this film perfectly, in my opinion. His goal is the same as Loki's, which is to dominate the World.
Too Fast Paced At Times:
At some points in this film it is just gunning it to the finish. It never really uses anytime to connect with the characters. Every time something happened that did not fit into The Avengers favour it moved so quickly you never had time to establish it.. This also was one of my problems when the heroes were all arguing in Banner's lab. The majority of the argument does a good job of building tension but then moments later it pushes straight passed it and is practically forgotten, for the rest of the film's entirety. It is moment's like these that really count in a stories development and I felt it pushed passed issues way too fast at times.
Very Bland Story:
The story in general is pretty much the film's weakest link. It acts as a device to get to the spectacle basically. It was very generic. Villain comes. Heroes have to stop him. They do. End of film. I mean an example of a story that becomes more complex over time is TDK. The initial story is to stop The Joker but it develops into much more than that. We soon find out that he can't stop Joker and actually loses at the end of the film, he didn't win.
The Avengers never really takes a risk in terms of the story. It is very safe and whilst it isn't necessarily a bad thing, I just thought it made the impact of the film a bit weak. It doesn't try to give older audience members something to chew on. Spider-Man 2, TDK, BB, did and in my view that is why they are the better movies. Even X-Men managed to give the more mature audience members, something to relate to.
The Avengers falls short on this but as I have said what it does well, it does phenomenally, which makes up for some of the weaker points.
All in all, it was a very enjoyable film but it was no way near what many are claiming it to be. The action is the real highlight of the film and can't be matched by most films. It was just a shame that not all of the film was perfect. Is it an incredible experience? Absolutely. Did I enjoy it? Definitely. Was it the best CBM ever? It is debatable but for myself, no. Were there some problems? Yes.
I would like to add this is not me taking a dig at the film. There are just somethings I feel that could have been better.
If there is anything you guys would like to add or believe I am wrong about feel free to inform me.
What were your highlights of the film and what do you feel could have been done better ?