By all rights, The
Avengers should have been a complete mess of a movie. It almost seems like an impossible task. Take a bunch of stars of their own respective
successful film franchises, ask them to share screentime in an ensemble
picture, yet still retain the essence of what makes their respective films
good, and also tell a compelling story.
It’s an unusually complex set of circumstances to put on any
director. Thankfully, though, Marvel
Studios was smart enough to bring Joss Whedon to direct this behemoth, and he
has proved himself more than capable.
The first thing this movie does right is to not make the
action the focus of the narrative. The first
ninety minutes of the film do have some
action, but the focus is on establishing our heroes and their efforts to work
together as a team to bring down an evil none of them could conquer alone. With some smart, intricate, and funny
writing, it feels a lot more like a witty comedy at some points than an action
flick, which provides each of the main cast plenty of time to give some surprisingly
deep performances. The nuance is more
than welcome in a genre that is oversaturated with mindless fight scenes with
no more purpose than to show off the 3D animation staff’s technical prowess.
This brings me to the giant final action scene. Yes, it is massively destructive and
explosion-heavy; but the fight actually feels like it has some weight to
it. We watch Loki keep his master plan
under wraps for the entire film, and then a giant army comes in through the sky
to lay waste to New York. Whedon
understands how to build tension in a plot, and the anticipation pays off in a
fight scene that not only shows off the abilities of each member of the
Avengers, but it is so nicely choreographed that directors of other summer
action flicks should look to this film as an example of how it’s done. (I’m looking at you, Michael Bay!)
Of course, this isn’t a perfect film by any stretch. I can nitpick here and there that some lines
come across as painfully cheesy. (“I
have a plan: Attack.” Come on.) There are also some plot points that seem to
emerge mostly out of convenience, like that weird eyeball scanning machine or
the strange conclusion to Black Widow’s interrogation of Loki. Furthermore, I’m absolutely convinced that
there is a cut of this movie floating around somewhere out there that doesn’t leave
out so much Thor backstory. Though it’s
still believable and you can piece together how it happens, Thor just sort of
shows up whenever he’s needed to progress the plot or to provide some cool
action. He mostly seems to be here for
Loki to bounce maniacal exposition off of, but I would have put up with a
longer movie to see more justice done to his character, especially after the
strong development he exhibited in his stand-alone film.
Overall, though, The
Avengers is the impossible film that lived up to the immense hype that
Marvel built in the years preceding its release. It’s smart, funny, action-packed, and, most
importantly, incredibly fun to watch. The pieces were put together so well here that
I can’t wait to see how Whedon plans to keep it fresh in next year’s sequel.
So what do you think of the first collaborative culmination
of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe? Did it
live up to your expectations as well?
Leave a comment below to let me know exactly where you think this falls
on your list of favorite superhero movies.
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