Review: The Avengers

     Joss Whedon used to belong to the nerds. As the creator, director and main writer of the shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, Whedon developed a devoted fan base of nerds. I'm not sure why it has taken this long for Hollywood executives to see the large market appeal of this fantastic writer. He handles emotion very well, and his creative plots always contain just the right amount of humor. The Avengers is Whedon's big budget debut, and it shows real promise for his career as a movie director in the future. I think the biggest key to Whedon's success with The Avengers is that he is a director who is passionate about the source material. When Martin Campbell directed Green Lantern in 2011, it flopped because the characters were handled poorly by a director with no appreciation for Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps, most of Campbell's films beforehand were sleeker action movies like Casino Royale and The Legend of Zorro, not exactly typical nerdfare. It's a shame that what seems like an obvious principle in choosing a director for a movie is so often overlooked, but Whedon's familiarity with the Avengers Comics and the Marvel Universe make this movie a success.

This image appears in the dictionary
 next to "badass"

    I can't think of a more anticipated movie in the history of cinema. The Avengers is the culmination of four years of movies, beginning with 2008's Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk (the one starring Edward Norton, not the one with Eric Bana). After the credits of these films we were introduced to Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) an agent working for S.H.I.E.L.D, a secret government organization interested in something called “The Avengers Initiative.” Over the next few years, we were treated to three other films expanding on this universe. 2010's Iron Man 2, 2011's Captain America: The First Avenger and Thor. Each film contained small clues linking itself to the others, showing that they all were occurring in the same universe. Now in The Avengers, we get to see the four heroes join forces. 

     For those that haven't invested themselves in the world of Marvel movies, allow me to briefly explain what the whole idea behind The Avengers is, what the inherent challenges were with trying to bring it to the silver screen, and how it's been built up to for the last four years. The Avengers is the name of a collaborative group of Earth's mightiest heroes that assemble to face threats that are too big for just one or a few superheroes to face by themselves. Throughout the long colorful history of comics there have been well over a hundred different people that have been involved in the Avengers and their many off-shoots, but for most of their adventures the roster is limited to a handful of active members at any one given time.

     The concept originally worked great in comics because the characters had years to build their stories and build a fan base ahead of time. By the time they came together, everyone new who they were. Also, all of the heroes involved were owned by the same company, Marvel, so putting them in one book wasn't much harder than drawing a normal single hero issue. Movies don't work like that. For the most part, with the exception of direct sequels, almost all movies are stand-alone productions. Each one has their own crew, cast, production team, etc. Beyond that, not all Marvel heroes are even owned by the same company (movie rights for Spider-man belong to Sony and the X-Men belong to Fox, for example). So getting all of these heroes onto one screen meant that the creative visions of hundreds (probably thousands, indirectly) had to be melded

Teamwork makes the dream work

     This story begins when Loki, Thor's brother and arch-villain (played magnificently by Tom Hiddleston) steals the Tesseract, a powerful cube capable of opening wormholes to other galaxies from a S.H.I.E.L.D facility. Loki intends to use this cube to open a portal for his allies, a fleet of alien monsters/machines that are never really given much of an explanation other than to give Loki, an otherwise outmatched villain, some muscle to battle the Avengers. However, the appearance of the aliens isn't until the final act of the movie. Much of the film deals with assembling the Avengers and getting them to settle their differences and work together as a team. Tony Stark aka Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) becomes fast friends with fellow genius scientist Bruce Banner aka The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo). Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Captain America (Chris Evans) take umbrage to Stark's braggadocio, and everyone is a little nervous about the powder keg that could blow should Banner lose his temper. The film takes this chance to make a point to comic book fans which hero would win in a fight, as well as give some decent laughs. Captain America's uneasiness with the world in 2012 (he was frozen in ice a la Austin Powers in 1945) is a constant source of humor. 

     What's really impressive however, is the film's ability to balance the amount of screen time for each character without losing sense of the plot. Spiderman 3 is a great example of too many heroes and villains dragging the film down, but here that is not the case. Everyone gets about the same amount of screen time, with perhaps a little more given to the crowd favorite, Stark. The first few acts of the film drag a little, not because they aren't entertaining, but because we want to just skip to the big battle scene we all know is coming at the end of the movie. And boy does it deliver. There is an amazing 30 second tracking shot that shows all of the Avengers fighting off the generic alien baddies that is worth the price of admission alone. 

Not pictured: Ed Norton

     Robert Downey Jr. is as fun as he always is in his role as Tony Stark, and Tom Hiddleston is equally as enjoyable as the nefarious Loki. Captain America and Thor's characters aren't really developed any further than noble strongmen outsiders, but they're still fun to have around. I was really impressed by Mark Ruffalo's portrayal of Bruce Banner/The Hulk. I was initially confused as to why Edward Norton wouldn't be reprising his role and was even more surprised to see Marvel select Mark Ruffalo to replace him. Ruffalo has never appeared in an action movie before this, but it didn't occur to me until I saw the movie that Bruce Banner isn't an action hero, he's a mild mannered scientist. All of the The Hulk's action sequences are CGI so Ruffalo's action credentials are irrelevant. I really enjoyed the way everyone treated Banner's character. Most of the film takes place aboard a gigantic skyship that would come crashing down if Banner were to 'Hulk out' and this makes everyone very apprehensive around him. It's a very interesting dynamic handled very well by Whedon. 

     Simply put, The Avengers never should have never worked as a movie. There are so many characters and moving parts that putting it all together into a 2-3 hour movie should have resulted in an utter disaster. But it did work. First and foremost, regardless of everything else the movie does right or wrong, rest assured that The Avengers managed to not fall apart at the seams, which is an accomplishment worthy of praise in and of itself. 

     This movie is arguably the best superhero movie ever made, rivaled only by Nolan's The Dark Knight, but the two movies are so different in tone, and rightly so, that it is difficult to compare them side-by-side. The balance of humor, action, characters development, and plot is extremely well done. My only complaint would be how unexplained the non-Loki villains are. Who are these aliens, what do they want, and why are they teamed up with Loki? If there was an explanation in the Avengers it was very brief. However, the explanation of the villain's motives weren't that necessary because we already had Loki as the main antagonist. It appears that the alien villains will be further explored in the sequel suggested by the first of two post-credits tags. 

Good luck convincing Americans this
 guy is a villain

     It's a little bizarre to see how far the Avengers universe has come. In the first Iron Man movie, everything was very grounded. There were references to the Iraq War and there were extended scenes showing the science behind the suit. Five movies later, we have a team of superheroes fighting a magical Norse God and his army of aliens from another galaxy. I'm not saying that this is a bad thing, it's just an interesting transformation. It will also be interesting to see where this franchise goes from here. There are individual sequels planned for each of the four Avengers, as well as an Avengers sequel featuring all of them together. Some pictures have already been released from Iron Man 3 which suggest the possible involvement of a villain known as Iron Patriot, whose alter ego is Norman Osborn aka The Green Goblin from the Spider-Man franchise. The rights to Spider-Man currently belong to a different studio than that of Iron Man, but the potential for future crossover remains. 

Rating: 9/10 - Saintly