The Avengers
Finally... after 4 years of waiting for it, and being teased at the end of 5 different movies about it, the summer event Blockbuster has been released.
This is The Avengers:
In 2007 after a few less than stellar productions *cough*FF*cough*... Marvel took the reigns of their own cinematic production company and began work on one of, if not the most ambitious cinematic projects ever undertaken.
5 different movies spanning 3 years of production, all leading up to a sixth movie to crown the production. All had to contractually keep the stars in for the 6th one, and they all had to stand on their own as well as deliver connections between them and the final movie.
It all started with the one that is arguably the best of the lot. Iron Man. At first stirring controversy about the casting choice, Downey Jr. soon put all the nay sayers to rest making the character his own, and yet still keeping him close to the comic book counterpart.
Then there would be the Incredible Hulk. In an homage Bill Bixby's Incredible hulk TV show they took that concept and idea and implemented it pretty nicely into the movie. Though the end result was good it left audiences wanting more as it paled in comparison to Iron Man.
Iron Man 2 was the next installment and again proved to be nowhere near as good as #1, but still entertaining and well executed.
Their next installment would try to go all out by hiring Kenneth Branagh as a director but ultimately felt rushed and lost its pacing in an effort to actually set up he premise for the Avengers movie.
Captain America again felt prey to underdeveloped characters and villains not used to their fullest extent. It really had little set up for Avengers other than making Cap available for it and producing our main plot contrived deux ex-machina device for Avengers: The Tresseract. The Cosmic cube for all those Marvel fans out there.
Finally 2012 arrives and we get The Avengers... hyped to its fullest with posters, adverts, promotions etc... does it really live up to all this build up?
Lets take a look:
Obviously some spoilers here
Thor's Half brother Loki in an attempt to take revenge on Thor for taking the throne of Asgard away from him decides he's going to conquer earth and destroy it. With the help of the Tresseract and a mind controlled Dr. Selvig, played by Stellan Skarsgård, he opens a portal to another dimension to bring an army of aliens know as Chitauri. So the 4 main heroes must join forces with Nick Fury, the Black Widow, and Hawkeye to take down Loki and his minions.
The story is well laid out if a little contrived, but works in the grand scheme of things. The actors have had time to settle into their roles and now feel more comfortable with them. Specially Robert Downy Jr. He takes the entire movie and really overshadows everybody else. But he's so good at it you don;t care, you just want to see more of his quick banter with Banner and Thor.
The use of iconic shield technology including the massive Hellicarrier is geek-gasm material . Any Marvel fan will squeel like a little girl at every little nod they put in the movie.
The contrivances used may put some people off as they create a few plot holes here and there... Such as Thor's convenient return from Asgard after it was established it was near impossible to do so in his own movie.
The new Captain America costume really is a little ridiculous compared to the one used in his own movie. There they tried to make it look functional, here its little more than blue spandex. They seriously couldn't use a suit similar to the Cap movie?
The underuse of Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye is kind of bothersome. He's an important part of the team, and yes I know he was a bad guy in the comics, but was it really necessary to have him be controlled by Loki's do it all staff? Why not keep him in the team, perhaps have some other agent be controlled by Loki. He really doesn't do anything requiring Hawkeyes abilities while under his control so....
At the end though these are minor gripes... the main issue I have with the movie follows:
The completely insane use of the Hulk totally made me do a double take and go "Huh???"
I thoroughly disliked Mark Ruffalo's portrayal of Banner and worst still was the completely incoherent use of the Hulk throughout the movie. They establish him as a raging beast from the get go, and then do a complete 180 at the end when the plot demands it. There was enough time to show us Banner can control the Hulk, there's even precedent in the comics to base off of were they could say Hulk is completely under Banners reigns and he can be useful in a team. But no, they tell us he's raging, destructive, and a danger to others going as far as showing us a specially constructed cage on the Hellicarrier for him and then completely ignore it. And suddenly we have a Banner who can control Hulk just fine, even changing into him on command, and yet he still talks about him as if he is a burden.
Yes I know in the comics they made him coherent enough to talk while he was part of the team.. but they need a better explanation here. For you Marvel fans out there I have three words. The.. Professor... Persona.
Overall the movie is a lot of fun, and has some really funny moments and some high tension ones as well. It delivers what we've been promised for 4 or 5 years, and although it has its strange choices and moments, its still highly recommended for Marvel fans. The regular viewer will still enjoy it even if many things aren;t really explained.
I saw it in 3D and it was a good show. With enough 3D to make it worth it, but not too much to make you dizzy.
4 out of 5 Captain America shields.
As usual stay till the end of the credits for a spectacular teaser. Any Marvel fan should immediately identify the character and what the teaser implies for a potential sequel if there is one.
This is The Avengers:
Backstory
5 different movies spanning 3 years of production, all leading up to a sixth movie to crown the production. All had to contractually keep the stars in for the 6th one, and they all had to stand on their own as well as deliver connections between them and the final movie.
It all started with the one that is arguably the best of the lot. Iron Man. At first stirring controversy about the casting choice, Downey Jr. soon put all the nay sayers to rest making the character his own, and yet still keeping him close to the comic book counterpart.
Then there would be the Incredible Hulk. In an homage Bill Bixby's Incredible hulk TV show they took that concept and idea and implemented it pretty nicely into the movie. Though the end result was good it left audiences wanting more as it paled in comparison to Iron Man.
Iron Man 2 was the next installment and again proved to be nowhere near as good as #1, but still entertaining and well executed.
Their next installment would try to go all out by hiring Kenneth Branagh as a director but ultimately felt rushed and lost its pacing in an effort to actually set up he premise for the Avengers movie.
Captain America again felt prey to underdeveloped characters and villains not used to their fullest extent. It really had little set up for Avengers other than making Cap available for it and producing our main plot contrived deux ex-machina device for Avengers: The Tresseract. The Cosmic cube for all those Marvel fans out there.
Finally 2012 arrives and we get The Avengers... hyped to its fullest with posters, adverts, promotions etc... does it really live up to all this build up?
Lets take a look:
Plot
Obviously some spoilers here
Thor's Half brother Loki in an attempt to take revenge on Thor for taking the throne of Asgard away from him decides he's going to conquer earth and destroy it. With the help of the Tresseract and a mind controlled Dr. Selvig, played by Stellan Skarsgård, he opens a portal to another dimension to bring an army of aliens know as Chitauri. So the 4 main heroes must join forces with Nick Fury, the Black Widow, and Hawkeye to take down Loki and his minions.
The Good
The story is well laid out if a little contrived, but works in the grand scheme of things. The actors have had time to settle into their roles and now feel more comfortable with them. Specially Robert Downy Jr. He takes the entire movie and really overshadows everybody else. But he's so good at it you don;t care, you just want to see more of his quick banter with Banner and Thor.
The use of iconic shield technology including the massive Hellicarrier is geek-gasm material . Any Marvel fan will squeel like a little girl at every little nod they put in the movie.
The Bad
The contrivances used may put some people off as they create a few plot holes here and there... Such as Thor's convenient return from Asgard after it was established it was near impossible to do so in his own movie.
The new Captain America costume really is a little ridiculous compared to the one used in his own movie. There they tried to make it look functional, here its little more than blue spandex. They seriously couldn't use a suit similar to the Cap movie?
The underuse of Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye is kind of bothersome. He's an important part of the team, and yes I know he was a bad guy in the comics, but was it really necessary to have him be controlled by Loki's do it all staff? Why not keep him in the team, perhaps have some other agent be controlled by Loki. He really doesn't do anything requiring Hawkeyes abilities while under his control so....
At the end though these are minor gripes... the main issue I have with the movie follows:
The Ugly
The completely insane use of the Hulk totally made me do a double take and go "Huh???"
I thoroughly disliked Mark Ruffalo's portrayal of Banner and worst still was the completely incoherent use of the Hulk throughout the movie. They establish him as a raging beast from the get go, and then do a complete 180 at the end when the plot demands it. There was enough time to show us Banner can control the Hulk, there's even precedent in the comics to base off of were they could say Hulk is completely under Banners reigns and he can be useful in a team. But no, they tell us he's raging, destructive, and a danger to others going as far as showing us a specially constructed cage on the Hellicarrier for him and then completely ignore it. And suddenly we have a Banner who can control Hulk just fine, even changing into him on command, and yet he still talks about him as if he is a burden.
Yes I know in the comics they made him coherent enough to talk while he was part of the team.. but they need a better explanation here. For you Marvel fans out there I have three words. The.. Professor... Persona.
Overall
Overall the movie is a lot of fun, and has some really funny moments and some high tension ones as well. It delivers what we've been promised for 4 or 5 years, and although it has its strange choices and moments, its still highly recommended for Marvel fans. The regular viewer will still enjoy it even if many things aren;t really explained.
I saw it in 3D and it was a good show. With enough 3D to make it worth it, but not too much to make you dizzy.
4 out of 5 Captain America shields.
Teasers
As usual stay till the end of the credits for a spectacular teaser. Any Marvel fan should immediately identify the character and what the teaser implies for a potential sequel if there is one.
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