Movie Review: "The Avengers"

It's so rewarding to see a fantastic movie translated into the big screen. What I loved was that the character in this movie was the team. We saw the development of Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, and thor. Now, it's about seeing how they work together as a cohesive team. Just like a character, they had their downs, their inner struggles, but in the end overcame it as a much strong force. It's so wonderful to see how Whedon crafted this film. I don't care if anyone criticizes a lack of character development in this movie, I'd say they're missing the point. It's a comic book movie. That doesn't mean we just require action and no character development. It means that this movie is not singular; it's part of an ongoing series, albeit one particularly epic chapter. It means that the detailed, strong character work went into the individual films. Now, let's see the team as a character, let's see these heroes we love to watch work together. And after all that, we are treated to the epic, comic book action sequence we have been waiting for. But unlike "Transformers," it's not just eye candy. We know these characters, we understand them, and we now know why they are fighting, and what it took to get there. It's action with substance.

I love that the marvel films, while having deeper themes and great character development, aren't afraid to also embrace the comic book side and showcase bright, epic action scenes. Look, I love Nolan's batman universe, and the seriousness lends itself well to the character, but let's face it: the batman universe is about as far from the true comic book experience as we've gotten in films. It's a great, deep film based on a comic character. "The Avengers" is a comic book film that feels like it's made by and for the fans, fans who care about their characters.

The film ended up earning just over $200 million domestically, and by the end of the domestic weekend, it racked up a grand total of around $440 million overseas. That’s a brand new, and in my opinion very well-deserved record. Marvel took a gamble making this film. “Iron Man” was a success, but movies like “Thor” were definitely more gamble than sure win to me. The fact that marvel pulled this off is just stellar. I can’t believe I’m living at a time when a movie of this scale, this finely calibrated, can be made.

The characters were handled just about right, to me. Banner was a bit odd at first, because his sort of mannerisms were more openly awkward than Norton’s version. Cap was very strong; I felt like he grew so much more as a leader here, and I really believed he was more a super soldier here than in his own film. As for thor, he was a lot angrier here, but that’s understandable, his brother causing all this mischief and all. And loki was well done as usual, but I have to rewatch the beginning again; that scene with him making people kneel rings in my head as a bit odd, but it needs a re-viewing.

I love how the plot was not convoluted. It was straightforward, giving us time to focus on our characters. Phase 2 was a natural, and almost expected reaction of SHIELD against alien threats like the destroyer. And I like how we got cosmic by the end. Which makes sense. All the major heroes, to my knowledge, have had cosmic enemies. The x-men had the phoenix force and the shi'ar empire, the avengers had the skrull and kree, and the fantastic four had super-skrull. And let's not forget galactus. So, this was a natural step, and one I wonder how far we’ll delve into in future films. I know the second “Fantastic Four” film showcased some cosmic stuff, but was felt less epic than this did. Probably because the quality of filmmaking was just so much higher.

We got the movie we needed and the film we deserved, I think. Take that, Nolan. But honestly, I’m on Nolan’s side for batman, and I can’t wait to see his story completed in July. But marvel has pulled off something stellar. They’re almost pixarian in nature, with hit after hit, in different types of genres within the overall superhero umbrella.

As you can see by my post below, yesterday my mind was in too much of a flurry to really cohesively evaluate this film. Arguably, my mind is still pretty blown, and I couldn’t stop getting the film out of my head today. It’s just that good. But I wanted to write a more formal, cohesive review. I read on AICN’s comments about someone saying the film was more than the sum of its parts. Which it was. The movie wasn’t just IM + IM2 + T + CA + TIH. It took those, and elevated it to using the strengths of each character to form an epic, multi-faceted team. Even less-focused-on characters like Hawkeye and Black Widow got pretty decent backstories, with enough room left to delve on in the future. How Whedon weaves these threads together is just impressive, and if I were given the chance to have made this film, I don’t think I could’ve done it.

The theme song is also stuck in my head. I know reviews of it have been rather blasé. But superhero themes have become much more subtle than Williams’s day, when a loud, emphatic theme like “Superman” was heard. The theme for CA was rather strong, but “Thor” had a very versatile yet subdued theme, yet still beautiful and my favorite marvel theme to date. “The Avengers” is more along those lines. Subtle, yet powerful, with room to expand more in the future.

I also liked the comic book references, at least the ones I was able to catch. I think the prison they designed for loki was reminiscent of the prison they trapped him in during “Avengers #1.” Thanos was of course a throw to the fans, but I’m embarrassed to say I initially thought he was a skrull. I didn’t know much about Thanos aside from him being a titan from some moon of Jupiter or something, and he had something to do with the infinity gauntlet. I have to read up on some thanos. But I’m glad I caught the chitauri being from the ultimates universe. I imagine there are even more fan easter eggs to look for!

Hulk reflected the nature of the team. When he first transformed, the team was in disarray. Part of it was the staff, but part of it was them. They couldn’t get along, these individual heroes used to working alone. When he transformed, he didn’t know who to trust, he was an individual. When he willed himself to transform, the team was there. No longer individuals, they worked together, as did Hulk. I kind of think Banner represents the nature of the team itself.


Coulson's death was sad but needed. I unfortunately knew, from a quick glance at an early review, that a fan favorite dies. Given that Fury or the Avengers are unlikely targets, I figured it was either Coulson or Selvig. Still, having his death, and the bloody Cap cards, serve as the impetus to bring the team together was a good touch, and showed that Coulson himself knew that the team needed. It's almost as if he sacrificed himself. It was the equivalent of Tony's captivity or thor's banishment.

There are two things I can’t quite figure out. First, how loki was in Selvig’s mind. I’m guessing it was a manifestation of the cosmic cube and based on his proximity to it; he may have been controlling others as well, more as a mind control depicted for us as his reflection in the mirror. And I’m guessing loki ended up with the chitauri after falling into space at the end of “Thor.” And second, why couldn’t thor pick up mjolnir after he fell from the helicarrier? Was he trying to summon it and it wasn’t working? Perhaps this will have to wait until the DVD commentary.

I loved the montage at the end, with scenes showing people's appreciation for the avengers, even with people getting a haircut like Tony Stark. The fight scene at the end is just epic in itself. The panning, how we saw a grand view of the battle instead of focusing from one character to another, and sort of using Iron Man as our guide. It was just so well planned and executed. It lasted so long, but when it was done, I was satisfied but hoping for me. I’ve been waiting a while to see something this epic, this amazing on screen. “Avatar” was decent, but I didn’t feel anything from it. I did say, after that movie, that it’s the best battle I’ve seen on screen. That’s now been broken, by a long shot. This is the superhero battle, perhaps any on-screen battle, to beat, for me at least. I want to see this again in IMAX, it really makes you feel like you’re right there.

The use of the term "geekasm" signifies, to me, some form of geekery (yes, I defined a word using the word) so exciting, it creates a feeling of such euphoria and anticipation and craziness, that it causes one's mind to experience a sensation that's hard-to-define, but you know it when you have it. "The Avengers" was a two-hour geekasm, plain and simple, to me. 


About a month ago, while doing the night shift, I got rather tired/bored/frustrated, and decided to put the SHIELD logo on all the computers at work. Meaning, almost every computer in the emergency department, on multiple floors, and so on. I even created a sort of SHIELD headquarters on the floor known as "4 South," as seen below. And, I posted some SHIELD logo flyers around, in stairwells, bathrooms, etc. Maybe around 7 or 8 flyers in all. I was awaiting a reaction and I actually got it. While I wasn't there to see it, I heard a nurse on "4 North" got nervous and called security to investigate the matter. As I got the files from my email, I figured it's traceable, so I went and took most of it down. Mission accomplished, and maybe it inspired someone to see "The Avengers" in the process. 

I was talking to one of my attendings, who's quite a geek himself, totally into comic books and whatnot. We discussed how stellar this movie was, and he said the last scene was almost like joke at the fans. We waited for the end, and all we got was the heroes chilling and eating, and maybe laughing at us through the fourth wall. Kudos to Whedon or whoever came up with that idea. In it's own way, it was brilliant. 

Overall, Whedon has crafted a superhero masterpiece, one that takes the groundwork laid before it and sets the genre to new heights. It’s almost the equal but opposite of Nolan’s approach. Both have fantastic character development, but Whedon doesn’t appear afraid to embrace the comic book’s origins while respectfully modernizing it. “The Avengers” is a landmark film, to me, and I think it’s truly gone where no superhero movie has gone before.