Marvel’s ‘The Avengers’

Directed by Joss Whedon
Starring Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Clark Gregg, Stellan Skarsgard
Surely by now, most everyone and their mother has seen
The Avengers.
The mega-crossover event was released in theaters internationally a
week before the U.S. release, and it seemed almost everyone on the
comics internet was able to weasel their way into some sort of special
advance screening before the official May 4th opening day. Reactions
were so overwhelmingly positive for a movie with four years of hype
already under its belt, I couldn’t help but take a moment of pause to
worry that
Avengers might not be all it was expected to be.
I’m partly responsible for the hype, as I did sign up for an all-day
Ultimate Marvel Movie Marathon of
the previous Marvel Studios films (
Iron Man,
The Incredible Hulk,
Iron Man 2,
Thor,
Captain America: The First Avenger) leading into the midnight premiere of
The Avengers.
Spending 14-hours in a theater with like-minded individuals felt like
our very own Avenger assemblage. The shared experience of watching the
solo-films leading into a super-hero team-up of that unprecedented
magnitude is something I don’t expect to ever duplicate (sorry, DC).
The theater was electric as the clock struck midnight, and no
combination of sore asses or concession-stand indigestion could dull the
pure joy that would await us. Add to that anticipation the big screen
debut of the newest
Dark Knight Rises and
Amazing Spider-Man trailers, and the theater was frothing more than Squirrel Girl with rabies.
I must admit: I was less than impressed with the film’s setup, and the voices in my head started to get louder. Could
The Avengers possibly be…disappointing? The near-immediate turn of
Jeremy Renner‘s
Hawkeye into a tool of
Loki‘s
design was unsettling, and I couldn’t help but feel like a million Dan
Mahoney’s screamed out and were suddenly silenced. Sure, the Tessaract
had been introduced in
Captain America, but I was uneasy with
how swiftly it became the center of the plot. While Evil Hawkeye still
bothered me, the film’s setup was fairly quick, set the plot and
characters in motion, and featured an extraordinary action set piece
which would likely be reserved for the final act of a lesser action
film.
My concerns were quickly shuffled loose this mortal coil when
Samuel L. Jackson‘s
Nick Fury began the some assembly required to realize
The Avengers team we’ve all been waiting for. Surely, a lot of the early squee moments in
Avengers came from the various members of the team meeting-cute, something we’d been promised since Jackson cameoed in
Iron Man
in 2008. The Marvel comics the movies are based on have had these
characters crossing over for decades, but there’s still something very
special about seeing live action versions of these heroes share the big
screen for the first time. And there were SO many of those moments, and
they were all expertly crafted by the filmmakers.
The real test, however, not only for
The Avengers in story, but for
The Avengers to be validated as a filmmaking success, would be the final epic battle against the cannon-fodder
Chitauri lead by Thor’s butt-hurt brother, Loki. Much was made about what inter-dimensional force the
Earth’s Mightiest Heroes would take on in their big-screen team-up, but in the end, they could’ve been Chitauri, they could’ve been
Skrulls,
they could’ve been Kree or they could’ve been an army of
Russian-speaking ducks, the important thing was, they were a global
threat,
The Avengers needed to work together to defeat them, and they needed to provide a sufficient body count. At no point does
The Avengers
succeed more than when the team is being lead by Captain America, and
each member is contributing with their own unique set of skills. The
tracking shot following the action and skipping between heroes in the
midst of battle is easily one of the greatest accomplishments in action
filmmaking.
In a film that relies so heavily on the concept of team and family, it’s difficult to chose a star or an MVP. Surely,
Joss Whedon acc0mplished what many thought he could not, and likely, what many others could have never attempted.
Mark Ruffalo,
the rookie of the cast, shined as both Banner and Hulk, stealing most
(if not all) of the characters’ scenes. Edward Norton could not have
pulled off the same tone of Banner, and the CGI and motion capture
behind bring The Hulk to life is by far and away the most successful of
previous live action
Hulk-outings, and makes the CGI in
Incredible Hulk look crude and cartoony by comparison.
Scarlett Johansson even manages to pull off a great performance, head-and-shoulders above her abysmal outing in
Iron Man 2. Can we attribute that to Whedon’s love of strong, female heroines?
For my money,
The Avengers’ heart and soul thrives in
Chris Evans portrayal of
Captain America.
Evans is easily the most unlikely of the ensemble to pull off such a
storied and well-regarded character, especially considering his previous
roles as the young smartass. Evans hits the notes of Steve Rogers
perfectly, and is completely believable as the man that would lead a
team of super-beings into battle against the forces of darkness.
Undoubtedly adding to the gravitas of Evans’ Cap is the way series
badass Agent Phil Coulson turns into a giddy fanboy around the
First Avenger.
Allegedly, there is over 30-minutes of deleted scenes that were to
include more of Rogers integrating himself back into modern-say society,
and a reunion with his one-time love Peggy Carter from
Captain America: The First Avenger. I look forward to as much more Cap/Rogers/Evans as I can get.
This is what we’ve all been waiting for, and now that
The Avengers
has happened, we can die happy, can’t we? I doubt I’ll ever have as
enjoyable a movie-going experience, with a crowd as primed and pumped
and ready to cheer and laugh as those I shared this experience with.
There’s more Marvel Studios films coming down the pike, with
Iron Man 3 and
Thor 2 to hit theaters next year, and
Captain American 2 in 2014, with rumors of another
Hulk solo film on the agenda, and assuredly a sequel to
Avengers in the very near future, and if the mid-credits scene of
Avengers
is any indication, all bets are off as far as the Marvel movie universe
goes. But will we ever be able to recapture the magic of
The Avengers
again? One things for sure: DC and Warner Bros. aren’t going to
duplicate that magic any time s0on. So, in the meantime, all we can do
is watch
The Avengers on a constant loop.
source : http://panelsonpages.com/?p=52081