All members of Marvel fandom had their wildest dreams fulfilled with the release of The Avengers, the ultimate payoff after 5 lead up films and four years of movie going. Bolstered by the strength of Joss Whedon’s directorial vision and witty dialogue, The Avengers makes a decent superhero film. The movie is very entertaining, and although the film gets a lot of things right, it didn’t grip me the way previous Marvel ventures, such as Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk had. I found most of the action scenes lacked creativity and failed to get my adrenaline pumping, and the part that hit me the hardest, was the films lack of a gripping villain.
The film’s storyline has a lot to do with previous films, so if you missed Thor or Captain America, you may be a little out of the loop. In a nutshell, Thor’s power hungry brother, Loki, is beamed to earth where he infiltrates a S.H.I.E.L.D. base, enslaves some agents, including Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and promptly steals the Tesseract, a powerful blue cube of unimaginable power. This event, and the fears of the horrors Loki may unleash prompts S.H.I.E.L.D. leader, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) to enact the ‘Avenger Initiative’, and bring together his team of misfit superheroes to stop Loki and his undoubtedly sinister plans.
The story focuses mainly on the Avengers learning to overcome their differences and work as a team. This is where the film really shines. Previous Marvel films have given us a taste of what each of these heroes can do on their own, and we have seen, with the exception of Captain America (Chris Evans), that each prefers to wage battle on their own terms. Although the individual ego clashes and ensuing battles eventually became tiresome, Whedon hits his stride in the quieter scenes involving characters building relationships and working out conflicts. He actually gave Steve Rogers aka Captain America, a realistic persona, something I thought was missing in the disappointing Captain America: The First Avenger. He ditched the over patriotic tones and turned down his hyper selfless nature to focus on Captain America’s ability as a leader and tactician. Although I would have loved to see Edward Norton back as The Hulk, I thought Mark Ruffalo was excellent in the role, and his chemistry with Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark when they are geeking out over each other’s tech know-how is a treat to watch. Strangely enough, I found Tony Stark to be the most irritating character in the film. Although this was most likely planned as a way to remind audiences of the size of his ego, with two films about him he had the benefit of being the most fleshed out character upon entering the film, so this extra push wasn’t really necessary. Whedon seems to have gone overboard and the constant snarky quips and one liners he saddled Downey Jr. with moved from funny to annoying very quickly.
Moving back to the positives, I knew I could count on Whedon to offer some engaging female representation that would prevent the film from being a complete sausage fest. Cobie Smulders did a decent job of portraying Maria Hill, Nick Fury’s second in command. I also loved Whedon’s development of Black Widow (Scarlet Johanson), who is portrayed as more than just a pretty face and gets a hefty amount of screen time. Black Widow shows great loyalty to her teammate Hawkeye, is a formidable fighter and has a sharp mind, which is shown off in a lovely scene between her and Loki.
The movie is shot on a grand scale, and the threat to humanity is supposed to be dire, yet it never felt desperate. I failed to connect to the stakes because I just didn’t find them to be believable in the context of the film. The root of this problem was Loki, and the inability of the character to come across as a force to be reckoned with. Although Loki was the first enemy the Avengers face off against in the comic, he’s just not that impressive in this film. Sure, Loki is clever, quick, and has a badass staff, but he can hardly hold the position of the film’s main villain, especially when it is so painfully obvious that he is a pawn. I actually love Tom Hiddleston’s performance of Loki and his portrayal worked in Thor when the focus was on his status as an outsider and his treachery and feelings of betrayal upon learning his true birthright. However, he is just not very interesting in The Avengers, and for a character that is known for his wit, outside of 2-3 memorable scenes, he really doesn’t say very much. Overall, the film just doesn’t make him a believable enemy; I never got the impression that our heroes fear Loki and even after he blindsides them, and then later unleashes his giant army of alien-mechs, I still wasn’t fully engaged. Part of this may stem from the fact that there is really no urgency in any of the battle scenes. When we finally get past the Avengers fighting each other, we get to see them take on an alien army. The aliens look fantastic, and there are some interesting moments, my favourite being when Hulk has a memorable meet and greet with Loki. However, this felt like countless other combat scenes, except with a greater focus on our heroes striking picturesque poses.
Joss Whedon gives us a strong film, and despite the its weaker elements I will be interested to see what happens with this story in the sequel, particularly when one considers the big reveal during the credits. I’m sure Loki’s actions in the first film will carry over into the second, leading to a bigger payoff overall.
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