Sunday, April 29, 2012

A Blockbuster for the Ages

Film: The Avengers
Year: 2012
Written and directed by: Joss Whedon
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Clark Gregg, Cobie Smulders, Samuel L. Jackson, Stellan Skarsgard. 
Running time: 142 min.

Where do you start on a film like The Avengers? I'm not sure. The film could either go two ways: be a desperate attempt at making money by throwing superheroes together, or it could be a movie with a whole lot of superheroes joining forces to create something extremely awesome. Thankfully, it was the latter that won the battle. The Avengers is pretty much as epic as blockbusters get. You can sit there with your nose in the air saying that the only things that understand the magic of movies are little arthouse films, but never underestimate how much blockbusters understand - sure, 75% of them are money grubbers, yet they all make use of everything available to them. The Avengers, however, takes that to the next level. I've always had a deep love for going to see blockbusters on the big screen (see my review of Thor which I saw this time last year), but The Avengers is by far and beyond one of the best experiences I've ever had in a dark cinema.


Joss Whedon was given the extraordinary task of bringing heroes Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans), Bruce Banner/Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) together and pitting them against Loki (Tom Hiddleston). With all that star power you'd probably be expecting a superhero version of Valentine's Day, but luckily, Whedon is much cooler than that. Admittedly, I'm not at all familiar with his work. Just with this movie and this movie alone, I am now. In the wrong hands, this film would have been the desperate attempt at making money by throwing superheroes together. He makes it a movie about lots of different characters, who happen to be exceptional human beings one way or another, being put together in order to save the Earth. Each character has an interesting arc to them, they're extremely well written. And that has very little to do with the movies before them.


Iron Man, Captain America and Thor have each had their own movies (as did Hulk, but those films were all over the map compared to the fairly recent made-specifically-for-The Avengers ones). They gave us a good idea who they were. Black Widow, Nick Fury and Hawkeye has scattered appearances throughout the predecessors. However, when they teamed up for The Avengers, all vying for screen time, they became different people. No, that's not because they were either poorly written in this one or the other ones. It was because we learnt what made them tick. We learnt about what they felt instead of having them just go out and shoot the shit out of people. Even though they all have extraordinary powers that I could never dream of, they all felt like humans, which is something most superhero movies choose to ignore. Apart from Thor, of course, since he doesn't come from Earth. I'm reserving judgement on Chris Hemsworth, too - you can't tell me that a human is capable of having arms like that.


To go with the excellently written characters were excellent actors. Downey Jr. uses his smarmy charm, stealing the best one liners (and hell, this movie is full of those), but he also develops a hell of a lot throughout the course of the movie. The appearance of Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts was pretty cool, too. One the opposite end of the scale was Captain America, who didn't gel well with Stark, which made for some very fun scenes. Evans played his modesty and true heroism to a tee, and you could also tell how angsty he was inside (if only he could have gone on that date with Peggy Carter). Someone who did play well with Stark, though, was Bruce Banner, who Ruffalo played extremely well. Hulk was perhaps the character that interested me the most - which was probably helped by the fact that I haven't seen any of the films based on him - because of his rather shy, controlled, meek demeanour which manifests itself into that big green thing. Ruffalo was brilliant at portraying that. Hemsworth gave quite the performance, too, even though I swear he was just a non-green version of the Hulk.


The lesser known characters like Black Widow, Hawkeye and Nick Fury were each given brilliant performances, too. I loved Scarlett Johansson: she was the epitome of sexy but that didn't control her character like it does with other woman in these sorts of movies. I didn't know a lot about Hawkeye and since he was out of play for most of the movie it was a little hard to connect with him, but Jeremy "I'm in every franchise" Renner was great as usual. And Samuel L. Jackson...what is there to say? If only he could stay the hell away from straight-to-DVD shlock. Special mention must also go out to the awesome Clark Gregg playing the equally awesome Agent Phil Coulson, Cobie Smulders as Agent Maria Hill and Stellan Skarsgard's appearance as Eric Selvig (though there were a few times I wish he'd just go and listen to Enya).  However, the stand out performance for me was Tom Hiddleston as Loki. Sure, Loki was no the Joker, but he was still a terrifying character looking for happiness in anarchy. Hiddleston was mad in the role, dripping with villainy and mischief, and a little bit of badassery.


From the very beginning The Avengers is an entertaining ride, and it never relents. Whedon throws in a lot of stuff, but all of it has good reasoning and there's a good story behind it to back it up. It manages to have a lot of meaning but still be extremely fun to watch - it never rejects one thing for the sake of another. It may appear to be a rote blockbuster to go with the legions of others, but what it really is is something that reminds us of the magic of cinema going. Also, it is one of those movies that my generation will tell the next generation about, looking back on when they first saw it with fondness. Well, that's what I'm going to do, anyway.

What I got:







If you were a big fan of The Avengers and you want to watch more fantastic summer blockbusters then why not sign up to LOVEFiLM where you can you rent both DVD's and Blu Rays including all the Marvel superhero movies.

25 comments:

  1. YAAAYY for 'are we married yet'!!

    I LOVED THIS MOVIE TOOOOO!!!!!

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  2. Wow, looks like I shall have to see this one. I knew it would do well at the box office and that people would like it, but I'm so afraid I won't like it because I've had bad experiences in the past with superhero movies. Dunno if I'll see it in the cinema, but this will be a definite rental the moment it comes out. I'm impressed by it already.

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    1. I can't guarantee that you'll like it, but it is a cut above most superhero movies. It is up there with The Dark Knight.

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  3. Dammit, I'm so excited now! Usually I don't read reviews of films that I'm going to see soon, but I just couldn't resist when I saw "are we married yet"! It's clear that you loved it, and your review is so positive that it makes me almost even more crazy about this film! AWESOME!

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    1. I only have great things to say about it! It left me on such a high that I can't bring myself to say negative things about it!

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  4. Its only been open three days, and I've already seen it twice. Haha! Loved it even more the second time around.

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  5. I haven't seen this yet as it isn't out, but I totally agree. Money grabbers, are money grabbers for a reason, they work. Blockbusters are just as good as arthouse at working movie magic.

    I didn't want to spoil, so I just skimmed, but I didn't know Cobie Smulders was in this. I'll read again once I've seen it.

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    Replies
    1. That's exactly right. This one is pure movie magic.

      I hope you like it when you see it!

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  6. I was a little worried that - coming from a comic book fan's perspective - The Avengers would't be that great, but knowing Joss Whedon's work, I knew he'd do a good job and he did!

    Overrated mind you as a whole, I had a really enjoyable time with The Avengers, either way. It's nice not to be the youngest person in the cinema for once (which I have been for the last three or so years!)

    You should really check out Whedon's stuff, though. I think his writing works a lot better in the TV mould than it does on film (see Buffy, Angel, etc.), as the characters get a long time to progress into who they are at the end of his series stuff.

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    1. I will check out some of his TV work, I hear it is great!

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  7. I'm going to see this film this coming weekend. I'll keep my expectations low as I do enjoy some of Joss Whedon's work like Firefly and Serenity which I totally recommend.

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    1. I quite want to see Serenity! I must get to that one day.

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  8. I love how everyone is loving the Hulk! I want a movie where Mark Ruffalo portrays him! And I finally get to see what all the fuss is about Loki, haha (I need more Tom Hiddleston films in my life now XD )
    I only knew that Whedon did Buffy and Firefly. I've never been drawn to Buffy, and I haven't seen Firefly, so technically, this is the first Whedon film I've seen - and it was super fun!!

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    1. Tom Hiddleston is so hot. I love him.

      And yeah, this is my first Whedon experience too!

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  9. So... Is it the best superhero movie ever? :) I can't wait to check this out this coming week. It better be worth it or I will hunt you down muahahahah ;)

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  10. Terrific review of my most anticipated film of the year. I should be seeing this later in the week, so expect a review from me about this film, and with my prior experiences with superhero films, expect it to be a positive one. And nice reference to The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo.

    As for Joss Whedons work, i'd suggest diving into Firefly first, followed by Serenity straight after. Dr Horribles Sing-along blog and The Cabin in the Woods are must sees as well. Buffy and Angel are worth it, if you can put in the time to watch 7 seasons of Buffy and 5 seasons of Angel. As for Dollhouse, i feel its very underrated, but the first few eps are weak.

    Little Joss Whedon fact: he directed eps of The Office and one ep of Glee

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    1. Can't wait to see what you think! And yeah, every time I see Skarsgard now I automatically think Enya.

      I will watch all of those. Dollhouse has one of my favourite actresses Olivia Williams in it, so I was already going to check that out anyway!

      Wow! Glee?! That is really something.

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  11. I'm planning to use the fandango bucks i got for this. happy to now it will be worth it

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  12. I liked this too, even though I'm not jumping up and down in pure enthusiasm. I suddenly feel a little bit old and tired in comparsion. Still: I agree with most of your points, though at a slightly lower level. :)

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  13. Great review!
    Kinda random, but check this out:
    http://theuglybugball.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/tom-hiddleston-and-jj-feild2.jpg

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  14. I agree that there's a lot of great performances, particularly Ruffalo. Like him much better than Norton.

    I wish Loki had a better evil plan. He's a great character, but his plan was stupid, especially given it's pretty much all but said he's gonna get screwed over by the powers the be whether or not he succeeds.

    It's a lot of fun, the first Marvel film I've enjoyed in years. Not really my kind of film, but I enjoyed it for what it was.

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You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.

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