Monday, 14 May 2012

The Avengers

I love Joss Whedon.  I’ve mentioned it before but it’s been affirmed again.  Damn, but that man is good.

I’ll try to avoid giving too much away for those who haven’t seen it. 

The Avengers was awesome.  (And to be totally clear, I'm talking about the new movie of that title with Robert Downey Jr.  Sean Connery still owes us an apology for the other one.)  I can’t think of enough superlatives to describe how much I enjoyed the movie.  I am a comic book geek and it was an awesome comic book story.  I’ve been eager to see how this would play out ever since I saw Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury at the end of Iron-Man.  I had my worried moments, namely with Thor and Captain America.  But it all came together beautifully.

The casting was great.  They managed to get the original actors from all the movies, all except for Edward Norton who played Bruce Banner in The Incredible Hulk.  Mark Ruffalo did a great job but I prefer Mr. Norton.  His Bruce Banner had a good combination of a sense of humour, desperation and determination.

I’ve heard some reviewers haven’t liked the movie, complaining it’s too shallow, too fan-oriented, too comic-bookish.  My response to that is: Hel-lo-o?  The fan-oriented and comic-book parts are why I love it!  We know the main story isn’t about how the heroes defeat the villain, that part is inevitable.  The part which makes a great story is watching the heroes interact with each other and no one does petty bickering among superpowered characters like Joss Whedon.  I don’t think the movie was too shallow either.  There’s not a lot of screen time with seven main characters, which is why most of them have their own movies to cover their origin stories.  It’s an action movie, not a literary character art film.

I enjoyed it from start to finish.  There were even a few parts where the whole theatre laughed out loud and applauded.  I think the Hulk ended up being the real hero of the piece.  Iron-Man, Thor and Captain America form a great trinity of petty sniping and position-jostling.  Loki is a great villain, pithy and condescending and self-defeating.  Scarlett Johannson is a great Black Widow and kudos to Joss and Marvel for letting her wear an actual uniform.  No cleavage or midriff showing.  I understand why some of the fans were disappointed but as a female comic geek, it’s nice to see the female heroes treated with respect.

This one is definitely going into the DVD collection.

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