The Avengers is the quintessential summer blockbuster. It's every movie goer's dream come true. It has delivered in every way possible and has overcome several serious roadblocks that I personally attribute to movies of this ilk. I don't say this lightly and do not dish out this sort of praise easily but this film is the greatest super hero film ever made and one of the greatest movies every made, period.
The first obstacle and he biggest obstacle to overcome for these sorts of movies is overcoming the ensemble cast issue. Ensemble cast movies generally don't work. It's easy for me to paint these movies with the same coloured brush but let's face it, most of the time production companies try to cram stars and characters into one movie to make a bigger box office dent, it becomes somewhat of a nightmare. Interactions between the characters are compromised by trying to equally divide up screen time, dialogue and importance to the general plot of the movie. What you usually get is a convoluted mess that leaves the audience dumbfounded about the plot and trying to figure out what happened to the $15 bucks that was in their pocket 2 hours ago. Some great examples of this are Grown Ups(2010), Be Cool(2005), Star Wars(Ep 1-3), Valentines Day(2010), Pearl Harbor(2001), Crash(2004), around the world in 80 days(2004), anything with Julia Roberts in it, anything with Jackie Chan in it, most things with Nicolas Cage in it.
So to say that I was skeptical about a movie made up of this calibre of stars from their own movies is a ghastly understatement. Not only are there some serious names involved, but the characters themselves are huge in their own right. They have very specific details and character traits that hardcore fans will hate them for if they don't get it right. Not to mention the interrelationships that are REALLY important for a movie like this. They must make their interactions fun, yet not over the top. The humour as to be just right without becoming clownish. There must be some depth between each of the characters without overly focusing on one relationship over others.
This movie comes out on top on all counts.
- Captain America is the level headed leader of the group which comes across well. Sometimes he might seem bossy but the level of respect given to him by the other team members is apparent. His uneasiness being in the future and out of place fits in well without being overbearing to the plot. His admiration by Agent Coulson is funny and fun without making you cringe.
- Bruce Banner and Tony Stark have the sort of scientific exchanges that you would expect them to have given that they are both considered the geniuses of the group. At the same time they have fun with one another and keep the mood light. The humour is appropriate without becoming slapstick. (see the new Star Trek movie for an example of being stupid when it comes to slapstick).
- The huge egos and personalities of Iron Man and Thor clash predictable with impressive explosions, and sequences that display the complexities of a clash between two heroes whose powers are so overwhelming that it cannot be taken lightly, (see the original Xmen and more specifically the use of Storm and Magneto as underwhelming displays of actual super capabilities).
- The importance of Hawkeye and Black Widow aren't exaggerated in comparisons to the heroes with super abilities. Their roles aren't muted either, but at the same time they are given enough plot that they are also not forgotten. Specifically the relation and history that they seem to have with one another.
- Nick Fury doesn't come off as a useless douche bag that just bosses people around like he does in the rest of the movies in the series.
- Maria Hill looked good in her jumpsuit.
The importance of the action sequences can not be understated. This is what people have come to see. It's the main course. If people wanted to see each hero on their own and have stagnant, one on one, static action sequences they can watch the previous movies or Xmen. People don't want to see one of ones. What if Wolverine clashed with Mystique, what if Storm took on Toad? Who cares? Not me. It's a super hero team. It's a TEAM. Teams function differently, there's more elaborate sequences that can be achieved, and possible power increases. For example, if Wolverine were in this movie how much more deadly could he be if Hulk threw him at someone with his claws extended? Pretty devastating i would think. So when you see things like Thor and Hulk going to town on a flying giant snake alien, it's cool. When you see Iron Man deflecting his palm blasts off Captain America's shield, it's impressive.When you see Captain America directing the attack, and working with Black Widow and Hawkeye to take out the footsoldiers and protect the innocent bystanders it's impressive.
It's easy not to do this. It's easier to do one on ones. Again, watch Xmen. I'm ragging on Xmen because it failed in so many ways in it's action sequences.
Another way to fail is to over do action sequences. Giving the audience too much of the same stuff over and over becomes repetitive and makes what they're seeing less special. Reference Matrix Revolutions and Matrix Reloaded. You like kung fu action sequences? Well we're gonna fill the entire movie with them over and over again till you vomit. Leather jackets look cool? Heck, everyone's going to be wearing one! It is also the failing of movies like the Transformers sequences when things are so busy on the screen that the audience can not tell who is who, or what is going on. Is it an Autobot winning the fight? I can't tell, there's just too many explosions and movements going on for me to digest all at once in one viewing.
Star Wars is another bad example. And by this I am referring to Episode 1 to 3. Light Sabers are cool? Well everyone's going to have one. There's going to be light sabers everywhere! You wanted 50 Jedi? Fuck you, there's going to be 100. Hell we're going to have a robot that spins 4 of them at the same time!!! Quantity doesn't always win out against quality.
Fight choreography and action scenes aren't easy to get right. They are often given very little respect especially from the artsy fartsy Oscar type and are usually discarded outright in the minds of many movie enthusiasts. However, movies that contain elaborate fight scenes and action sequences usually draw a large audience. Perhaps the perception of what makes a good movie in general needs to be re-examined. Since it is so easy to get wrong, I am going to provide you another example of a way to screw it up.
This whole shakey camera thing for fights which makes most audience members dizzy and nauseated is a fad that needs to stop. Rarely does it work. The director in a lazy attempt at adding cool action scenes quickly cuts from one angle and one shot to another so quickly that our brains have to work to fill in the information about what is going on in a fight. It's lazy with the excuse being that it's creative and innovated. It's not. Hire a real choreographer, hire actors or stuntmen that are talented. Do it right. The Avengers doesn't contain any of these sorts of parlour tricks. You can see what's going on. The director isn't trying to pull the wool over the audience's eyes. Even though I loved the Bourne Trilogy, their fight sequences always left a bad taste in my mouth.
A plausible, believable, worthy foe
Too many times in movies in general, the hero realistically is more than a match for the antagonist. Tension is defused and the edge of your seat suspense is non existent creating yawn inspiring moments. Good examples of this are Deacon Frost from Blade, almost every antagonist in Hellboy 2, and the god-mother of an unworthy foe is Whiplash vs Iron Man and War Machine. Talk about anti climatic.
At first glance this is a fail. Loki is no match for the Avengers on his own. He was defeated by Thor in the first place so to think that Thor along with a bunch of powerful beings couldn't defeat Loki is laughable at best. Loki doesn't posses the firepower to defeat the Avengers. However, Loki has a lot of help. He's working with some more powerful allies and he's being supplied with a powerful army of aliens. What really sells it is the giant swimming squid monsters. They're gigantic, menacing, and there's more than one of them. Plenty of things for Hulk to smash. Let's face it, Hulk is one of the most powerful comic book heroes period. Bar none. Thor and Iron Man come close as well. So to have believably challenging enemies for them to take on is important for creating the all important suspense and tension that movie goers crave. The more the tension, the bigger the pay off.
My only beef with this movie
I know I am just nitpicking but we never actually see anyone die except for Coulson. There's hundreds of enemies pouring onto the streets of New York, they're all firing guns and canons attacking like the very scarey monsters they are but we don't see anyone crushed or killed. Cars are literally flying into the air and things are crashing into the ground but not one innocent human dies. Sure we can presume that they do, but if we can presume just about anything we want then why would I bother watching? There's a sense of realism that can be achieved when you actually show some causalities in the field of war. For example, people liked it a lot more when Wolverine impaled enemies and killed some swat team guys because that's what Wolverine does. He stabs or slashes people with his claws and as a result, they do not live. In contrast, in the original Xmen movie he doesn't kill a single person. He stabs 2 women, and they both live. Not very deadly for someone nicknamed Weapon X.
Now this is something very minuet to complain about considering there are so many positive things that they've done right.
Is this the best Super Hero movie ever?
In my opinion yes. The only other movie that comes to mind is The Dark Night which is a very close second. However, after these two movies there is a wide valley separating them between the rest. Ones that immediately come to mind are Iron Man, Spider-Man, and that's about it. The rest are kind of in a sea of movies of about the same quality. There are some good ones out there but they don't quite separate themselves from the pack the way these ones do.
The Dark Knight achieves via the strong performances from Heath Ledger and Aaron Eckhart. The Joker made the Dark Knight, not Christian Bale and not Batman. Christian Bale did a good job of not being a bad Batman but his performance was absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. In these ways, it achieves in a different manner then does the Avengers. They are two very different movies. One based on mortal, more realistic characters as funny as that sounds. And the other movie contains characters that are so powerful that they are nearly immortal and can not realistically exist in our reality.
There are also very few movies that people would generally pay more than once to see. The Avengers clearly qualifies. The movies I have seen in theatres more than once can be counted on one hand:
Fight Club
Blade 2
The Dark Knight
I think I'll go see the Avengers again. At least one more time.
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