It's not too late to watch "Firefly" so that you could agree with me that Joss Whedon was the best choice for "The Avengers." Those guys up in Marvel Studios made perhaps one of their best decisions to make sure that he's the writer and the director for that movie which was so hard to make good despite everything that's good it was so easy to spoil. Avengers is certainly an attractive movie for die-hard fans, just fans, and those who like handsome and brutal guys saving the world. Avengers is certainly so easy to spoil because there are so many characters and one could easily ruin it all from the very beginning. Marvel was doing a hard job building it all for the Avengers by releasing movies about each superhero so that one day you get them all together, and everyone knew they're going to get together one day, sooner or later. Now you've got a hurricane that blows everything away with a 200 mln weekend opening, and I bet more money is coming it's way. And why is that you may ask? (Of course you're asking that because you generally don't like comic book movies, and let me try to assure you there are other reasons to watch this movie). Well, let's see why.
First, great cast! Just great ensemble!
Second, it's Joss Whedon baby, and his signature humor that's as light as it is rough. (You just have to watch "Firefly," this cult-like show, of which I'm a fan, and certainly believe that Fox may burn in hell for cancelling it).
Third, for some guys it's Scarlett Johanson (although I personally think her acting is weakest in the movie, but she's somewhat better than in her other recent movies).
Fourth, it's no boring at all.
Fifth, although Whedon did his best (it worked!) to balance all those selfish, narcistical superheroes, one guy really stands out here - Mark Ruffalo. I've just read on wikipedia that some critics say that he's outdone Eric Bana and Edward Norton as Bruce Banner and I agree with that 100%. In case with Bana, Hulk was angry, Banner was a cry baby. In case with Norton, Hulk was angry, Banner was too much Norton (I must note I very much admire both actors). In case with Ruffalo, you just have to see him acting. He's made it so that you really believe him that there's a monster inside him that he cannot control, you believe him when Banner/Ruffalo says that he put a barrel of a gun in his mouth and shot himself, but that other green guy caught the bullet between his teeth and spit it away.
Of course, it's a comic book, so there are some genre obliged nuances that you can't avoid (well something like a patriotic speech). We've got Whedon to correct that and soften that line. Not only we have superheroes, but we have gods now, we've got magic now, we've got regular mortal people, we've got supervillains, we actually have too much for one movie. And Whedon balances it so greatly, that he has enough time to devote to each character, so that characters don't eat each other's share of screen time, or wit. Robert Downey Jr., could easily steal the show from everyone due to the fact that Iron Man is fun, sometimes hysterically. Chris Evans' Captain could become toooo patriotic that's good enough for teens. Johansson's Widow could become too sexy. Hemsworth's Thor could be too godly, too Asgardian, pretentious. So taking into account that Iron Man was the most successful of them all (critically and commercially), Downey Jr., could easily overshadow all of them. That didn't happen. Thanks Joss for that! (Tony and Robert have much in common. As far as I understand from wiki, Downey Jr., just tried to do that, by trying to push his Iron Man in the opening sequence, hopefully he and Wheadon realized that didn't work out for this movie).
Now, a few things before I dig into the good bits of it. The movie was converted in 3D in post production and that's no good. Visual effects are stunning, but in terms of 3D they're quite weak. So, you'll get pleasure from watching it in the usual 2D. The script is good, characters are humane, non-linear, with some added complexity, fine story (as fine as it can be for a comic book), so you'll enjoy it even without glasses. Johansson is the weakest link here. I've read that Emily Blunt was also trying for Black Widow, and that could be something interesting to watch. Emily Blunt is a fine actress, while Johansson is becoming more boring. Yet Whedon was able to do almost the impossible, at least she wasn't irritating. That's about it. Let's go for the good stuff.
Acting. As I said the cast is great. I've got to say special thanks for Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, he could as well play any other character in the movie and still be good. Renner's got that charisma and ability to play almost anyone. You've seen him in Hurtlocker, The Town, where he's done superb job (Ghost Protocol is out of comparison, don't you think that his character there was intentionally poorly written so that Tom would always be fascinating?), now you see him as Hawkeye, but most importantly we'll see him as new Bourne :) Now that's something to see. In general, he's done good job, even though his Hawkeye was under Loki's spell for well over half the movie. Other guys could look boring in the shadow of Stark's Iron Man, but Whedon went the other way. He tried to explore all characters' strengths and weaknesses, and once they realise that they can see the obvious - they need to be a team. Banner was given depth, and a few keyphrases reveal his internal struggly. Thor displayed his dismay with human, while loving them at the same time, same confused feelings he's got for Loki. Rogers fought his personal drama and confusion with the world of tomorrow, and turned out a common soldier who follows orders without question, yet good leader in the field of war (well he's the only soldier, while they are all just superheroes who work alone). Nick Fury is one manipulative SOB, who would easily twist truth for sake of a greater good (but we know that may well be limited to one's understanding of what is good or bad). Loki is a fun supervillain, an insecure god, who's got no way back from the war that his doing. His final scene with Hulk when he's screaming like a spoiled child at the green monster declaring that he's a god and he won't tolerate such behaviour toward him (Hulk was doing what he does best - beat him) - is a scene that you can watch over and over again. Acting great, no one's boring, everyone's fun!
Directing and writing. Just go with it. It's a comic book, don't judge too hard, and enjoy the ride. Directing is great, writing is fun. That's the usual style for Whedon to add some sarcastic humor to his characters. Once again, you just have to watch his "Firefly." You'll enjoy the jokes, and the way characters talk to each other, almost everyone is a smartass, not just Stark. :)
Story and plot. The movie runs 2 hours and 23 minutes, but it's a thrillride and never gets boring. Thanks to smart writing, dynamics, and Whedon's humor. The story has quite a few twists and turns, nothing is what it seems and we see people vs. superheroes and gods, Fury vs. superheroes, superheroes at each others throats (you can sense how selfish and self-loving these heroes are), evil vs. evil, good vs. evil, good vs. good. Of course it's nowhere near Nolan's Batman Beginning and Dark Knight, but compares more to the X-Men First Class by Matthew Vaughn. It has some space for more developed characters, added some seriousness to the franchise (if I may put it this way) and clears way for more creativity (oh please, let Whedon do the next part of the Avengers). It looks real good how they come from rogues to a real team.
Visuals. 100% cool. And that's it. (there's a great scene at the end where the team finally gets together and fights off the enemy that's just mind-blowing - no spoilers).
I walked out after the movie is a real good mood. I thought that it was really worth spending so much time of your life in a movie theatre, and then writing about it for about five hours. :) IMDB score is .8.8 out of 10 with more than 100K people rating it, and that's just cool. Metascore gives it 69 out of 100 based on 49 reviews, which basically means it's ok. Well critics sometimes see more that we do, the usual moviegoers, let's not argue with them. In a way, let the boxoffice speak for a few more weeks.
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