The Watchtower of Destruction: The Ferrett's Journal - The Avengers: A Spoiler-Free Review
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The Avengers: A Spoiler-Free Review
Joss Whedon understands what we want out of the Avengers, which is not to see Thor and Iron Man teaming up.
No, what we want is to see Thor kicking Iron Man’s ass.
Thankfully, this is what the Avengers delivers: lots of hot hero-on-hero action. Who cares about the villains? We’re not nearly as invested. What we need to see is our favorite hero battling our other favorite hero to a standstill.
And ho, there is lots of that. Delivered for competent reasons – the Avengers have very good reason to be hostile to each other. And the fight scenes are pants-wettingly cool, in that sort of musky good-fluid kind of way.
The Avengers is stuffed with so many characters that character development practically has to happen via pithy quotes, which is why it’s a good thing that the King of One-Liners, Joss Whedon, wrote it. The plot generally keeps moving, and the Big Bad is helpfully played by Loki, who is played so wonderfully that you barely notice he has practically no character development or motivation at all.
Frankly, the least interesting character on the team is The Hulk, and Whedon seems to have made up for that by giving the Hulk all the best… well, you can’t really say “lines,” but let’s go “moments.”
There are a couple of minor issues I have: Captain America becomes a tactical genius at the end not by dint of anything he did in either of the two movies, but because he’s a military guy. And the final battle consists of just a shade too many generic mooks getting pounded, leading to a hair of tedium.
But overall? What you’re looking for, it delivers. Big, splashy superhero battles done with coolness. Jaw-dropping fight scenes. Laughs. As far as a tentpole movie to kick off the summer season (sort of…) it works, and as such I can tell you that if you had the urge to see this movie you’re almost guaranteed to be correct in your assessment.
Not that this was going to stop you from seeing it this weekend anyway. But let me reassure you that the money you spent on the ticket already is certainly worth it.
Cross-posted from Ferrett's Real Blog.
This entry has also been posted at http://theferrett.dreamwidth.org/209605.html. You can comment here, or comment there; makes no never-mind by me.
Tags: movies, reviews
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| | Captain America becomes a tactical genius at the end not by dint of anything he did in either of the two movies, but because he’s a military guy
That bugged me in the Cap film, too. I have the feeling that there was some footage from that film left on the cutting room floor -- possibly the lengthy-ish Howling Commandos vs HYDRA was once a more substantial sequence showing Cap actually growing as a field leader rather than just standing in front of some explosions. They always do that shit. Theres been a bunch of movies ive seen wheres theres stuff in the deleted scenes that makes stuff in the main movie make more sense. Id like to add this: he was actually shown to be a good leader in his movie.
The problem is most people dont realize it cause it was shown in a quick montage scene.
He's shown winning a bunch of battles, but no time frame is given-is it weeks, months? How many actual battles? 5? 10? 50? We dont know.
But hes shown leading men & winning lots of battles.
He definately has experience.
Edited at 2012-05-06 03:52 pm (UTC) Okay. What do I have to see before I see this movie?
The other films in the franchise are Iron Man (2008), The Incredible Hulk (2008), Iron Man 2 (2010), Thor (2011) and Captain America (2011). I haven't seen The Avengers yet but it looks like you'll at least want to have seen Iron Man, Thor and Captain America. Possibly all of them. But my guess is this films packs in enough backstory that you can go cold and still enjoy it.
Edited at 2012-05-04 02:28 pm (UTC) Thanks. I'm missing the latter four.
My guess is I can go in cold since I have some knowledge on Thor and Captain America and have seen every other Hulk incarnation.
There's a rundown over on Tor.com that gives info on stuff used in the Avengers movie that is introduced in the others, for those who haven't seen all the individual movies.
Edited at 2012-05-04 02:43 pm (UTC) Thanks for the edit. I preferred your Freudian typo ;)
Feel free to give Iron Man 2 a pass. That movie was a disappointment. ![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/116095549/3415313) | | From: |  wizwom |
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| Date: | May 7th, 2012 05:07 am (UTC) |
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There were some cool fight scenes between Venko's robot suits and Iron Man. The Hulk movies have no real connection-except in the post credits sequence in the Ed Norton one, theres an appearance by RDJ.
Also, the villain took the the super soldier serum.
Id recommend it, but you could still see the Avengers without it. Thats weird. Most of the reviews said Hulk was the best part. I completely agree with you! I had a bit of an issue with Pepper Potts, but overall really an enjoyable movie.
By the way, I owe you thanks! We went to the Marvel Marathon (all 6 movies!) and in between films they were doing trivia for giveaways. As a complete Marvel virgin (I had never seen any of the films in the franchise or read a single comic, even had avoided the trailers), I was not going to even try to participate... until the question came up: "Several scenes filmed in New York were actually shot in another major US city. Name the city."
Thanks to reading you, I was the ONLY one in the theater who knew it was Cleveland, OH. :) I won a set of six posters! So thanks, Ferrett! :D I have no idea why I'm so exclamation-point happy up there. I blame PTSD (Post-Theatrical Stressed- Statement Disorder).
BAM! POW! ZAM-BANG!
...man, I'm sleepy. ;) I know this is a stretch here, but maybe the super soldier serum enhanced his brain, too. I'm pretty sure that's been mentioned as part of the package a few times. And obviously it enhances his brain because it demonstrably improves the hell out of his reaction time and spatial modeling (all that ludicrously precise multiple-ricochet shield throwing), so it's not actually a big stretch to see that extending to tactical modeling. The doctor running the super soldier program in Captain America made it clear that it would enhance everything about his personality and abilities. Assuming he was intelligent, noble, and highly motivated before, the serum made him even more so. Frankly, the least interesting character on the team is The Hulk
Disagree. To me the Hulk is actually one of the most interesting characters. Sure, it's very very easy to make a shitty tedious Hulk movie, and they've managed it with every live-action Hulk movie to date, but the cartoon Hulk movies do much better and Hulk is not an uninteresting character at all in them (though he's also not really consistent: Hulk vs Thor's Hulk is "rage incarnate" while Hulk vs Wolverine's Hulk is "just leave me the fuck alone incarnate" and Planet Hulk's Hulk is "oh for fuck's sake do I really have to fix this shit? incarnate.")
For me the "leave me alone" incarnation of Hulk is the most compelling, which is strange because that's the one the live-action movies seem to try to implement - they just miss it by a mile, making it more of a "waah, leave me alone you big bullies" character rather than an "I... said... leave... me... THE FUCK... ALONE!" character. There's depth and nuance available when he's a character who is gentle and kind unless provoked even in Hulk form.
Thus I would contend that Hulk is a more interesting character than at the very least Captain America and Thor, and I'd put him above Iron Man too. Thor has a more colorful background but is a tremendously one-dimensional character. Captain America has nothing at all to make him interesting (though they did a great job of adding interesting to his movie). Iron Man might be the most boring Avenger of all, "magic riches man" without even the restriction of Batman's "borderline realistic riches man" character. It's okay guys, I'll just invent something to solve this problem, just let me reverse the tachyon polarity.
Don't get me wrong, I like all the superheroes even when their characters are terrible and one-dimensional, I'm just disagreeing that Hulk is the worst character.
(Also, it's funny that Captain America becomes a tactical genius in Whedon's writing, because that makes him basically the same character arc as Xander after having worn a magic soldier halloween costume one day.) I was thinking the same thing re: Xander. I loved Planet Hulk and Hulk Vs. Actually, Captain America being a tactical genius is a natural extrapolation from the time he spent leading the Howling Commandos in his movie. It's not that he becomes a tactical genius; it's that we finally ghetto to see him use that in something other than the Hydra-killing montage from his movie.
Also, anybody who hasn't seen it yet, but plans to? Make sure you stick around until the credits are completely over. Just sayin'. Oh good, someone did make this point. Of course Cap's the leader, he already has experience at leading a small team of trained professionals. ![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/7376977/314917) | | From: | snippy |
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| Date: | May 6th, 2012 03:01 am (UTC) |
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I know! Over three quarters of the people left after the first scene, but before the full credits and the ...thing that happens at the end. I was sad for them.
Seeing it again tomorrow! Thank you, Ferrett! This was exactly the review I was looking for. I saw Avengers this morning. It was great. "Captain America becomes a tactical genius"
I didn't get that vibe at all, do you mean where he hands out order to everyone in the big group hug after the portal opens, or am I missing something? That didn't seem like "genius", that just seemed like "someone has to be in charge, and I'm not surprised that Cpt USA is good at it and all the other suck at it" :) I just saw it. Loved it. I have to say I hang around the Internet too much because it was totally a slash fanfic writer's wet dream.
| | From: | wizwom |
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| Date: | May 7th, 2012 05:09 am (UTC) |
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Loki needs character development to be evil? He's mischief and trouble incarnate. I loved this movie. Went to see it with my sweetie and our 3 boys. I nearly peed myself laughing. It was so much *fun*. I actually really liked the way the Hulk was played in this movie better than in any of the Hulk movies I've seen. I loved all the snarkiness and one liners. And the facial expressions! And the very very end...yea. I felt bad for those folks that left before all the credits rolled.
I can see this becoming a staple movie I watch when I'm feeling down. I can't wait till it's out on DVD. I may have to go see it again in the theater. |
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