One of the drawbacks with superhero films is the tendency to stuff them with too many heroes or villains, forcing us to deal with an endless amount of tedious origin stories. The 90s Batman films and most recent Spider-man film are perfect examples of this problem. Because of this, taking on a project like The Avengers seems like something that had no possibility of working on the big screen. However, Marvel studios planned ahead by giving us individual films for the four big Avenger superheroes (Hulk, Captain America, Thor, and two Iron Man films), thus getting their origin stories out of the way. This ambitious effort paid off in spades as writer-director Joss Whedon was allowed to plunge right into the story, with only brief scenes needed to help us catch up to what each of the characters have been doing since the end of their respective films.
Picking Whedon himself was an inspired choice. While he does have feature film screenwriting experience (Toy Story, Speed), most of his success has come on television in beloved cult classics like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly. He's never handled something even close to this scale before. However, he is a noted comic book fan and has written several comics, including an award winning run on Astonishing X-Men. He proved to be the perfect choice, someone who is able to deliver the action goods while retaining his trademark witty banter and ability to ground stories with just the right amount emotional catharsis. The result is big budget blockbuster entertainment of the highest order.
The Avengers starts off with Thor villain Loki causing chaos at a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility and stealing a device known as the Tesseract, with which he hopes to create a portal for aliens to come through and conquer the Earth. S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) decides it's time put the Avengers initiative in action: a plan to assemble a group of superheroes to form a team that can counteract major threats. The challenge is getting this team to work together as their wildly differing personalities cause great conflicts during the mission.
It's a pretty basic plot that simply gives a good excuse for all four superheros to be teamed up. Whedon isn't out to reinvent the comic book genre story-wise. What he is out to do is explore who these people are and how they'd potentially work as a team when abruptly thrown together. This is where The Avengers really shines. After a succession of brief, but very entertaining segments showing what each of our heroes are currently doing, we witness a fascinating clash of personalities. The old-fashioned Captain America (Chris Evans) vs. wisecracking Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) vs. noble warrior Thor (Liam Hemsworth). We also get to know more about non-superheros Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johanssen), who actually ends up with the most compelling emotional arc.
Whedon's signature witty dialogue is on full display during these scenes. Robert Downey Jr. is so natural at spouting Whedon's words that it feels like such a waste that this is the first time they've worked together. Stark is a perfect Whedon hero so it's natural that he gets most of the good lines, but Whedon does manage to spread the wealth around with Thor's deadpan ("He's adopted") and prideful Captain America's glee at understanding an outdated reference. I also loved a poignantly written exchange during a scene in Germany where an old German man, clearly scarred by the past, refuses to kneel before Loki ("There are always men like you.") There's also nice romantic banter between Tony Stark and Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) that has a classic movie feel to it and a quirky scene involving a security guard played by Harry Dean Stanton
The film especially shines with how it handles the Hulk as several of the best moments in the film involve that troubled character. I actually liked both the 2003 Ang Lee film with Eric Bana and the 2008 reboot with Edward Norton, but this is the first time the character has successfully come across as a crowd-pleasing hero. There were many people unhappy with Ruffalo taking over the Bruce Banner role from Norton, but he easily silenced those concerns with the best portrayal of Banner yet. He has a more laid back, awkward vibe that suits the character well. I enjoyed both the new take on Hulk and Ruffalo as Banner so much that I'd love to see a new individual Hulk film. He's the only one of the four superheroes that doesn't have a sequel planned yet.
Whedon also proves to be no slouch as an action filmmaker. He's never handled anything on this scale before, although his expertise at the scenes of Black Widow kicking butt are no surprise from the Buffy creator. Whedon immediately proves himself capable of designing exciting action sequences on a grand scale without having to resort to the lazy Michael Bay method of rapid cutting. In fact there is a fascinating shot during the final epic battle sequence in New York where Whedon pans from hero to hero without cutting. It's a very long action sequence and at every single point it's easy to tell what's going on and what everyone is trying to do. Most importantly, he's able to balance things very well and make sure that every one of the main characters (including non-super-powered Black Widow and Hawkeye) get a winning heroic moment.
Perhaps the best accomplishment of the Avengers is refuting the argument in defense of big budget crapfests that critics are just expecting too much. The Avengers doesn't have lofty ambitions like your regular award bait film. Hell, it doesn't even aim to transcend the genre like Nolan's The Dark Knight. However, it never once resorts to laziness or treats the audience like they're morons. It's just an incredibly entertaining film featuring some iconic characters doing very exciting things. Whedon shows you can accomplish that without requiring the audience to shut their brains off.
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