AVENGERS, ASSEMBLE!
I was thinking of waiting until I saw The Avengers again before I did my commentary on it just because there was SO MUCH AWESOME IN IT I CAN BARELY REMEMBER IT ALL. But I didn’t want it to turn into a Hunger Games situation where so much time would end up passing that I would lose the feeling of urgency (in this case also the "!!!!!!" factor). So here goes:
I came into this movie cautiously optimistic. Obviously Joss has a great track record of ensemble work, but I couldn’t help but worry about how many people there were to keep track of in this story. So you can imagine how delightfully surprised I was to find how well everyone and everything worked together and that every single character and nearly every major relationship all got their moments to shine! And it’s always better to be delightfully surprised than even a little bit disappointed. (Which, of course, isn’t to say that I wasn’t disappointed in some things, but I’ll get to those later.)
First of all, TONY FUCKING STARK. He has always been, and I imagine always will be, my favorite. He was absolutely perfect. Same charming, playful arrogance but perhaps a little bit wiser, a little more altruistic. Arguably, the movie is a little more centered on him than the other Avengers - with Stark Tower, and hacking S.H.I.E.L.D., and his almost sacrificial death (um, hi, we all know Iron Man 3 is happening), and the shippiness with Pepper (SHE WAS WEARING A GIANT DIAMOND RING ON HER RING FINGER AT THE END OF THE MOVIE!!!!! AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO NOTICED AND/OR CARES???) - but even so, I didn’t feel like he overshadowed the others to any great degree; and sometimes he even helped to bring out more in them.
Tony & Steve’s relationship is definitely one of my new favorites. I always figured they’d have one of the most interesting bonds of the team (either for better or worse), with Steve having known Tony’s father and also because they’re so opposite in many ways. Steve is naturally selfless and honorable and the ultimate team player, while Tony tends to be more self-absorbed and a bit of a jerk and a loner. I love in their fight that they both know exactly how to cut into the other’s insecurities - "Everything special about you came from a bottle", "Take away the suit and what are you?" ("'Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist,' you reply, but that, that is armour too"). But they both ultimately have the same values, the same goal, so I love seeing them overcome their clash of personalities to work together. (I love how Steve’s "Put on the suit" took on a completely different tone immediately after the engine went out.)
But I think my favorite favorite relationship from the movie is the Tony/Bruce bromance!!! I DID NOT SEE THAT COMING AT ALL BUT THEN IT HAPPENED AND I WAS LIKE, OMG OF COURSE.
Probably my favorite scene in the whole movie was when they were together in the lab, comparing origin stories and whatnot. I can’t even remember anything they actually said to each other, but I just remember being COMPLETELY IN AWE OF IT while it was happening.
AND BRUCE HIMSELF OMG. Probably my second favorite character in the whole movie (and it seems like one of everyone’s favorite characters in the movie). I acknowledge that I am like the only person in the world who really likes Ang Lee’s Hulk and Eric Bana’s Bruce, but Joss’s/Ruffalo’s version of him here is so super dark and tortured and fascinating in a way I have never seen this character. It was unbelievable. OMG HIS LINE ABOUT PUTTING A BULLET IN HIS MOUTH AND "THE OTHER GUY" SPITTING IT OUT. Now I understand why Ruffalo wants his own Hulk movie (and maybe he should get it).
Steve is probably my next favorite Avenger. I love his personality in this movie. He’s definitely more somber than he was in Captain America, being a man out of his time, with everything he knew gone and all his loved ones long dead. But he’s also much more of a confident leader. Obviously he’s always had the courage and heart to be a great soldier, but in Captain America he was kind of a big dork, which was right for the story of that movie. But now, it seems like everything he’s been through has kind of steeled him into someone more serious and wiser.
Thor I’m still kind of meh on for the most part, like I was after his own movie. But he does have his moments of humor and cool. And I love that he still loves his brother in a twisted way. (The "He’s my brother" / "He’s killed 80 people in two days" / "He’s adopted" exchange had the whole theater bursting.)
Speaking of: LOKIIIIIII. I’m kind of surprised that so many people are jumping on the Loki bandwagon now, because I actually loved him much less in this movie than I did in Thor. For me, he was by far the best and possibly the only truly great thing about Thor. POOR FUCKED-UP, MANIPULATED BABY. But in terms of his emotional development and motivation in The Avengers, I feel a little disappointed in his characterization.
But Natasha I have a lot of love for now that I didn’t expect to! She is super badass but also very emotionally vulnerable, which is always how I love my women the best. The best thing was probably her scene with Loki where at first I was like, Oh no, why is Joss having her be stupid like this! BUT THEN IT WAS TOTALLY ANOTHER REVERSE-INTERROGATION SITUATION WHERE SHE WAS TOTALLY THE ONE IN POWER THE WHOLE TIME. It’s sad, though, that I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to love Natasha as much as I really want to and should, just because I still think Scarlett Johansson is a mediocre actor at best. It’s not that I can’t separate her from her character, but just that her limitations as a performer can’t help but affect how the character comes across.
With Hawkeye I feel like it’s kind of the opposite situation. I really want to love him more than I do because I love Jeremy Renner, but Hawkeye is still mostly a cipher to me as a character that I can’t really get behind him. (And it certainly didn’t help that he was mind-fucked for like a good two-thirds of the movie.) Like, OK, he’s very collected and he’s amazing with a bow and he recruited Natasha, but who is he? I would definitely love to see and know more of his & Natasha’s relationship. (Sidenote: Jeremy and Scarlett are fucking, right? Because the real life footage of them together is extremely flirty and hot.)
And finally, Coulson. Goodnight, sweet prince. A lot of people saw his death coming because he was popular but expendable. I definitely think it was done more to affect the fans rather than the characters, since Tony and Steve were the only ones who were really shaken. (Classic Joss move, bthew, to utilize a trope like a-death-to-spur-the-characters-to-action and then comment on it by having Nick Fury further manipulate it to that very end. That's his trademark self-awareness at work.) But I don't think that cheapened it. I know I'll miss him. Our constant is no more.