Rambling Musings on The Avengers
I've been to see The Avengers in the theater three times now, and I think I could watch it at least once a week for the next few months and not get bored. Holy smokes, this movie has brought out my inner fangirl, who has been sadly AWOL since Serenity faded into the sunset. I've joined an AR game on Tumblr, which has necessitated me getting both a Tumblr and a Twitter account. I've shown up on FB more often. I've ordered a spendy, incredibly detailed 1/6th-scale figure of Tom Hiddleston as Loki (and I'm still waiting for Hot Toys to come through with an Agent Coulson 1/6th-scale figure, for which I shall happily bankrupt myself should it appear). Heck, I've even entered a comic book store for the first time in over a decade. What's next, a pilgrimage to San Diego for Comic-Con International? (Well, not this year, anyway - they're sold out.)
The movie is - I was going to say "pure spectacle", but if it was nothing but sound and Fury (sorry, sorry, couldn't stop myself) I wouldn't have watched it in the theater three times and be contemplating more. There certainly is a lot of impressive action and cinematography, and that sort of thing has been known to get me in the door once, but even the best of the other Marvel films didn't get my butt into a theater seat more than that - I contented myself with buying the DVDs and/or BluRays when they were released. I think it's the more merely human element that makes this a must-see film for me.
Superpowers and superheroes in and of themselves just aren't that interesting, and watching superheroes and super villains battle each other for two hours on screen would be tedious (and noisy). Thor was really only interesting because he'd lost his powers - and because of the tale of sibling rivalry behind the whole thing. Hulk isn't interesting - Bruce Banner can be interesting when well-written. Captain America is fairly indestructible, but the writers here at least make him all angsty and lost. And Iron Man... well, Tony Snark Stark's ego is practically a super-power - God knows it's big enough to have it's own gravity well - and he seems pretty indestructible when he's in his suit*, but the writers compensate by beating him up whenever possible.
Still, I'm not sure that those slight vulnerabilities, even as well as the writers handle them here, would get me to watch more than once. It's the normal people around the superheroes - Pepper, Coulson, Maria Hill, Fury - who make things interesting and believable. Even Natasha and Hawkeye are simply supremely competent normal humans, who have doubts about their ability to handle the situation coming at them, and are more interesting as a result.
But Agent Coulson carried a lot of the load of humanizing the superhumans in The Avengers - I think he may be on-screen more than any other character, and he interacts with nearly everyone. If he's actually gone - no bets, this is the Marvel Universe, after all - I don't know who could take his place. Pepper's got her hands full with Tony... Will the writers be able to build up Nick Fury as the humanising element, or maybe Maria "Robin Sparkles" Hill? I don't know... Maybe The Avengers was a fluke, and I'll be back to going to Marvel Studios films for the explosions and action and snark, but not more than once in the theater per film... and my inner fangirl can go back to sleep and stop spending my money like a sailor on port after a long cruise.
But I hope not. I hope they can keep the magic going for Iron Man 3 and The Avengers 2. I really like having Fangirl Me around again. Now if I can just pry the credit card out of her hand.
Okay, enough rambling. Sleep, now.
*Does anybody else want to know what kind of inertial dampers Stark's got in that armor? They've got to be some serious tech all on their own, or he'd be jelly by now.
The movie is - I was going to say "pure spectacle", but if it was nothing but sound and Fury (sorry, sorry, couldn't stop myself) I wouldn't have watched it in the theater three times and be contemplating more. There certainly is a lot of impressive action and cinematography, and that sort of thing has been known to get me in the door once, but even the best of the other Marvel films didn't get my butt into a theater seat more than that - I contented myself with buying the DVDs and/or BluRays when they were released. I think it's the more merely human element that makes this a must-see film for me.
Superpowers and superheroes in and of themselves just aren't that interesting, and watching superheroes and super villains battle each other for two hours on screen would be tedious (and noisy). Thor was really only interesting because he'd lost his powers - and because of the tale of sibling rivalry behind the whole thing. Hulk isn't interesting - Bruce Banner can be interesting when well-written. Captain America is fairly indestructible, but the writers here at least make him all angsty and lost. And Iron Man... well, Tony Snark Stark's ego is practically a super-power - God knows it's big enough to have it's own gravity well - and he seems pretty indestructible when he's in his suit*, but the writers compensate by beating him up whenever possible.
Still, I'm not sure that those slight vulnerabilities, even as well as the writers handle them here, would get me to watch more than once. It's the normal people around the superheroes - Pepper, Coulson, Maria Hill, Fury - who make things interesting and believable. Even Natasha and Hawkeye are simply supremely competent normal humans, who have doubts about their ability to handle the situation coming at them, and are more interesting as a result.
But Agent Coulson carried a lot of the load of humanizing the superhumans in The Avengers - I think he may be on-screen more than any other character, and he interacts with nearly everyone. If he's actually gone - no bets, this is the Marvel Universe, after all - I don't know who could take his place. Pepper's got her hands full with Tony... Will the writers be able to build up Nick Fury as the humanising element, or maybe Maria "Robin Sparkles" Hill? I don't know... Maybe The Avengers was a fluke, and I'll be back to going to Marvel Studios films for the explosions and action and snark, but not more than once in the theater per film... and my inner fangirl can go back to sleep and stop spending my money like a sailor on port after a long cruise.
But I hope not. I hope they can keep the magic going for Iron Man 3 and The Avengers 2. I really like having Fangirl Me around again. Now if I can just pry the credit card out of her hand.
Okay, enough rambling. Sleep, now.
*Does anybody else want to know what kind of inertial dampers Stark's got in that armor? They've got to be some serious tech all on their own, or he'd be jelly by now.