The Avengers: A Review
I saw the Avengers in May with Blake Gothenberg when we flew out to see him in Los Angeles. What a great movie!
I think it was universally known that The Avengers would be in good hands when it was announced that Joss Whedon would be the director in the summer of 2010. Under his direction, we see a tight, crisp narrative that isn't at all ashamed to break up tense moments with droll bits of humor.
Tony Stark is working on building his Stark Tower in New York, and having it run on sustainable renewable energy, based on the model of his arc reactor. But Phil Coulson comes in and tells him his services are needed to figure out exactly what this Tesseract that's been discovered underwater with Captain America is capable of. Is it possible that it's emission of gamma rays could be used for nefarious purpose by an extraterrestrial being?
In no time, along comes Loki (Tom Hiddleston), from the planet or realm of Aasgard. He tries to negotiate a surrender, and puts his staff on Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), converting him into being a follower, as well as his doctor friend from Thor (Stellan Skarsgaard), the one who was working with Natalie Portman in Thor.
Naturally, Nick Fury refuses to submit to the demands of Loki for them to hand over the tesseract. So he works a spell and the entire S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters gets sucked down into a vortex. While The Avengers wasn't quite on the stellar level of its prequels Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger, it does well to live up to its expectations. Not only is Iron Man conscripted, but so is Captain America, by no less than Nick Fury himself (Samuel L. Jackson.) Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) is dispatched from an interrogation with Russian thugs to retrieve Bruce Banner (now played by Mark Ruffalo), and bring him back to S.H.I.E.L.D. to get to work studying just what this Tesseract is capable of doing.
Captain America confronts Loki in Germany, and gets off one of the best lines of the film. "The last time I was in Germany and I saw someone standing over everybody else, we wound up not agreeing." (Though I don't know if he was talking about Adolph Hitler or Red Skull. Either way, they were NAZIs.)
Captain America, Bruce Banner, Iron Man, and Black Widow are aboard the S.H.I.E.L.D.'s sprawling flying aircraft carrier when they're struck by something on the windshield. It's Thor (Chris Hemsworth), who came through the portal from Aasgard to get his fugitive step brother.
The first third of the movie involves explaining what is so valuable about the tesseract, and recruiting the Avengers to unite to protect it.
The second third of the movie deals with the Avengers grappling for leadership. Much of the friction is between Iron Man and Captain America, given that Captain America is considered to be the leader of the Avengers, but of course, Tony Stark prefers to take orders from no one. A memorable scene is when Captain America asks Tony Stark what he would do if there was a grenade, and if he had to throw himself onto one to protect other people, what would he do? (A reference to Captain America: The First Avenger, my second favorite film of 2011.) Stark's snarky response was that he'd find a way to dismantle it. In that moment, I wondered if we were being asked to take sides for or against particular Avengers. If we were on Team Tony, I guess we favored the Type A arrogant personality. But if we have a sense of duty that overrides our skepticism of authority, that makes us a Captain America, right? It's like the Meyers-Briggs test. Each person in The Avengers has something in common, but enough differences to clash over as well. At one point, all of the Avengers are arguing with eachother in the chamber where Bruce Banner is observing the tesseract.
The last third of the film pulls this case study of different personalities together, and we see Stark, Rogers, Banner, Romanov, Thor, and Hawkeye converge to fight the massive, tentacle-sprouting squid-like alien vessels that come through the portal from Aasgard. We see Stark actually prove himself wrong, given a chance to metaphorically throw himself onto a grenade as he needs to get rid of a nuclear explosive by passing through the portal to the Aasgard realm before it closes. Of course, the window of time does not account for a return trip. Plus, he'll probably get blown to smithereens by it before he can even change course from outer space back to earth. The most touching moment of the film is when he tries to get a call through to Pepper Potts (Gwynneth Palthrow). Although, improbably, there's still phone reception while he's shooting in his Iron Man suit to the upper echelons of the stratosphere, she doesn't pick up the call. So he has to hold onto that goodbye. That, or, of course, having thrown himself on the grenade that will detonate, so to speak, he could still pull a Tony Stark and retreat, after looking around and realize he's moved it safe enough distance that no one on Earth is in danger, abandon it and make a last minute dash for the portal, even as all of the other Avengers have in anguish given up all hope of his return.
I loved The Avengers. It's the fourth best film of the year behind Katy Perry: Part of Me, The Dark Knight Rises, and The Hunger Games. I am glad Joss Whedon allowed each actor so much free range over their characters. Even as almost all of them have carried films of their own by now, and rightfully so with their talent, Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Clark Gregg, and Samuel L. Jackson did a terrific job of sharing screen time while alternately chomping it up. I have very few complaints about the film, only that it was at times complicated. (How were they able to keep a norse god like Loki contained in a glass prison for so long, and didnt' anyone think it was a bad idea to have him on a flying aircraft carrier when he could get ahold of the tesseract and hijack the thing?) But a second viewing straightened out enough of the scientific jargon. Anyhow, I prefer a slightly hard-to-follow thoughtful comic book action fantasy to a totally dumbed down one. And obviously Joss Whedon knew he was taking a bit of a risk in trying to lend the screenplay and film some degree of intelligence, and requiring a learning curve from its audience. The Avengers was great, and I'm enthusiastic about the next one, as well as the individual films they will ultimately carry in the mean time.
Three and 3/4 stars.
I think it was universally known that The Avengers would be in good hands when it was announced that Joss Whedon would be the director in the summer of 2010. Under his direction, we see a tight, crisp narrative that isn't at all ashamed to break up tense moments with droll bits of humor.
Tony Stark is working on building his Stark Tower in New York, and having it run on sustainable renewable energy, based on the model of his arc reactor. But Phil Coulson comes in and tells him his services are needed to figure out exactly what this Tesseract that's been discovered underwater with Captain America is capable of. Is it possible that it's emission of gamma rays could be used for nefarious purpose by an extraterrestrial being?
In no time, along comes Loki (Tom Hiddleston), from the planet or realm of Aasgard. He tries to negotiate a surrender, and puts his staff on Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), converting him into being a follower, as well as his doctor friend from Thor (Stellan Skarsgaard), the one who was working with Natalie Portman in Thor.
Naturally, Nick Fury refuses to submit to the demands of Loki for them to hand over the tesseract. So he works a spell and the entire S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters gets sucked down into a vortex. While The Avengers wasn't quite on the stellar level of its prequels Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger, it does well to live up to its expectations. Not only is Iron Man conscripted, but so is Captain America, by no less than Nick Fury himself (Samuel L. Jackson.) Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) is dispatched from an interrogation with Russian thugs to retrieve Bruce Banner (now played by Mark Ruffalo), and bring him back to S.H.I.E.L.D. to get to work studying just what this Tesseract is capable of doing.
Captain America confronts Loki in Germany, and gets off one of the best lines of the film. "The last time I was in Germany and I saw someone standing over everybody else, we wound up not agreeing." (Though I don't know if he was talking about Adolph Hitler or Red Skull. Either way, they were NAZIs.)
Captain America, Bruce Banner, Iron Man, and Black Widow are aboard the S.H.I.E.L.D.'s sprawling flying aircraft carrier when they're struck by something on the windshield. It's Thor (Chris Hemsworth), who came through the portal from Aasgard to get his fugitive step brother.
The first third of the movie involves explaining what is so valuable about the tesseract, and recruiting the Avengers to unite to protect it.
The second third of the movie deals with the Avengers grappling for leadership. Much of the friction is between Iron Man and Captain America, given that Captain America is considered to be the leader of the Avengers, but of course, Tony Stark prefers to take orders from no one. A memorable scene is when Captain America asks Tony Stark what he would do if there was a grenade, and if he had to throw himself onto one to protect other people, what would he do? (A reference to Captain America: The First Avenger, my second favorite film of 2011.) Stark's snarky response was that he'd find a way to dismantle it. In that moment, I wondered if we were being asked to take sides for or against particular Avengers. If we were on Team Tony, I guess we favored the Type A arrogant personality. But if we have a sense of duty that overrides our skepticism of authority, that makes us a Captain America, right? It's like the Meyers-Briggs test. Each person in The Avengers has something in common, but enough differences to clash over as well. At one point, all of the Avengers are arguing with eachother in the chamber where Bruce Banner is observing the tesseract.
The last third of the film pulls this case study of different personalities together, and we see Stark, Rogers, Banner, Romanov, Thor, and Hawkeye converge to fight the massive, tentacle-sprouting squid-like alien vessels that come through the portal from Aasgard. We see Stark actually prove himself wrong, given a chance to metaphorically throw himself onto a grenade as he needs to get rid of a nuclear explosive by passing through the portal to the Aasgard realm before it closes. Of course, the window of time does not account for a return trip. Plus, he'll probably get blown to smithereens by it before he can even change course from outer space back to earth. The most touching moment of the film is when he tries to get a call through to Pepper Potts (Gwynneth Palthrow). Although, improbably, there's still phone reception while he's shooting in his Iron Man suit to the upper echelons of the stratosphere, she doesn't pick up the call. So he has to hold onto that goodbye. That, or, of course, having thrown himself on the grenade that will detonate, so to speak, he could still pull a Tony Stark and retreat, after looking around and realize he's moved it safe enough distance that no one on Earth is in danger, abandon it and make a last minute dash for the portal, even as all of the other Avengers have in anguish given up all hope of his return.
I loved The Avengers. It's the fourth best film of the year behind Katy Perry: Part of Me, The Dark Knight Rises, and The Hunger Games. I am glad Joss Whedon allowed each actor so much free range over their characters. Even as almost all of them have carried films of their own by now, and rightfully so with their talent, Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Clark Gregg, and Samuel L. Jackson did a terrific job of sharing screen time while alternately chomping it up. I have very few complaints about the film, only that it was at times complicated. (How were they able to keep a norse god like Loki contained in a glass prison for so long, and didnt' anyone think it was a bad idea to have him on a flying aircraft carrier when he could get ahold of the tesseract and hijack the thing?) But a second viewing straightened out enough of the scientific jargon. Anyhow, I prefer a slightly hard-to-follow thoughtful comic book action fantasy to a totally dumbed down one. And obviously Joss Whedon knew he was taking a bit of a risk in trying to lend the screenplay and film some degree of intelligence, and requiring a learning curve from its audience. The Avengers was great, and I'm enthusiastic about the next one, as well as the individual films they will ultimately carry in the mean time.
Three and 3/4 stars.