Movies: Avengers - let's talk about Hawkeye
If I say that I've "waited ages" for that movie to be made, I'm not exaggerating. The first Marvel comic I've ever read was handed to me by my oldest brother back when I was seven years old, and as much as I hate to admit it: that was indeed ages ago. It was a German copy, of course - "Die Ruhmreichen Rächer" No. 50 (no idea what the US number was), and I know this because I still have the copy. Written by Stan Lee! Art by Roy Thomas and John Buscema! Woohoo!
I've been a Marvel fan from the very moment I first read one of the comics, and my brother made sure I got a lot to read. Avengers! Fantastic Four! Spiderman! Thor! The Monster of Frankenstein! Dr. Strange! Iron Man! Horror (the latter without telling my parents - thanks for the nightmares, bro!) - and ads for Sea Monkeys!
The only DC character who was allowed to join my selected group of favourite superheroes was Green Lantern. I don't think I'll ever forgive Hollywood for casting Ryan Reynolds, but that's a rant for a different day. Hal Jordan was a redhead, dammit!
I wasn't too keen on F4 (only read it for Ben Grimm), loved Thor for his pompousness (plus I thought Sif and Loki were pretty cool), and absolutely adored The Avengers. I even tried to draw my own comics (as I have the drawing talents of a gnat, I'm lucky no examples of my attempts have survived). Marvel comics were my best friends during some pretty unhappy times. They cheered me up and inspired my imagination.
So I'm reviewing the Avengers movie from the point of view of a person who hasn't read any alternative versions, Young Avengers or whatever else there is available in rewritings, reimaginations and restarts; as somebody who enjoyed the comics at a time when the Black Widow still looked like this:
My favourite character has always been Hawkeye (with Captain America a close second), so my main question after watching "Avengers" (and I've done so five times now) is: whatever happened to Clint Barton?!
Maybe the German translation completely changed the voice of the characters, or maybe the characters changed completely during the last decades, but I'm leaning on my zimmer frame here and wonder why Tony Stark got all of Hawkeye's lines. Tony Stark used to be boring! Worthy! Naval gazing! Painfully noble! It was Hawkeye who was brash and rebellious and cool! What the hell happened? Did somebody kidnap Clint Barton's snarky self and replaced him with a clone? And what happened to his wonderfully cheesy costume? *whine*
That's not to say that I didn't enjoy Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner rocks). I sure did, once I accepted that this is the way Hawkeye is today, but Renner's Hawkeye is not "my" Hawkeye.
The rest of the characters were pretty much in tune with my perceptions. Cap was great (Chris Evans was perfect. He was also perfect as Johnny Storm. In fact, you could let Chris Evans play every single male character in the Marvel universe, including Sue Storm, and he'd be perfect.), Mark Ruffalo made an awesome hulk, and RJD is, despite being OOC for me, simply fantastic. Scarlett Johansson surprised me positively as Black Widow; I thought she did an amazing job, and so did everybody else in the movie. Tom Hiddleston was again a suitably sneaky Loki, and I guess Agent Coulson has his own army of fans by now. Rightly so!
I was a little disappointed, though, that two original Avengers were missing: Wasp and Ant-Man. Maybe they were thought to be too "silly" for a modern movie, but I haven't given up hope yet that they will make an appearance in A2. And who knows, maybe by A3, we'll get Quicksilver as well, plus Scarlet Witch and Vision (my first ever OTP).
"The Avengers" was great, great fun; I loved the epic battle and the banter, and there were some hilarious scenes (Loki the flyswat! Hulk punching Thor! Legolas! Yayness!)
Watching that movie was a childhood dream come true, but it would have been that bit more perfect if Hawkeye had been the Hawkeye of ye olden days. But time doesn't stop for anybody. I still hope for Hawkeye calling Thor "Goldilocks" in future movies. Just once. For old times' sake. C'mon, don't let me down, bow-twanger.
Molly originally posted this entry at http://joyful-molly.dreamwidth.org/379729.html. You can comment on LJ or DW, using OpenID.
I've been a Marvel fan from the very moment I first read one of the comics, and my brother made sure I got a lot to read. Avengers! Fantastic Four! Spiderman! Thor! The Monster of Frankenstein! Dr. Strange! Iron Man! Horror (the latter without telling my parents - thanks for the nightmares, bro!) - and ads for Sea Monkeys!
The only DC character who was allowed to join my selected group of favourite superheroes was Green Lantern. I don't think I'll ever forgive Hollywood for casting Ryan Reynolds, but that's a rant for a different day. Hal Jordan was a redhead, dammit!
I wasn't too keen on F4 (only read it for Ben Grimm), loved Thor for his pompousness (plus I thought Sif and Loki were pretty cool), and absolutely adored The Avengers. I even tried to draw my own comics (as I have the drawing talents of a gnat, I'm lucky no examples of my attempts have survived). Marvel comics were my best friends during some pretty unhappy times. They cheered me up and inspired my imagination.
So I'm reviewing the Avengers movie from the point of view of a person who hasn't read any alternative versions, Young Avengers or whatever else there is available in rewritings, reimaginations and restarts; as somebody who enjoyed the comics at a time when the Black Widow still looked like this:
My favourite character has always been Hawkeye (with Captain America a close second), so my main question after watching "Avengers" (and I've done so five times now) is: whatever happened to Clint Barton?!
Maybe the German translation completely changed the voice of the characters, or maybe the characters changed completely during the last decades, but I'm leaning on my zimmer frame here and wonder why Tony Stark got all of Hawkeye's lines. Tony Stark used to be boring! Worthy! Naval gazing! Painfully noble! It was Hawkeye who was brash and rebellious and cool! What the hell happened? Did somebody kidnap Clint Barton's snarky self and replaced him with a clone? And what happened to his wonderfully cheesy costume? *whine*
That's not to say that I didn't enjoy Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner rocks). I sure did, once I accepted that this is the way Hawkeye is today, but Renner's Hawkeye is not "my" Hawkeye.
The rest of the characters were pretty much in tune with my perceptions. Cap was great (Chris Evans was perfect. He was also perfect as Johnny Storm. In fact, you could let Chris Evans play every single male character in the Marvel universe, including Sue Storm, and he'd be perfect.), Mark Ruffalo made an awesome hulk, and RJD is, despite being OOC for me, simply fantastic. Scarlett Johansson surprised me positively as Black Widow; I thought she did an amazing job, and so did everybody else in the movie. Tom Hiddleston was again a suitably sneaky Loki, and I guess Agent Coulson has his own army of fans by now. Rightly so!
I was a little disappointed, though, that two original Avengers were missing: Wasp and Ant-Man. Maybe they were thought to be too "silly" for a modern movie, but I haven't given up hope yet that they will make an appearance in A2. And who knows, maybe by A3, we'll get Quicksilver as well, plus Scarlet Witch and Vision (my first ever OTP).
"The Avengers" was great, great fun; I loved the epic battle and the banter, and there were some hilarious scenes (Loki the flyswat! Hulk punching Thor! Legolas! Yayness!)
Watching that movie was a childhood dream come true, but it would have been that bit more perfect if Hawkeye had been the Hawkeye of ye olden days. But time doesn't stop for anybody. I still hope for Hawkeye calling Thor "Goldilocks" in future movies. Just once. For old times' sake. C'mon, don't let me down, bow-twanger.
Molly originally posted this entry at http://joyful-molly.dreamwidth.org/379729.html. You can comment on LJ or DW, using OpenID.