Film Review #96: The Avengers

This film was basically guaranteed to succeed, no matter what kind of effort they put into it.  With the famous superheros like Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, and the Hulk teaming up to battle an invading force of aliens on Earth, the only way that The Avengers would have failed would have been if the film was just one gigantic ponzi scheme.  But instead of "Michael Bay"ing us, Joss Whedon directed us one of the most epic and profound crossovers in the history of motion pictures.  What can I say about this film that hasn't already been said?  This is the first time that a large group of superheros will appear on screen together and combat a horrific evil.  Everything that led up to this film is worth it because this film is that awesome!

Plot: A narrator reveals to both the audience and his master of an alliance that has been forged between a certain Asgardian and the great one, who has given his new ally control of his virtually invincible army, the Chitauri and a powerful staff to control the Earth in exchange for the Asgardian to return the Tesseract to him.

At S.H.I.E.L.D.'s headquarters, Erik Selvig is tasked with overlooking the Tesseract in the hopes that it's unyielding power could perhaps power the Earth.  But when it starts reacting on it's own, it opens a gateway to the other side of space that Loki uses to arrive on Earth and begin his conquest of the planet.  Using his staff, Loki bewitches both Selvig and S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) otherwise known as Hawkeye and steals the Tesseract from the organization while also crippling their base.

Frustrated with their inability to capture Loki, Nick Fury calls in his "Avengers Initiative" , calling Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanov, Bruce Banner (now played by Mark Ruffalo), and Tony Stark to action.  While he begins to track Loki, Loki begins planning his scheme to utilize the Tesseracts power to call forth his immense army.  In order to garner enough time, Loki fights but ultimately surrenders to the Avengers and is taken captive.  But Thor intervenes and tries to force Loki to surrender the Tesseract.  Thor and Iron Man get into an awesome fight but Captain America stops them and convinces Thor to join up with them.

Loki then sets about to tear the Avengers apart from the inside.  When Tony and Bruce learn that S.H.I.E.L.D. is planning to use the Tesseract to make WMD's they confront Fury about this.  Natasha defends Fury's actions, Rogers argues with Stark about his ego and Fury reveals that they only planned to make WMD's after Thor's fight with the Destroyer in New Mexico.  As the group argues, an angered Banner unleashes the Hulk and begins tearing the base apart while Loki manages to escape from his cage, trapping Thor inside.  Hulk is taken out of the base by a fighter plane while Stark and Rogers try to keep the engines going.  Loki then kills agent Phil Coulson and dumps Thor's cage out of the sky.  While Hawkeye tries to finish his mission, Natasha fights and beats him, freeing him from Loki's control

With Loki gone, the base in tatters, and the group broken and weary, Fury manages to convince the remaining heroes to fight for Coulson.  Stark flies off to Stark Tower while the remaining team follows in a helicopter.  In a hilariously epic confrontation with Loki, Iron Man dons a new armor and begins to fight off the Chitauri armies.  Thor returns to fight Loki, Captain America and his allies fight on the ground and Banner returns and unleashes the Hulk once more to help fend off the armies.  But when the council of S.H.I.E.L.D. sends a nuclear weapon to destroy New York City, the Avengers must defeat the invasion of the Chitauri before the nuke wipes out mankind in the city.

What's Bad?: There are a few very minor flaws in this film, some of which can detract from the story if you are one of those over analyizing guys.  For example, you have the unexplained "dark magic" that Odin had to use to bring Thor to Earth, as the Bifrost was being reconstructed at the time.  You also have the tidbit that Bruce Banner can somehow now control the Hulk for the services of the plot.

My personal grief with this film is the virtual uselessness of Captain America.  While he does do a lot of fighting in the city and protects civilians, he doesn't have as much to do with the overall defense to the city as Hawkeye, Thor, Iron Man, and even Black Widow do.  And on top of that, his extremely patriotic attitude towards S.H.I.E.L.D. may come off to some as naive, but it comes off to me as annoying and detrimental to the plot.  And this film does NOT rake advantage of having the Super Soldier on their side at all.  And need I say anything about the goofy costume?  Thank GOD for The Winter Soldier.

What's Good?: Literally every other aspect of this film is perfect.  In terms of their performance and the sheer entertainment value their character brings to the film, the best grades would undoubtedly go to Hiddleston reprising his role as Loki and RDJ as Iron Man once more.  But the singular best performance in the movie goes to Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow.  She is absolutely kick ass in this film and makes me eager to see her in more films beyond this one.

The action is some of the best superhero action I have ever seen.  An honor I once gave to Spiderman 2, this film has THE best fight scenes of any superhero movie ever made.  My personal favorite fight scene is the "Superhero Pissing Contest" between Thor and Iron Man (even though Thor was probably going easy on Iron Man, as Mjonir could have probably shattered Stark's armor in a flash).  But the dialogue the two exchange before the fight is freaking hilarious.

That's another thing.  This movie's humor is really freaking awesome.  Unlike the really heavy superhero movies like The Dark (Knight Rises and Man of Steel, this film feels no need at all to take itself seriously all the way through.  With such perfect exchanges as:

THOR: Do not touch me again.

STARK: Then don't take my stuff.

THOR: You have no idea what you're dealing with.

STARK: Um, Shakespeare in the park?  Doth Mother know, you weareth her drapes?

along with:

THOR: (To Banner): Have care how you speak!  Loki's mind may be beyond reason, but he is of Asgard.  And he is my brother.

ROMANOV: He killed eighty people in two days.

THOR: He's adopted.  

and of course:

STARK: (To Rogers): Then tell him to "Suit Up".  I'm bringing the party to you.

(Stark flies on screen with one of the Chitauri demons pursuing him.  Thor and Hawkeye prepare for the upcoming onslaught.)

ROMANOV: I don't see how that's a party...


...you cannot buy this kind of humor in a superhero movie these days.

Overall: The Avengers is an absolute masterpiece in the art of filmmaking.  With a few minor flaws aside, the film is one of the single best superhero movies I have had the privelege of seeing and I look forward for the film's sequel, set to come out in a month.

Final Grade: 97, or A

Next: Iron Man 3
Then: Thor: The Dark World
Later: Captain America: The Winter Soldier