Marvel's The Avengers Review

        There’s no other way to say that when this movie was coming out, the level of hype was immense. It was the most anticipated film coming out with good reason and it was kicking off the summer slate of 2012. No one could’ve expected just how much of an influence it would have on Hollywood and pop culture in general. I won’t be wax poetic when reminiscing about the theater experience I had with my own Dad. With that, this is what I think about the Phase 1 finale The Avengers. 

1. Assemble

        Where do I even begin starting for this movie. For starters, it’s the finish line for the slate of movies to introduce the characters and the plot threads that was mentioned in the prior films. Part of it did feel like it was squeezed in the entries, but what ultimately made up for it was just the camaraderie of seeing the characters and having them be well rounded where we know who they are and ultimately care about. 

        We see that it picks up after the events of Thor. Loki has been given an army to command at the behest of his shadowy master. After his invasion at a SHIELD location, Col. Fury calls upon the Avengers to assemble. By that, having Agent Coulson, Romanoff and himself getting the heroes ready to stop Loki. 

        If there’s one thing where the film does so well is just how we slowly get a reintroduction to the heroes. While we saw them before, it makes the world livelier to know what it is they’re up to and how they are caught up to speed with everything. Of course, there’s yet another recast with Bruce Banner/The Hulk. Mark Ruffalo does a good job where he’s sort of cautious but he keeps to himself.

        Even the way the movie starts is the only way for the whole thing to work. We get an reintroduction to Loki and that he’s technically not the main villain. But he’s basically doing a favor so he can be a King for another world. Continuing the plot thread from Thor, but here we see how Odinson is attempting to bring back his brother. Not knowing of the overall bargain that Loki did. I really love how Thor didn’t disregard his brother but still loves him even though they aren’t blood. 

        What makes the movie work is the camaraderie of seeing the individual heroes interacting with each other. It’s basically a massive ego trip when Stark interacts with the others. More so than that he wants to know why exactly SHIELD wants them as a team. It’s the individual threads that break away from the main Loki plot where I find it interesting, and it gets brought up again in the future films. Like, it’s one thing where one of Cap’s discovery didn’t click with me when watching his sequel. 

        If there’s one thing where the film sort of fall short is that we don’t have an equal enough screen time for the heroes. I feel as though we mostly focus on the human characters and Thor gets put in the backburner. It’s a tough task regardless that a movie is around two hours but is juggling the character dynamic and screen time. Does it derail the movie, of course not. 

        On the flip side, the secret sauce to how this movie works is to dispense with the team’s win/loss record in the film. What do I mean by this? Well, it would be pretty boring to have the team consistently win against Loki, a brainwashed Hawkeye and the ensuing alien invasion. All of it is peppered in where the team “wins” a small win and loses big when the flying SHIELD helicarrier is damaged. 

        It's one of those things that reminds us that aside from Thor, everyone is human. The final fight is the main highlight of the movie. Additionally, we see how the action sort of ebbs and flows with how the team is fighting against the horde. For one, we see them seemingly winning and of course we have the moment where it’s the opposite. So much so that we see the battle damage that the heroes are taking. 

        Just those moments practically humanize everyone where there’s no God mentality about them, even with a God of Thunder. That sort of thing is why people tune in to see them since they have moments of humility and reflection. It’s a thing to see in retrospect to have a cinematic project that gambled on the idea of caring for heroes no one outside a comic bookstore knows about made an immediate impact on people. 

2. One Great Scene

        Aside from the final fight, I think my favorite scene in the whole film is when the team argues just before Loki initiates his plan. As I mentioned earlier, Stark hacked into SHIELD to find out why they want them. Same with Rogers who makes a terrifying discovery. All of it  boils over when everyone is in the lab and basically start an argument amongst each other. And it works because Loki had a hand in it. 

        It would be one thing where everyone gets chummy and that’s that. What I like that in this one, no one really earns their trust. Everyone is divided instead of being in sync with each other. Which makes the first moment where they’re united such an ironic thing where Tony lets out his spite to Cap. Thor thinks everyone is beneath him when they’re arguing. Right down to Banner admitting that he tried to kill himself and the Hulk spat out the bullet. 

        Everything about is great from the character dynamics to even the camera showing just how dysfunctional everyone is. Just seeing it once again was so uncomfortable since everyone was unloading the dirty laundry of why SHIELD needed them and specifically the camera abetting for the tone that it was trying to go for. One more thing I wanted to add just for the bigger context is that Fury is following orders from a Security Council.

        All of them on the screen are under the shadows and it sort of gives them that power that's even beyond Fury or SHIELD. I honestly wanted to know just thinking about it more if the producer already had in mind that SHIELD was under control from a more quiet malevolent force. Now, that thread involving Rogers finding the weapon is carried over but it's interesting for me that they thought that by assembling the team, they had control over them. 

3. Legacy

        To accurately describe the level of accomplishment the movie did is like this. You couldn’t turn away without seeing a commercial for the film and even get bombarded with the commercials with how many records it broke. Grossing a billion dollars and maintaining its status as one of the highest grossing films aside from Titanic was basically earned. I think this film started an inflection point where now people started to view this realm geekiness as tolerable and normal. Like it has a level of respectability since people came in droves to see these characters and have the unique theater experience. 

        The post credits scene even got everyone hooked, because it was seemingly revealed who the next villain the team would face. Unfortunately, we all had to wait a little while longer for that. While Phase 1 was the introduction to the core team, Phase 2 brought in new elements with new characters that was going to paid off. Especially introducing new plot MacGuffins that would lead into the succeeding Avenger films. Of course, there’s bumpy roads but its something where the journey was more fun than the adventure. 

4. Overall 

        Marvel’s The Avengers is one of the best comic book films and influential films in Cinema. It isn’t high art, but one where it made an immediate impact in the art of celluloid.