Post by Power NeXus on Jun 28, 2012 10:50:52 GMT -5
I just realized I neglected to review this one. Anyhoo...
As anyone who hasn't been living under a rock will know, Marvel's The Avengers was one of the most highly anticipated movies of this year. Heck, it's been one of the most highly anticipated movies of the last four years. Ever since Nick Fury showed up at the end of Iron Man and mentioned "the Avengers Initiative", comic book fans have been waiting for this movie like 7-year-olds waiting for Christmas.
Marvel has been setting the standard for superhero movies higher than ever before with some of their recent films, such as Iron Man and Thor, which are widely considered by comic fans and non-fans alike as some of the best superhero movies made to date. And expectations rose even higher when we learned of Marvel's crowning jewel of their films: a crossover film to put all of the heroes from their other movies, plus a newbie or two, into one big team movie. Did that movie live up to the expectations? Was the mastermind behind Firefly, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the highly acclaimed Astonishing X-Men 1-25 able to continue his reputation? Let's find out...
Plot
This can't be called one of the movie's stellar points, but it was not a bad point either. The story line was not wholly original, but it had enough twists and intricacies to keep audiences from being able to always guess what was coming next. Considering the rather limited options that the writers had (I mean, seriously, there's a limit to how original you can get when writing a movie that's all about a team coming together. Especially a team that everybody already knows from comic books), I'd say they definitely did a good job writing the story.
Acting
As I have mentioned in numerous other reviews, I'm not exactly a "theater kid", so I'm not really qualified to give much review on acting skill. However, I think I'm qualified enough to say that the acting in this movie was dang good. Almost all of the character portrayals were, in my opinion, flawless. In particular, Robert Downey Jr and Mark Ruffalo were outstanding. I don't think anyone in the world could do a better Tony Stark than RDJ has. And even though I didn't initially like the choice of Ruffalo as Banner (he really just doesn't look like the Banner type to me), he managed to act the part well enough that I would call him my favorite Banner-actor to date.
The only slight problems I had with acting came from Samuel L Jackson and Scarlett Johannson. A few of Jackson's lines ("Are you saying you're here to step on us?") just came off as slightly cheesy. And part of Black Widow's conversation with Loki, particularly when she was pretending he was making her all emotionally distraught, came off as just a little bit forced.
IMO, those slightly bad points in acting didn't really detract from the movie at all. I just thought they were worth mentioning.
Visual Effects
Nothing negative to report here. Like, at all. The special effects were just comic book-y enough to be cool, and just real-life enough to to fit in seamlessly with everything that actually was real life. I'd like to point out the CGI Hulk as a particular high point for the visuals. He was easily the best-looking Hulk in any movie so far. He wasn't the pale, shaggy-hair, veins-popping-out-of-his-arms, boy-band Hulk we saw in The Incredible Hulk, and his face actually looked like Mark Ruffalo's.
Another high point of the visual effects was one particular clip from the final battle scene. A 45-second-or-so shot that flew around the city, transitioning seamlessly from one member of the team to the next, showing each one of them... well, just being a bad@$$. The first time I saw that particular clip, I may or may not have peed myself.
Action
Basically exactly like the visual effects. Nothing negative to report. Every fight, every battle scene, was exactly as how I would have had it. And there were plenty of fights in the movie to go around.
Concerning the final battle scene with the Chitauri, I was very surprised with how equal the screen time was between all the members of the team. I had expected Cap, Iron Man, Thor, and maybe Hulk to get the vast majority of the attention, with Black Widow and Hawkeye getting maybe one or two good little clips. But, thankfully, Joss Whedon was far too good of a director for that. Even Hawkeye, the one member of the team who hadn't really even been in a movie yet (unless you want to count a quick cameo in Thor) got just about as much face time in the final battle as Cap or Thor did. Being a big fan of Hawkeye, I appreciated that quite a bit.
Pacing
If anything, I would say this was the one factor of the movie that could have been better. Even though it was necessary for all of the right plot points to come into place, it just seemed like the team spent sort of a long time on the SHIELD helicarrier, with no real action until Evil Hawkeye showed up and started flarking up all their stuff. But this was a minor drawback at best. The time they spent developing the plot on the helicarrier made for a better finale at the end.
Additional thoughts
Hawkeye's costume really could have been better. I didn't want him to have the same costume as he had in the comics (a purple jumpsuit, loincloth, and an H on his forehead just wouldn't translate well on the silver screen), but couldn't they have done something other than a solid black leather suit? Just throw in a cowl or a few purple lines or anything slightly reminiscent of his original suit.
Joss Whedon deserves mad props for being one of the few directors who knows it's possible to make a close relationship between a male and female characters without it having to be romantic/sexual.
I greatly appreciated how, not only was Hawkeye given his fair share of face time in the fights, but he was also sufficiently involved in the plot that he had an actual reason for being on the team. I had sort of expected his role on the team to be something like, "Hello, heroes whom everybody already knows. I've gathered you all together here because you've all proven yourselves in battle before, and we think that putting you all together will allow you to take down the threats none of you could take alone. Oh, before you go, I almost forgot. This is bow-and-arrow guy. He's going to be part of the team too. Just 'cause." Thankfully, due to his actual role in the plot, his affiliation with SHEILD, partnership with Black Widow, and vendetta against Loki for controlling his mind, it really felt like he was part of the team.
Although I praised the plot for being good, there were still a few tweaks I've noticed in it after thinking about it.
Why did Cap, Tony, and Thor not notice something was up when Loki just sat around and did nothing during their fight?
How did Thor get back to earth (the only explanation given is something about Odin and magic)?
Why did all the Chitauri just drop dead Phantom Menace style when their ship got all blow'd up?
How did Thor know where to go to find Loki? Cap and Iron Man used logic and reasoning to come to a conclusion about where he might be, but Thor just spent that whole time standing in a field of daisies looking at his hammer.
Summary
The Good: Almost everything. Great acting, great visual effects, great fight scenes, great directing/etc.
The Bad: A couple of slightly fake lines from Fury and Widow. Slightly slow pacing in the middle of the movie. A couple of plot points that I had issue with. Hawkeye needed a better costume.
10/10
Not flawless, but none of the flaws were significant enough to really detract from the movie.
Best superhero movie ever made.
As anyone who hasn't been living under a rock will know, Marvel's The Avengers was one of the most highly anticipated movies of this year. Heck, it's been one of the most highly anticipated movies of the last four years. Ever since Nick Fury showed up at the end of Iron Man and mentioned "the Avengers Initiative", comic book fans have been waiting for this movie like 7-year-olds waiting for Christmas.
Marvel has been setting the standard for superhero movies higher than ever before with some of their recent films, such as Iron Man and Thor, which are widely considered by comic fans and non-fans alike as some of the best superhero movies made to date. And expectations rose even higher when we learned of Marvel's crowning jewel of their films: a crossover film to put all of the heroes from their other movies, plus a newbie or two, into one big team movie. Did that movie live up to the expectations? Was the mastermind behind Firefly, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the highly acclaimed Astonishing X-Men 1-25 able to continue his reputation? Let's find out...
Plot
This can't be called one of the movie's stellar points, but it was not a bad point either. The story line was not wholly original, but it had enough twists and intricacies to keep audiences from being able to always guess what was coming next. Considering the rather limited options that the writers had (I mean, seriously, there's a limit to how original you can get when writing a movie that's all about a team coming together. Especially a team that everybody already knows from comic books), I'd say they definitely did a good job writing the story.
Acting
As I have mentioned in numerous other reviews, I'm not exactly a "theater kid", so I'm not really qualified to give much review on acting skill. However, I think I'm qualified enough to say that the acting in this movie was dang good. Almost all of the character portrayals were, in my opinion, flawless. In particular, Robert Downey Jr and Mark Ruffalo were outstanding. I don't think anyone in the world could do a better Tony Stark than RDJ has. And even though I didn't initially like the choice of Ruffalo as Banner (he really just doesn't look like the Banner type to me), he managed to act the part well enough that I would call him my favorite Banner-actor to date.
The only slight problems I had with acting came from Samuel L Jackson and Scarlett Johannson. A few of Jackson's lines ("Are you saying you're here to step on us?") just came off as slightly cheesy. And part of Black Widow's conversation with Loki, particularly when she was pretending he was making her all emotionally distraught, came off as just a little bit forced.
IMO, those slightly bad points in acting didn't really detract from the movie at all. I just thought they were worth mentioning.
Visual Effects
Nothing negative to report here. Like, at all. The special effects were just comic book-y enough to be cool, and just real-life enough to to fit in seamlessly with everything that actually was real life. I'd like to point out the CGI Hulk as a particular high point for the visuals. He was easily the best-looking Hulk in any movie so far. He wasn't the pale, shaggy-hair, veins-popping-out-of-his-arms, boy-band Hulk we saw in The Incredible Hulk, and his face actually looked like Mark Ruffalo's.
Another high point of the visual effects was one particular clip from the final battle scene. A 45-second-or-so shot that flew around the city, transitioning seamlessly from one member of the team to the next, showing each one of them... well, just being a bad@$$. The first time I saw that particular clip, I may or may not have peed myself.
Action
Basically exactly like the visual effects. Nothing negative to report. Every fight, every battle scene, was exactly as how I would have had it. And there were plenty of fights in the movie to go around.
Concerning the final battle scene with the Chitauri, I was very surprised with how equal the screen time was between all the members of the team. I had expected Cap, Iron Man, Thor, and maybe Hulk to get the vast majority of the attention, with Black Widow and Hawkeye getting maybe one or two good little clips. But, thankfully, Joss Whedon was far too good of a director for that. Even Hawkeye, the one member of the team who hadn't really even been in a movie yet (unless you want to count a quick cameo in Thor) got just about as much face time in the final battle as Cap or Thor did. Being a big fan of Hawkeye, I appreciated that quite a bit.
Pacing
If anything, I would say this was the one factor of the movie that could have been better. Even though it was necessary for all of the right plot points to come into place, it just seemed like the team spent sort of a long time on the SHIELD helicarrier, with no real action until Evil Hawkeye showed up and started flarking up all their stuff. But this was a minor drawback at best. The time they spent developing the plot on the helicarrier made for a better finale at the end.
Additional thoughts
Hawkeye's costume really could have been better. I didn't want him to have the same costume as he had in the comics (a purple jumpsuit, loincloth, and an H on his forehead just wouldn't translate well on the silver screen), but couldn't they have done something other than a solid black leather suit? Just throw in a cowl or a few purple lines or anything slightly reminiscent of his original suit.
Joss Whedon deserves mad props for being one of the few directors who knows it's possible to make a close relationship between a male and female characters without it having to be romantic/sexual.
I greatly appreciated how, not only was Hawkeye given his fair share of face time in the fights, but he was also sufficiently involved in the plot that he had an actual reason for being on the team. I had sort of expected his role on the team to be something like, "Hello, heroes whom everybody already knows. I've gathered you all together here because you've all proven yourselves in battle before, and we think that putting you all together will allow you to take down the threats none of you could take alone. Oh, before you go, I almost forgot. This is bow-and-arrow guy. He's going to be part of the team too. Just 'cause." Thankfully, due to his actual role in the plot, his affiliation with SHEILD, partnership with Black Widow, and vendetta against Loki for controlling his mind, it really felt like he was part of the team.
Although I praised the plot for being good, there were still a few tweaks I've noticed in it after thinking about it.
Why did Cap, Tony, and Thor not notice something was up when Loki just sat around and did nothing during their fight?
How did Thor get back to earth (the only explanation given is something about Odin and magic)?
Why did all the Chitauri just drop dead Phantom Menace style when their ship got all blow'd up?
How did Thor know where to go to find Loki? Cap and Iron Man used logic and reasoning to come to a conclusion about where he might be, but Thor just spent that whole time standing in a field of daisies looking at his hammer.
Summary
The Good: Almost everything. Great acting, great visual effects, great fight scenes, great directing/etc.
The Bad: A couple of slightly fake lines from Fury and Widow. Slightly slow pacing in the middle of the movie. A couple of plot points that I had issue with. Hawkeye needed a better costume.
10/10
Not flawless, but none of the flaws were significant enough to really detract from the movie.
Best superhero movie ever made.
