It's hard to put into words how happy this movie makes me. I never would have imaged after walking out of Iron Man that four short years later I'd be seeing him team up with all my favorite Marvel superheroes, having a massive alien punch up, spewing spectacular speeches, and DOMINATING an already superb looking summer.
What's the plot? A big box of who gives a damn, there's a big evil threat against earth, and all the heroes despite their differences in view and personality have to join forces and combine their unique abilities to save the planet. It's not terribly complicated. no ridiculous twists, no silly over the top romance story, just a fantastically simple set up so that a buncha dudes in costumes can fight a buncha aliens in New York.
I'd like to step back and thank Joss Whedon for a moment.
Joss Whedon you are a talent, and I thank you for making the Avengers the way you did. Because his directing is why the first half of the movie works so well; writing and directing any kind of group dynamic is tricky. He pulled it off in Firefly, and he pulled it off Buffy. Does it work here? Somehow yes. Norse god shouts at WWII era patriotic solider who's trying to calm down a cynical scientist from antagonizing the under control but very dangerous quirky scientist who are all secretly mad at where they are and just wanna blow off steam. A scene where everyone sounds different, acts different, and looks very different plays out as one of the most entertaining groups your ever going to see on screen.
Besides how he pulls of the group there's no question that hes got the action down. Ya see the movie is basically two halves; Superheroes argue and fight each other while a threat looms over earth ---- then threat comes and they put asides their differences and fight as a team. And the action is just as fun to watch, as is Thor scoffing at all the puny little humans. Good choreography, good sense of geography, and a damn pretty visual aesthetic and monster design give this movie the best superhero fights of all time.
And don't even get me started on the acting, Robert Downey Jr. still waltzes flawlessly into every room like he owns them all as Tony Stark, Chris Evans still plays Captain America like the straight-laced perfectly good hero, Chris Hemmsworth clearly loves playing a god and bellowing out in a Nordic accent, Scarlett Johanssonn is... still doing her thing. Shes not a bad actress her character just doesn't get as much time to do both action and development as much as the others. Besides a cool little Easter egg where all of her scenes have a mirror (tee - hee i see what ya did there Marvel) she doesn't feel important. She's great, but deserved more screen time. The two newish additions , Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye and Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner (the Hulk) do the characters justice. In fact Mark Ruffalo is the greatest Hulk I've ever seen. Quirky enough as Bruce Banner but clearly smart makes the dichotomy of him being the Hulk seem like a more drastic jump. I loved it. Hawkeye, not unlike Black Widow, doesn't get a lot of screen time but somehow gets even less to do. He's great and he's cool and he has the whole dark crazy thing goin on sometimes and his action scenes are all cool but he definitely deserved more time. All your other favorite characters come across as great, special mention goes to Clark Gregg ad S.H.E.I.L.D. Agent Phil Coulson who steals every scene he's in and really comes alive as a full character here.
Everything else I haven't mentioned is fine or irrelevant, the two P.S. scenes made me cry out for another movie fast, and the next couple years of Marvel Studios are going to be some very good ones. Go. See. This. Sh*t. It gets a hyped up A.
No comments:
Post a Comment