Review: The Avengers

Loki (Tom Hiddleston), the evil brother of Thor (Chris Hemsworth) has obtained the powerful energy source known as the Tesseract (and seen in “Captain America: The First Avenger”). He has also ‘turned’ both energy specialist Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgaard) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner). The latter is an agent of SHIELD, AKA Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division, a peace-keeping organisation headed by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). Fury is using the Avengers Initiative to stop this threat. In addition to SHIELD agent Natasha ‘Black Widow’ Romanov (Scarlett Johansson), Fury seeks the aid of several superheroes; Captain America (Chris Evans), Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) AKA Hulk, egotist millionaire Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and his Iron Man suit, and of course Thor. Clark Gregg reprises his role as Agent Coulson, Cobie Smulders is another SHIELD agent, Gwyneth Paltrow returns briefly as Stark’s assistant/girlfriend Pepper Potts, whilst Jenny Agutter and Powers Boothe play United Nations-like talking heads.

 

I didn’t much like any of the superhero films leading up to this 2012 all-star effort (I haven’t seen “The Incredible Hulk”, though), so when I tell you that this Joss Whedon (creator of the shamefully addictive “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) film is the best of the lot, bear that in mind. Or in other words, I know I’m representative of like 0.0001% of the movie-viewing public here, so don’t crucify me just ‘coz I don’t think this is like the way coolest sick arse movie ever, OK? It’s called an opinion, and mine’s better than yours (I kid!). Look, it’s a tolerable and watchable film, and at least there were moments and attributes I liked. It’s a million times better than the “Iron Man” films, at any rate, but boy is it seriously overrated by most of you. It sure as hell ain’t no “Superman”, that’s for sure.

 

Although I still feel that an all-star superhero film should’ve had a far more well-known supervillain, I have to say that Tom Hiddleston’s Zod-like Loki is the best thing in the entire film. But don’t you think it’s odd that all these superheroes are needed to defeat Loki, when Thor nearly beat him on his own in another movie? I think it was called “Thor”. He may not be a great villain, but when backed up by Skarsgaard and Renner (both of whom are ‘turned’ very early here, though Skarsgaard kinda already was in “Thor”, too), they make an effective trio. Meanwhile, Samuel L. Jackson is immediately better in this than in the last three films I saw him in. He drifts in and out of the film far too frequently for my liking, but Nick Fury is one of the more interesting and arresting characters in the film, certainly. In fact, he’s probably my favourite, even if he doesn’t actually do anything cool as such. Jackson’s innate coolness is enough to make you wish you were watching a film entirely centred on Nick Fury.

 

Kudos to Mr. Whedon for starting the film out with the three of the best actors; Jackson, Stellan Skarsgaard, and Jeremy Renner. The film would’ve gotten off to a disastrous start if we began with the trio of Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, and Chris ‘The Human Blocked Nose’ Hemsworth (who doesn’t even turn up for about 30 minutes). Anyway, the film starts out OK (because Thor isn’t around yet?), and I enjoy a good ragtag assembly, and this film follows the familiar pattern of such films, even if this team is kinda crappy. Hell, as much as I hated Robert Downey Jr.’s flippant attitude in the “Iron Man” films, it fits in a little better in this all-star effort. He’s a bit less of a colossal dickhead egotist this time out and just a smart-arse. And Pepper Potts is still Gwyneth Paltrow’s best screen work. Her jean shorts aren’t enough to make me forget she stole Cate Blanchett’s Oscar and married a giant toolbag, though. By the way, are AC/DC now contractually obligated to be Iron Man’s backing band? I did take issue with the early fish-out-of-water hijinks with Captain America, though, which are even more annoying than the similar scenes in “Thor”.

 

One pleasant surprise of the film was the performance of Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner. The frankly irritating and overrated actor is nonetheless really well-cast here. He gets one great line, too; ‘They want me in a submerged pressurised container?’. Also, it has to be said that an invisible air base is just about the coolest thing ever. It’s mind-boggling to me how little Thor is in the film, though. Yes, I hate Chris Hemsworth and only liked the scenes of “Thor” set on his home planet, but when the main villain is Thor’s brother, don’t you think Thor should be given a prominent role? He’s barely in the film at all, and seems like he’s in less of it than he actually is. According to IMDb, he’s in the film even less than Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow (more on her later, believe me), and only Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye is in the film less. Truth be told, none of the characters really pop, partly because I don’t really like any of these guys, perhaps, but Johansson and Evans are in the film way too much for my liking. Downey and Ruffalo do make for an amusing double-act, but that isn’t capitalised on enough. But writer-director Whedon, working with Zak Penn (“Last Action Hero”, “Elektra”, “X Men: Last Stand”), struggle valiantly to bring all these characters together into a coherent plot. It can’t have been an easy thing to do, and I definitely commend Whedon for making this move a whole lot quicker than it could’ve been under these elongated circumstances. There’s certainly enough going on that it never gets bogged down and isn’t boring like the other films. That said, there’s not enough action nor character interplay to really elevate the film, I’m just coming from the perspective of having disliked all the preceding films.

 

There’s definite problems in the script. I mean, it feels like Johansson’s Black Widow is meant to have some kind of connection with both Bruce Banner and Hawkeye, but...we never really get enough of a sense of it. It’s not so much an issue with Banner, but **** SPOILER WARNING **** when Black Widow tries to barter for Hawkeye’s release, one feels like it must be due to a deep connection, or else she’d surely be more interested in getting Stellan Skarsgaard’s brainiac energy expert released from Loki’s hold than a guy who can shoot arrows really, really good. The longer the film goes on, the sillier that decision seems to be **** END SPOILER **** Personally I think Captain America sucks (I’m still pissed off that “Captain America” ended the way it did- bizarrely- just to get him into this film), but at least in this film he actually gets to be a for real superhero instead of a goofy war bonds spokesperson with a big shield. But making him a glum party pooper is a giant mistake, though once again, you can blame the end of “Captain America: The First Avenger” for that. He’s a real cranky pants, here though. Hemsworth’s Thor, meanwhile, comes off like a character from a bad “SNL” sketch about Vikings, transplanted into this film. Or maybe an extra on “Spartacus: Blood and Sand”. However, most of that is Hemsworth’s terrible acting (and desperate need to get his permanently blocked nose seen to by a doctor). Speaking of terrible acting, presenting Scarlett Johansson and the unfortunately named Cobie Smulders (the fifth most talented person from “How I Met Your Mother”). Both of these actresses attempt to be tough chicks, but they end up coming off like a bad parody of female sci-fi/action characters. For Smulders it’s probably just the dopey headset she wears, but Johansson’s performance in this reminded me of Sigourney Weaver’s bimbo turn in the “Star Trek” parody “Galaxy Quest”. She’s so dopey and forced that I couldn’t help but laugh at her every staged pose and awful line reading. Everyone else probably loved her initial action scene, but the stunt double was completely obvious to me, and I found it quite silly. Also, for a character who has seemingly been robbed of most (if not all) of her super powers, Black Widow is in way too much of this film for my liking.

 

Downey’s Iron Man gets one great scene where Stark is thrown out of a skyscraper window and his suit has to rush after him and form around him. The action finale isn’t bad, but it would’ve been even better if I was more invested in the characters. The FX are lame throughout, too, with the 3D making it far too obvious when seen in 2D. It all looks like a computer game, especially anything involving The Hulk. Yes, they still can’t get it right. He’s still too damn big to convince as a CGI character, and interact with non-CGI characters and backgrounds. It looks like a computer game character instead of seamlessly fitting into the fabric of the film. However, credit where it’s due, Hulk also features in the two best and funniest moments in the entire film. Both are near the end, firstly a brief bit where Hulk punches Thor for Odin knows what reason. The second one is a brilliant bit where Hulk flings the absolute fuck out of Loki and shouts ‘Puny God!’. Stupid beyond belief (especially considering Loki would surely be in a billion pieces) but hilarious.

 

This film is OK and has its moments, but is phenomenally overrated. If you’re into the franchise, you’ve already seen and loved the film. I’m still a bit ‘meh’ about it, but it’s easily the best film in the franchise. Faint praise is an underrated thing. Oh, and why the hell does Harry Dean Stanton have a cameo in this? It’s an amusing cameo, sure, but why? 

 

Rating: C+