Movies: The Avengers

Score:  ****1/2 out of *****


Long Story Short:  Despite commercials featuring a dizzing array of costumed superheroes, The Avengers succeeds spectacularly where so many team/large-cast films have failed.  Whedon devises a simple plot, but its job is simply to support the great cast (which somehow develops individuals and relationships with equal conviction), soaring action and a phenomenal sense of humor and fun.  Do yourself a favor and go see this in the theater, if you haven't already.




The summer movie season has begun!  It looks like there will be an interesting slate of films to choose from this year, and hopefully I'll have a bit more variety in my genre-watching this summer.  Still, I'm kicking off summer 2012 with, yes, a superhero movie.  Honestly, I was fairly skeptical about the concept of this film when I first heard about it; there have been many more instances of these team/large-cast action films that flop than succeed.  The trailers didn't completely erase my doubts, either.  However, I was quite pleased to see it get a Rotten Tomatoes score over 90%, excellent for any kind of film.  The Avengers was directed by Joss Whedon (Buffy, Firefly) and stars Robert Downey, Jr., Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, and many others.


Before I begin the plot synopsis, I should inform you that this film does incorporate the events of the previous movies of its characters (Iron Man, Thor, etc.), but they aren't necessary to the understanding of the events of this film.


The first few scenes of The Avengers set up the villain of the film (Loki, demi-god brother of Thor) and his basic plot (steal an artifact - first seen in last summer's Captain America film - in return for an alien army to conquer Earth).  Loki (Hiddleston) acquires this artifact from the facility of a covert organization known as SHIELD, prompting SHIELD leader Nick Fury (Jackson) to begin summoning the heroes.  Black Widow (Johansson) is part of SHIELD already, and Captain America (Chris Evans) is in their custody, but the other Avengers prove a little more difficult to get onboard.


After some cajoling (and forest-leveling brawls), the team at last converges, grudgingly, on an aircraft carrier carrier (that's not a typo).  After discovering a secret SHIELD agenda, the team again forms rivalries, primarily between virtuous, team-player Captain America and skeptical, independent Tony Stark (Downey Jr.).  Loki attempts to further divide them, but the death of a mutual friend instead unites them.  After that, it's butt-kicking time.


One of the main reasons The Avengers succeeds is that it has a great cast, and it somehow manages to give every member a distinct and fascinating role.  As you might know from earlier reviews, I am a big fan of Robert Downey, Jr., and his role as Tony Stark/Iron Man is just as entertaining as Sherlock.  In fact, Stark is probably the most important character in the film, as his sarcastic, arrogant, often selfish yet always funny personality is so different from the traditional hero's.  Chris Evans' Captain America has pretty much the opposite personality, and he does a good job of portraying his character's extreme frustration with Stark, but also his cool-headed leadership skills.  Thor (played by Chris Hemsworth) is kind of an interesting blend of Stark and the Capt. - he's a classic hero-type, but also arrogant/derisive of "puny humans" by virtue of his being, well, a demi-god.  Chris plays him with the same humor and charm that marked his character's own debut film.


Black Widow (Johansson) and Hawkeye (newcomer played by Jeremy Renner) are the tortured-soul members of the Avengers; each get a pleasantly surprising amount of development, considering they are really secondary characters, and the actors breathe life into them.  Mark Ruffalo is the third actor to portray the Hulk in the last decade, and he might be the best yet.  He gives Bruce Banner a quiet, friendly demeanor, but also a definite sense of hiding something huge and dangerous under that innocent exterior.  Tom Hiddleston as Loki improves on his performance in last summer's Thor, although he still is not among the best comic book villains.  Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury is... well, pretty much what you'd expect from Samuel L. Jackson, but his underling Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) actually steals the show from him.


With a great cast balancing out a pretty straightforward story, next we look at the nuts and bolts of The Avengers.  A superhero film without good action scenes is kind of pointless, but fortunately this film has plenty.  There is great variety here, from intense individual skirmishes to heavy firepower shoot-outs.  Yes, the finale battle is an alien invasion in NYC, bringing back memories of *gulp* Transformers and many others, but here The Avengers provides a superior experience.  Overall, the film favors action that is appropriate for each of its characters rather than action that is original in a more general sense, which is a good trade off for this kind of team film.  The next aspect which must be spoken to is the film's sense of humor, because it is phenomenal.  The Avengers isn't a Green Hornet-esque action-comedy, yet it is far funnier than, say, 21 Jump Street whose primary mission was to be funny.  A little of the humor is based on (basic) knowledge of the comics, but most of it is accessible to the general movie-goer, and the showing I went to was laughing out loud on numerous occasions.  I won't spoil any specifics here, but while Tony Stark is of course humorous, the Hulk gets the biggest laughs.


***


Even while driving to go see The Avengers, I doubted that it would be good enough for 4.5 stars.  Team/large-cast films, to say nothing of action films that try to do it, are just so hard to do well.  But Joss Whedon deserves so much credit for succeeding, and in fact I would say he did the best job with the hardest task in any film I've seen in many years.  As I've said, the cast is a big factor - I love Downey, Jr., and the others also do a great job of creating distinct characters, with unusually good chemistry for a team of big names.  The combination of meaningful and fun action with an outstanding sense of humor also gives the film a huge boost.  And what all those things create together is a sense of fun unmatched by any superhero film in recent memory.  The film is certainly not a parody, but it's often a bit silly, reminding the audience that these characters did start off in comic books, after all.  The Avengers isn't perfect - the villain's plot, in particular, is not all that intriguing.  But the humor, cast, action and fun are all so good that they make The Avengers an instant classic in the superhero genre.