You don't have to be someone who has read literally thousands of comic books, and had the nerdy arguments about whether Thor could shatter Captain America's shield with a well-struck blow from his hammer, Mjolnir, to understand just how awe inspiring a movie like Marvel's The Avengers is. That type of person describes me to a tee, but even if that wasn't the case, seeing the likes of Captain America(Chris Evans), Iron Man(Robert Downey Jr.), the Hulk(Mark Ruffalo) and Thor(Chris Hemsworth) all together in one film is enough to make anybody start quoting Joe Biden: "This is a big effing deal!!!!". The Avengers puts any fanboy fears to rest, and gets the geek juices goin' in a way no other superhero film has ever done. So why even bother trying to be subtle about this? The Avengers is flat out incredible! It is the jaw-dropping, powerhouse comic book movie we all hoped it would be and more!
Marvel deserve a ton of credit for the amount of time and precise care they've put into building to this point, properly stoking the fires of the fanbase when necessary, but also playing coy as they dropped hints about where the film might go. They've been building to this moment since we were introduced to the billionaire genius, Tony Stark, back in 2008's Iron Man, where everybody surely remembers that heart stopping moment when cool as ice Nick Fury(Samuel L. Jackson) turned up talking about the 'Avengers Initiative'. As perfect of a job as they did introducing us to the many heroes who make up The Avengers, the smartest move Marvel made, by a very large margin, was in hiring Joss Whedon as director and co-writer. It's largely in part due to him and his technical brilliance, goofy humor, and obvious love for these characters that makes The Avengers the peerless film it turned out to be. Anybody could have come on board and churned out a great looking film with awesome, wide-scale special effects, but few have that intimate knowledge of these characters and how they relate that Whedon clearly has. He was like a kid in a candy store, and all the lollipops were shaped like the superhero favorites from his childhood.
A complaint that has been lodged against the film by some is the simplicity of the plot, but those people fail to understand just how necessary that is to accommodate for so many characters who many folks don't know all that well. Most people have no clue who Maria Hill(Cobie Smulders) is, or why she's important in the larger scheme of things. They don't know why Loki(Tom Hiddleston) has such a mad on for his brother, Thor. These things must be addressed in a way that everyone can understand, and to make room for the inevitable, and desperately wanted sequels. Can we get a fast track on those, please? The irony that such a simple but perfect plot could have been written by Zak Penn, the guy who gave us the convoluted mess that was X-men 3, isn't totally lost on me.
The film starts out with an image of the Tesseract, and if you don't know what that is don't bother stressing out. It's also known as the Cosmic Cube, and was the MacGuffin of Captain America: The First Avenger, basically a mystical object with unlimited power. It's one of those items that is so insanely ludicrous in what it could do, that in movies like this it never actually does anything. People just fight over it. Nick Fury and the spy guys at S.H.I.E.L.D. have it, and Loki wants it back to become the all-powerful ruler he thinks himself to be. Setting his sights on their HQ, Loki cuts a destructive path through Fury's forces, stealing the Tesseract and possessing the minds of agent Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye(Jeremy Renner), and Dr. Erik Selvig(Stellen Skarsgard). With the country now at war from a super-powered threat, Fury is forced to try and pull together all the heroes he knows to combat the threat. Good luck with that. But wait...how can Loki possibly stand against the combined might of The Avengers all by himself? Easy. By employing the alien Chitauri to be his back-up. There's a perfectly calibrated, comical yet intense verbal throwdown between Loki and Tony Stark that sums up their characters on the nose. To sum it up: both are pompous asses.
One of the trademarks of The Avengers is the combination of volatile personalities, and it quickly becomes apparent that they are their own worst enemy. A team made up of loners with their own personal agendas, conflict is unavoidable, and Whedon mines it for all that it's worth. Iron Man's flashy, indulgent personality rubs the modest, conservative Captain America the wrong way. Actually, Iron Man doesn't seem to get along with anybody, brawling with Thor and trying to provoke Bruce Banner into revealing his meaner, greener side. Whedon does a fantastic job of giving everyone their moment to shine, especially the characters who could have easily been lost in the shuffle: Black Widow(Scarlett Johansson), and Hawkeye. In fact, Black Widow is the catalyst for much of what happens in the film's opening hour, tracking down Banner and revealing her deep, personal feelings towards Hawkeye. Having him taken over by Loki was a smart move, as it gives his character a reason to stand out from the pack....besides looking really cool with a bow and arrow.
The biggest stand out amongst the cast is a new addition, and that's Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner. Marvel has been trying to get the Hulk perfect for years, starting with Eric Bana in Ang Lee's underrated 2003 film, then with Edward Norton in 2008's The Incredible Hulk. Both were successful in their own way, but Ruffalo hits the nail right on the head in every respect. What Norton and Bana missed was that they tried to play Banner as too depressed, too passive. That has never been the character. He's a guy who understands his rages, and the nervous ticks he shows, such as his inability to ever be completely still, aren't so much for his own sake as they are out of concern for everybody else. Some of the film's best moments come as Banner and Stark, two technological and scientific marvels, banter back and forth in a language way too smart for anybody to totally understand. Plus, this version of the Hulk is just a heck of a lot more fun, as Whedon builds up the anticipation to his inevitable transformation in much the same way he toyed with us in The Cabin in the Woods. When the crap finally hits the fan and the Jade Giant emerges, he's the destructive force of nature Banner had done such a marvelous job warning everybody about.
Whedon adds all the little touches that you know he's been dying to show on the silver screen for ages. One that fanboys will appreciate is the fate of the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier, always the first casualty of any major event. And you know, as we see the entire team locked in an enclosed office, bickering like schoolchildren, that Whedon has been dreaming up exactly how that little family squabble would go for years. There are so many ingenious moments that to list them all would take longer than the film's 2 1/2 hour runtime. Nobody balances humor with genuine stakes better than Whedon does.
As gifted as Whedon and Penn prove to be with the dialogue, the special effects also prove to be something extraordinary. Cities get destroyed, powers fly, and Hulks smash with reckless abandon. In IMAX 3D it's especially impressive. Whedon has been a director capable of making the most with sometimes limited resources, and given the ample backing of Marvel and Paramount, he's free to cut loose, and it's an opportunity he simply doesn't waste.
Ok, so this is basically a gush fest, but that's exactly what The Avengers inspires. There will be other superhero movies coming out this year, and they all will scratch a very specific kind of itch. The Avengers is the summer movie to end all summer movies, and probably the only one we'll see this year that not only meets our lofty expectations, but far and away surpasses them!
Trav's Tip: Don't forget to stay for the duration of the closing credits, for the emergence of The Avengers possible next villain, and a hilarious jab at the audience featuring the entire team doing something totally unexpected.
