THE AVENGERS – MOVIE REVIEW (MAJOR SPOILERS)

THE AVENGERS – MOVIE REVIEW (MAJOR SPOILERS)

Sunday, May 6, 2012 5:02 PM

In this movie, John Steed (Ralph Fiennes) and Emma Peel (Uma Thurman) battle with weather-controlling madman Sir August de Wynter (Sean Connery) in an attempt to…

Oh. Wait. Wrong movie. And man, was that one a “wrong movie” if there ever was one.

OK. Marvel’s “The Avengers”. An “A” movie in virtually every regard. In fact, the last fourth or third gets an A+. I have to admit, as much as I enjoyed it, it didn’t really take off until the Avengers shed SHIELD. SHIELD lived up to its name, not necessarily in a good way – I found it to be somewhat suffocating and claustrophobic in the SHIELD airboat. It also made me think of the Empire’s starship from Star Wars.

But once the Avengers assembled on their own and hooked up in New York, the movie surpassed any superhero film to date. Joss Whedon did a tremendous job, too, of balancing the movie across the various heroes, including giving plenty of airtime to the “lesser” Avengers, Black Widow and Hawkeye.

There were lots of fantastic scenes & sequences throughout, especially in theclimactic New York battle, as mentioned. There were moments, as well, that I utterly loved, i.e.,

·      In Germany, when Loki commands the crowd to kneel (before Zod … oops!) but then an elderly man stands up to him. Both he and then Captain America (making a wonderfully dramatic entrance), effectively compare Loki to Hitler. It was quite a moving scene.

·      The bonding of Stark and Banner on the SHIELD battle flyer was really neat. Robert Downey Jr’s brilliant but sometimes off-the-wall Stark contrasted neatly with Mark Ruffalo’s perfectly man-who’d-better-be-in-control-or-else Dr. Bruce Banner. They were opposites with a lot in common, given their fields.

·      And Banner’s second transformation into The Hulk – a quick sequence in Manhattan – was awesome.

·      Oh, lest I forget – speaking of The Hulk – the scene in which he confronts Loki on Stark’s tower is (only now that I think of it) reminiscent of Indiana Jones shooting his sword-wielding opponent in “Raiders…”. The audience howled when Hulk grabbed Loki and thrashed him about. I was already loving Hulk in this movie (like never before), however this scene all but guaranteed that I will see the movie with his next appearance, whatever that is.

Like I said, everyone got his or her fair share of time, i.e.,

·      In one sense, this movie was Thor II, because it was based on Thor’s mythology and Loki, Thor’s semi-brother, was the main antagonist.

·      But this was also Iron Man’s movie, because he saves Manhattan at the end and saves the SHIELD air flyer. Plus he got a lot of airtime – and several funny lines.

·      Yet this was Captain America’s movie, too, because he ultimately becomes their leader. They spend a good amount of time re-cap’ing (lol) his past, too, and creating situations that allowed him to shine.

·      And finally, it was Hulk’s movie, because it seemed that he was the most powerful of the Avengers to battle the invaders. Just as the Avengers were New York’s – and the world’s – saviors, The Hulk seemed to be the Avengers’ savior.

·      Hawkeye was done very nicely – he’s certainly more watchable than DC’s Green Arrow (well, the Smallville incarnation, at least).

·      Black Widow, a character I only knew from the first Iron Man movie, was done well, too, including her crackerjack introductory scene.

I saw it in a packed IMAX/3D theater and that made it even more wonderful. I will say that the 3D was all right but there wasn’t an abundance of scenes in which it made a huge difference.

In summary, Marvel does it again! All their planning in the prior Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America and Thor movies paid off, and then some. It wasn’t a perfect movie, but it’s one I’ll never forget and will watch again, for sure.

And it pleases me to no end that the people at Warner/DC and DC Entertainment are crying in their alcoholic beverages, not only because Marvel has out-planned, out-classed, out-thought – and out-earned them in every way – but perhaps because many of them are going to be pink-slipped. In today’s economy it would be normally sad to see that – but they deserve it.

Make Mine Marvel.

-Bruce

PS- So who was the alien in space, in the credits? No clue.