The Avengers (2012)

I’m having sort of a personal backlash against Scarlett Johansson. I concede that she’s a fine actress, but everyone seems to be convinced that she’s the best actress in the world. I can see that she’s an attractive woman, but everyone seems to think that she’s the world’s most beautiful woman. So I tend to think of this obviously very accomplished person as being overrated. Maybe it’s not fair, but that’s how I see it. The first time I watched The Avengers, during her opening scene, I posted online “What, weren’t there any Russian actresses available?” I got some grief for that. I still think it’s a valid question.
Sometimes I kind of look at this movie in the same way. It’s big, it’s well-written, it’s an excellent good time, but I got a little tired last summer of hearing everyone say it was the movie of the year, the best superhero movie ever, whatever. So I started focusing maybe too much on the movie’s problems, and it does have a few. I gave it eight stars after I left the theater, but dropped it back down to seven in the face of all that acclaim But now it’s streaming on Netflix, and I’ve watched it twice in the past week, and…I just don’t care very much about its problems. I mentioned in an earlier entry that Watchmen makes this look shallow, and I meant it, and I was right. But you know what? Shallow doesn’t necessarily mean bad. Sometimes I kinda like shallow. In fact, I think I would have liked the movie better if it had reveled in its shallowness a bit more. I was unaffected by the Black Widow’s anxiety over Hawkeye’s brainwashing, for example, and I don’t know why everyone was so gutted when Agent Coulson was killed. Do we care about him now? Did we in the other movies? I don’t remember caring. Sure, he had a nice moment with Gwyneth Paltrow and went all fanboyish over Cap, but I got the impression that his death was supposed to be a Bambi’s mother moment, and it totally wasn’t. All that stuff could have been left out and I’d be happier.
Also, just briefly (since I’m hardly the first person to mention it), can we retire the bad-guy-gets-caught-on-purpose trope for a few years now? Jesus. So, sure, there are things to complain about. I could go on a lot longer, but I don’t want to. These recent re-watches have reminded me of what a ridiculous pile of fun this movie is.
Robert Downey Jr. gets a lot of credit for his portrayal of Tony Stark, and he deserves it, though his sarcasm got to me a little in this one. That’s probably because most of it was directed at Cap, who doesn’t deserve it. I think of Cap as being Stark’s hero, the one person he isn’t cynical about, in the early comics, and then the two of them being best friends in the later comics. Their friendship is one of the weightiest in the Marvel universe; I would have liked for them to get along better in this. I’ve really come to like Chris Evans a lot (which would have surprised the hell out of me five years ago), and of course Captain America was always a particular favorite of mine. I wish there had been more of him, but I get that screen time was at a bit of a premium with this project. Chris Hemsworth is…well, he’s ridiculously good looking, isn’t he? I mean, he’s not my type, but I have to admit that the gods seem to have put a little extra effort into sculpting him. Johansson I can take or leave, as I mentioned, and of course Samuel L. Jackson is perfect as Nick Fury; Marvel rewrote the character to be more like him, so he’s basically playing a one-eyed version of himself. Oh, and of course I adore Harry Dean Stanton, no matter what he's doing.
Tom Hiddleston is everything you could possibly want as Loki. He played him well in the Thor movie and is even better here. I was pretty sad, actually, when I heard Loki was going to be the villain in this movie. My favorite Avengers villains were always the Mandarin and Ultron. I knew Ultron would need some setting up (Hank Pym hasn’t even been introduced yet) and that the Mandarin would be a bit tricky, but I still had my fingers crossed. But after watching Hiddleston, I’m perfectly satisfied.
Mark Ruffalo totally steals the movie; all the best moments feature him. In fact, there’s one in particular that is my favorite scene ever in a superhero movie, but I’ll save that for the end. For now, I’ll just mention that “Target acquired…target engaged…target angry! Target angry!” had me laughing like an idiot. Banner and the Hulk combine to make the best character in the film, and Ruffalo gives the best performance as well.
I don’t really have a problem with Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye. It’s just that I don’t like the way he’s drawn in this movie that much. Hawkeye was a more interesting character in the comics, and he’s great in the animated Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes TV show. Maybe Joss Whedon decided that he would be too much like Downey’s Stark if they made him more flippant, but he’s definitely the weak link, and again, I don’t blame Renner for that, I blame Whedon.
Still, all in all, this movie really is an amazing achievement for everyone involved, especially Whedon. In fact, I would go so far as to say that the credit rests entirely with his script; everyone does a good job, but they really had a lot to work with. He was set a basically impossible task and totally came through. To be honest, I kind of wish that the current Marvel franchise had ended here; all the movies that come after this one are bound to seem pretty insignificant, aren’t they? I just (seriously, like two minutes ago) watched a trailer for the new Thor movie, and it left me pretty cold, except for the shot of Hiddleston at the end. I haven’t seen Iron Man 3 yet, and nothing I’ve heard about it makes me want to hurry, not even the presence of The Mandarin, or the casting of Guy Pearce and Rebecca Hall, both of whom I’m a little obsessed with at the moment. This is a perfect climax to a series that prior to this had been less than amazing. Who needs more, and necessarily inferior, movies?
But then, I thought Whedon couldn’t possibly succeed with this one, and he totally did. Now I think he can’t possibly succeed with the next one, and I’m probably wrong about that, too. And if I have to put up with a few more second-rate films to get Avengers II, well, I guess that’s okay. And as for this one, I’m giving it back that eighth star. But I’m still pretty iffy on Scarlett Johansson.

BEST THING ABOUT THE FILM: When the Hulk grabs Loki by the feet and starts slamming him on the ground like a man trying to shake scorpions out of his sleeping bag. I know, everybody loves that scene, but come on…there has literally never been a better moment in any superhero movie, ever.

WORST THING ABOUT THE FILM: Once the movie gets going it’s great, but let’s be honest here: nothing interesting happens ‘til Black Widow goes after Banner. The intro is long and painfully boring.

PUNCH THE AIR MOMENT: See "Best Thing" above. "Huh...puny god."

SCORE: 8/10

LISTS: #13 on my Favorites of the Teens (so far)