May 7th, 2012
Saw it last night in IMAX + 3D. Spoiler-filled thoughts below. Read at your own risk.
General thoughts: A very fun time; see it on the biggest screen you can; 3D optional, but surprisingly well done.
* Prospectively, I didn’t regard The Avengers as a film to be made, with the normal aspirations of film, so much as a problem to be solved. The problem is essentially this: You’ve got a super-powered team of six characters with no real reason to be grouped together. You have to rationalize assembling them. You have to set up interesting conflicts within the team. You have to provide character arcs for them each individually as well as for the group as a whole. You have to establish a plausible external conflict of a large enough magnitude to create stakes, but with a small enough focus to be well-defined.
Balancing this equation in a mini-series would be reasonably easy. Doing it in 150 minutes is not. Joss Whedon solved this problem as well as anyone could have hoped.
* Whedon made some really smart choices. For instance, he has Hawkeye spend the first two-thirds of the movie as a zombie under Loki’s control. This accomplishes a number of tasks: (1) It cuts down the number of characters we need to spend time with during the crucial initial team-building part of the movie, from six to five, giving more time for each. (2) It balances the powers for the first two acts. Before Loki’s army shows up, when it’s just him against Fury/SHIELD/Iron Man/Thor/Captain America/Black Widow/Banner, he’s hopelessly over-matched. Having Zombie Clint Barton on his side evens things out a little bit and increases the tension. (3) It creates an instant conflict and redemptive arc for Hawkeye once he gets de-zombified.
That’s extremely economical writing.
* Whedon is also really, really funny. There are a few of the kinds of one-liners he used to use in his Buffy days, but for the most part, the humor is much subtler and character-oriented. For me, the single funniest moment in the movie is the wordless scene in which Steve Rogers reaches into his pocket, peels of a $10 bill, and hands it to Nick Fury. Chris Evans underplays this so well, and it’s thrown away so casually, that it just kills. It’s a level of sophistication you wouldn’t expect for a movie that’s trying to win over the people who paid to see Transformers 2.
* In praise of Scarlett Johansson: I still don’t think she has the physicality for the Natasha Romanov role, but her character work is great. I ended the movie wanting to see not Avengers 2 but a Black Widow/Hawkeye spin-off. Call it Agents of SHIELD and just have the two of them going over non-super powered terrorist bad guys.
* I also loved Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner. He plays it with such a nice edge: He’s scared of “the other guy,” but because he has to live with Hulk every day he’s adopted this quiet gallows humor. It’s just wonderful. (And his payoff line, about his “secret,” is fantastic.)
* My favorite scene: Where Romanov goes to recruit Banner. They play it with such great subtext: Both characters are playing very cool, and giving the tiniest glimpses of how terrified they each are.
* This movie was the first time I’ve enjoyed Thor in any medium. Who knew? He’s kind of a sweet, princely character.
* All of that said, The Dark Knight really has changed the standards by which we evaluate comic book movies. For instance, very little of The Avengers was shot on location, and it shows. This isn’t a bad thing, necessarily. But it does give the movie a candy-coated feeling. This may, or may not, impact how the movie ages.
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Please explain this?
For me, the single funniest moment in the movie is the wordless scene in which Steve Rogers reaches into his pocket, peels of a $10 bill, and hands it to Nick Fury.
Much thanks.
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[…] and developing a real onscreen relationship with Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner). She was so good that some fans were saying that a Black Widow-Hawkeye spinoff would be a pretty exciting proposition. I tend to […]
dudescript May 7, 2012 at 9:30 pm
Joss strayed too far from Cap’s great WWII costume seen in the Chris Evans Captain America movie. No need to change it as much as he did. Also, I get that he likes arrows, but Hawkeye could’ve mixed up his weapons more. Avoiding spoilers, reluctantly admire the consequential impact of a character midway through, which accomplished a dramatic purpose and contributed to suspense and heft in the final act. Is it a failing that Avengers starts off small ‘n slow or did Joss have in mind a curve that starts low and tempo slopes up and up?