The Avengers (2012)

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The Avengers (2012)

Now that all of the Avenger characters have been introduced in the previous six movies they combine forces in the seventh to battle Loki (Thor’s naughty adopted brother) who has the power of the Tesseract (glowing cube of awesomeness). The Tesseract was first seen in Captain America and temporarily used by Red Skull. 

But do not think too hard about any of the elements of this movie or like a house of cards it will fall in on itself. Loki with the backing of some decrepit looking fellow wearing a cloak, the use of his power stick and the glowing cube tries to invade earth and enslave humankind. This is effectively an alien invasion and why SHIELD (the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division) was formed. The Logistics part of SHIELD is basically to assemble resources in this case The Avengers (Thor, Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, Black Widow and Hawkeye) to defend earth.

After doing research it appears there are up to 100 Avenger members including honorary ones. This includes intriguing examples such as Spiderman, Daredevil, Wolverine and the Fantastic Four which have all been made into previous movies. [Gambit1024 2012] This could result in hundreds of Marvel movies. 

The big winner from ‘The Avengers’ was Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk who stole every scene he smashed, crushed and leaped in. Finally after the first two Hulk movies it was decided to make him more human than a destroying monster.  This meant the CGI Hulk, using the same technology as Gollum from the Lord of the Rings series and modelled on Mark Ruffalo’s face, could demonstrate humour and deliver some classic one-liners such as ‘puny God’ after throwing Loki around like a rag doll. The big fellow also had a major dislike of Thor and there is an amusing ‘Three Stooges’ like slapstick piece where he dongs Thor without looking at him. 

The only other mildly interesting character was Black Widow (Scarlett Johanssen) who used her intelligence and coordination to beat her foes and gave the female audience members someone to support. Perhaps She-Hulk or Spiderwoman may make an appearance down the track in ‘The Avengers 35- Enough already’.

The death of Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg), a surprisingly emotionally void scene, is the catalyst for bringing the egos and the conflicting personalities together, as if saving the earth from invasion is not enough. Samuel L Jackson as Nick Starr is charismatic but he is just a human or a bureaucrat with a cool coat and an eye patch. The other nagging point is where is Natalie Portman’s character from Thor? Gwenyth Paltrow got an appearance. 

The settings range from the dark SHIELD headquarters to the flying aircraft carrier to Iron Man flying into space to blow up the invaders.

All of the special effects have been seen before. The crumbling earth, the portal, the fight scenes and Manhattan being destroyed not by Godzilla or the Cloverfield creature but by an armoured leviathan monster. Poor Manhattan. Combined with the sound effects of explosions, weaponry and destruction it all gets quite tedious by the end of the movie as the final battle scene seems to run for a long time. The music is military in nature and grandiose but ultimately just background noise that does not satisfyingly stir the emotions. Could definitely have done with some ACDC. The 3D effects were excellent but not in the James Cameron Avatar league.

Josh Weadon has made a Michael Bay Transformers clone with this movie. The emphasis is on action and special effects and it is aimed at males who spend way too much time on the internet and paid too much attention to audience focus groups. If only Iron Man or ‘Xmen: First Class’ could have been used as the role model. 

The most disappointing aspect of the movie is the ending where a character called Thanos, name/motivation/background withheld, shows his face. Reading up on Thanos in the marvel comics he at one point falls in love with death in female form and tries to make her happy by destroying the universe. [Ohitsme and Shadow1186]

There is no point in thinking deeply about any of the elements as it really is a reinvention of the ‘Three musketeer’s’ “one for all and all for one”. The Hulk kicks Loki in the bum.

Sometimes it is easy being green. (3 stars out of 4)
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