Poll: The Avengers - Thoughts and Sort-of-Review

[aksel]

Note: This might contain some minor spoilers

So, I just came home from watching The Avengers. I'm not a reviewer or critic and shit. It opened early in my country, for some reason.

Anywho, here is what I thought.

The overall story is pretty decent. I was never the intense comic book fan, though I have read my fair share of Iron Man and Spider-Man in my youth, but as far as I am concerned, they did a good job with this. The film is better than the first Iron Man, and far greater than Thor and Captain America.

The character development was more of a clash between the main protagonists, mainly between Iron Man and Captain America. This was sadly tied up with nothing but a small one-liner, and some on-screen "emotional and meaningful" shots, of them finally working together.

The Hulk (which is one of my favourite superheroes) was sadly reduced to a comic relief, with (literal) punch-lines and jokes. It's as if the writers only wanted him to appear like a stupid bag of punches. Or as the guys in front of me said: Haha! He mad, and he punches shit.
Banners ability to control his other self is also never explained. (SPOILER, though it is shown in the trailer) Halfway through the film, he loses control, and trashes a lot of shit, while chasing down Black Widow, before being falling off the flying base of SHIELD. (/SPOILER) He then reappears out of nowhere for the final showdown, in a "Hai guise, remember me?" kind of way. And out of nowhere, he has full control of his powers.

Hawkeye and Black widow sadly did not get enough screen time. It also seemed as if there was a relationship plot point between the two, that was dropped halfway through with no other explanation, other than "Yeah, we're pretty close, yo", but this could be a plot point in the sequel (which will obviously be made) or a prequel (here's hoping).

Loki as the main villain is a total let down. I've thought this since the reveal at the end of Thor (I think it was the end of Thor?). He just seems like a rather small villain, that should have been wrapped up in Thor. (SPOILER) He is also captured almost at the beginning of the film, and gets away in an unexplained manner. (/SPOILER)
(ANOTHER SPOILER)Also, a team up with the Chitauri seems like a long-shot. As I said, I'm not an extreme comic book fan, so I wouldn't know if they've teamed up before, but come on. A Norse god and "metallic space aliens"? Seriously? (/SPOILER)

Anyway, it might seem like I didn't like the film. I loved it, and I will definitely go see it again in a few days. It's just that while I loved it, I can't think of any specific things that I liked. You tend to only remember an overall feeling, and things you didn't like.

To sum it up: The Avengers is awesome (as if you needed to be told that), even though there are some flaws in it.

Also, STAY THROUGH THE CREDITS (as always, yeah?)


Side note: Go see it in 2D if you can. The 3D in this one is fucking shit. I always bring both 3D and 2D glasses, and I had to put on my 2D glasses halfway through the film.

 

[subtlefuge]

Bit of advice to start out:

Spoiler

Use [] not () for spoiler tags.

Also, I'm assuming that Norton's presence is sorely missed. He was an excellent Banner.

 

[romxxii]

While you are definitely entitled to your own opinions, I'd like to inform you that you are in the minority with regards to the Hulk. The overwhelming opinion is that this is the best depiction of Hulk thus far. Why? Well, spoiler alert then:

Spoiler

precisely for the reasons you hated it: by reducing him to an engine of destruction with a solid timing for physical comedy, he becomes a far better representative of the id [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Id,_ego_and_super-ego#Id] as the Hulk was meant to be.

In fact, what made the previous Hulks bad was the insistence on humanizing the monster with overly dramatic, emotional scenes. I mean, this is the Hulk, people. He's the personification of Banner's rage. Adding anything other than the emotion he represents just weakens the character.

Remember, Banner handles all the dramatic load; Hulk? Smashes. Thankfully, Joss Whedon is apparently a bigger Hulk fan than you, Ang Lee, or Louis Letterier, and got it just right.

As for your complaint about the wonder-spy-twins, I believe that what little time was given to them counted for so much more. Black Widow in particular gets heavily characterized, and isn't just window dressing this time around. We understand her motivations, get to see how she uses her apparent weaknesses as a woman to turn the tables on her would-be oppressors, and overall kick ass when she needs to.

As for Loki, we gotta go spoilers with this again:

Spoiler

Remember at the end of Thor, he got sucked into the portal? This was to set up his eventually ending up in the realm of Mr. end-credits-stinger, the Titan Thanos. Thanos is the one who gives him the staff, sends him to earth, and backs him up with the Chitauri. And yes, Norse Gods can hang out with space aliens in this film because as it was explained in Thor, they're not really gods; just a hyper-advanced alien race.

And as for his escape, while it did have plot holes, it was clearly shown how he did it, from the very same Quinjet that his thralls used to raid the Helicarrier. Or do you mean how he suddenly got out of the cage? That was handled by Hawkeye's magic hacking arrowhead. It shut down Rotor 1 and unlocked Loki's cage at the same time.

 

[Evil Smurf]

Spoiler

I was disapointed there was no one from the X-Men universe in the team. There is in the comics!

 

[Best of the 3]

I really liked it, but I hadn't a lot of the previous marvel films before this so I was kind of thrown into the deep end going into this one. (Thor, Capt. America, Hulk 2, Iron Man 2 to count them)

The story was decent and easy to catch on to, the action was good if a little confusing with the 3d at times, the acting I thought was top notch. Personally I liked it. But with not seeing the other movies I don't have mouch to compare it to.

Also....

Spoiler

Was that Galactus in the end scene or was it just me thinking that?

Never mind, it was Thanos.

 

[JoesshittyOs]

Also, I'm assuming that Norton's presence is sorely missed. He was an excellent Banner.

I've heard that this new guy was loads better.

 

[Hawk of Battle]

Spoiler

I was disapointed there was no one from the X-Men universe in the team. There is in the comics!

That would be because Xmen, like Spidey, Fantastic Four, Ghostrider and everyone else, are currently licensed to other studios, so crossing them over is not possible. I figured pretty much everyone knew this already.

OT; The film was awesome, all the characters got plenty of time and characterisation, Hulk got the best scenes (I'd say he even surpassed Stark for show stealing moments) and I'm surprised how even Banner was made useful, instead of just being the brooding catalyst for the Hulk like he usually is used.

And not to mention, pretty much everyone got a chance to show Loki up, which is pretty fantastic. Loki WAS probably the weakest part though, even if he did have a nice manipulative bastard plan to screw everyone over at one point, though you'd expect that for a trickster god anyway. His slight villain decay is justified though, what with falling through the void and implied going slightly crazy from it before ending up as the dragon to mr end credits. On speaking of him...

Spoiler

Fuck yeah Thanos at last!! So happy, been waiting on his appearance for ages now. Can't wait until he actually turns up and kicks the living shit out of every simoutaneously, cos it's gona be epic.

 

[Fenra]

I adored the film and will deffinatly try to catch it a few more times before it heads out of the cinema, and its on the must buy on DVD list.

But there was one thing that confused me, although I havent read a vast amount of comics so it might make sense to those who have

Spoiler

Thor's return, he just kind of turns up, I thought he couldnt come back after the events of the thor film and its only vaguely explained

also a few other minor things I would have liked to have seen

Spoiler

Iron Man and Captain America talking about the past, cap knowing tony's father after all

A little more about Thor, why he came back, how he knew about Loki's plan (my best guess is Heimdall could see it happening but to see/hear about it on screen would have been nice)

A bigger reference to Thor's own film rather than him just making sure the girl was safe via shield computers and saying the scientist was "a friend", really wanted them to have screen time together

A little more about The Hulk, I liked how they finally made the distinction that has often been lacking that Hulk is a different entity to Banner with him saying "the other guy" quite often, but still the film was quite cluttered so I imagine that is why they didnt go into it

A few more little nitpicks I'm sure I could think of but not worth fussing over

Still that aside I absolutly loved it, it was an amazing outcome of Marvels long, risky gamble

 

[WolfThomas]

Spoiler

Thor's return, he just kind of turns up, I thought he couldnt come back after the events of the thor film and its only vaguely explained

There was a comment about Odin gathering dark energy and I think the implication that the tesseract activating helped in sending him there. But yeah it wasn't really explained.

 

[Starik20X6]

I loved it. Absolutely loved it. I plan to see it many times more.

 

[The Reverend]

Spoiler

I thought it was the skrull in the scene after the credits. Meh.

I thought it was a great film. The dark knight rises has alot to beat.

 

[F'Angus]

I loved this film. Even saw it in 3D and that still didn't put me off.

 

[JWRosser]

I loved it. It's now up there with X-Men First Class and Nolan's Batman films, in my books.

There were a few flaws, but that's the case with everything.

Seemed like they missed out something similar with Thor too, after that fight which causes him to land on Earth he struggles to pick his Hammer up (just like in the Thor film, as if he's not worthy) a few scenes later he pulls it out no problem, just in time for the final fight.

Firstly that. I noticed this too....didn't really know what to make of it.

Also Banner's reappearance was a bit...eh.

I liked Loki as the villain. Sure, at times, he got his arse handed to them, but then he is fighting "Earth's Mightiest Heroes"!And Hiddleston was fantastic.

Generally I do like my super-hero films a little darker, but the Marvel films rarely are. Plus, it was a 12, so they couldn't really have civilians being slaughtered in the streets. All of the humour, I thought, worked well too, which is quite rare. Often in these kind of action films *cough* TRANSFORMERS *cough* they tend to add comic relief in that just doesn't fit and/or isn't funny...but this all (or at least the majority) worked.

Spoiler

One of my favourites was Hulk punching Thor.

It was just brilliant to see all of these heroes together, like some amazing crossover. It does make you wonder what other story-arcs could be converted into films....like House of M, for example. Or Civil War. Although the latter would benefit more from a series, I think. Anyway I digress.

Brilliant acting, brilliant directing, brilliant film.

 

[GeorgW]

I've gotta say, I completely disagree with you about Hulk and the 3D. Though the Black Widow/Hawkeye relationship I agree with, they should have been explained better, especially Hawkeye. More about my own opinions here. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.373229-Hypnotic-reviews-The-Avengers#14417720] I wanted to address the reason the Hulk can later control himself.

Spoiler

After he fell out, the old man told him he could control himself, something Banner hadn't realised yet. This apparently helped him control it better. I agree that it's odd that he learns so quickly, but it is explained.

Anyway, pretty good review, but please learn to use spoiler brackets!

 

[somonels]

No idea what happened during the posting, deletable.
This is the first time this has happened to me, honey, I swear.

 

[somonels]

It kept me entertained, had four-five amusing jokes, half of them bad ones which sound good but are incredibly awful things to say when you rethink it three minutes later, action was okay, ending was meh to bad, did not really feel any climax.
Do you know how I knew the movie was being climactic? Them epics songs started and the characters tried to look scruffy and emotional to the camera.
Character interaction was good, new Dr Banner was nice and Downey I liked, Thor and Cap'n were okay, had their moments. Black Fury - Mace Window - I did not like; hated that random commentator playing chess or checkers in the end; Loki was good in Thor, now a whiny pointless bit player.
Liked the fish, had lots of fun joking about them since the end got boring... Can someone point me to some HD pictures of those fish? I don't follow MU so I have no idea what they are about and have just two things to compare them to.

Bit of advice to start out:

Spoiler

Use [] not () for spoiler tags.

Also, I'm assuming that Norton's presence is sorely missed. He was an excellent Banner.

No. In a different way, yes. I prefer this one... to Norton, at least.

 

[subtlefuge]

Kept me entertained, had four-five amusing jokes, half of them bad ones which sound good but are incredibly awful things to say when you rethink it three minutes later, action was okay, ending was meh to bad, did not really feel any climax.
Do you know how I knew the movie was being climactic? Them epics songs started and the characters tried to look scruffy and emotional to the camera.
Character interaction was good, new Dr Banner was nice and Downey I liked, Thor and Cap'n were okay, had their moments. Black Fury - Mace Window - I did not like; hated that random commentator playing chess or checkers in the end; Loki was good in Thor, now a whiny pointless bit player.
Liked the fish, had lots of fun joking about them since the end got boring... Can someone point me to some HD pictures of those fish? I don't follow MU so I have no idea what they are about and have just two things to compare them to.

Bit of advice to start out:

Spoiler

Use [] not () for spoiler tags.

Also, I'm assuming that Norton's presence is sorely missed. He was an excellent Banner.

No. In a different way, yes. I prefer this one... to Norton, at least.

It's strange that so many people agree with you. I guess that I just compare Norton to the guy in the bad Hulk movie. He does have a sort of monopoly on the mild-mannered characters, even if they are occasionally too awkward.

Also, the pictures I saw of Ruffalo when he was first being cast for the movie made him look a little old and fat for the role, but he has obviously cleaned himself up.

 

[somonels]

It's strange that so many people agree with you. I guess that I just compare Norton to the guy in the bad Hulk movie. He does have a sort of monopoly on the mild-mannered characters, even if they are occasionally too awkward.

Also, the pictures I saw of Ruffalo when he was first being cast for the movie made him look a little old and fat for the role, but he has obviously cleaned himself up.

No, this Ruffalo is an unknown actor, to me at least.
The problem with Norton is that he neither acts or looks, both incredibly important aspects to convey a character, like he could be Dr. Banner. He never created a believable moment of restraining something like the hulk or, no offence, being a scientist.
While this Ruffalo isn't perfect, he is absolutely believable, the slightly socially awkward and avoidant mannerisms, that pleasant monotone voice that sounds like it's trained, he looks believable as a scientist and is well spoken.
And put him in a scene with RDJr... nerdmance. Hands down the two most believable performances in the movie, I know there were some problems with the script but whenever they were in, I didn't pay much attention.

Spoiler: Potential new movie discussion

While there was the most obvious push for a Hawkey/Widow spy-movie or plot, I'd much, MUCH rather like Dr Banner take Starks offer and a IM/H movie. That I'd go see.

Okay, seems I wasn't absolutely correct about Ruffalo, see this:

 

[Major Chip]

I loved it. Stark's sarcastic remarks and nicknames were funny, such as calling Loki "Reindeer games". Then Banner/Hulk stole the show. The fact that Banner and Hulk worked as two seperate characters, rather than as an emotional rollercoaster was a revelation. Personally, watching Hulk tear into the bad guys was satisfying as hell.

Action was brilliant, acting was brilliant, dialogue and casting were brilliant. Ignoring a couple of minor gripes, it was literally better than I could've hoped.