The Avengers

There was some ambivalence in the anticipation for Joss Whedon’s The Avengers. On paper, Whedon is absolutely the right man for the job - there are few other really dynamic creative minds for whom the Marvel epic would be a passion project. Whedon’s box office success has largely been dependent on his independent fan base of Whedonites. The man who brought us Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Angel, and Dollhouse has no shortage of fans - but his success as gauged by studios and critics has been... tepid? Serenity is something of a sleeper hit, popular with Firefly fans. So maybe it’s the mass audiences who have failed to live up to Whedon’s potential. With The Avengers, Whedon finally stamps his name on the big-budget action epic. He owns it. As many other reviewers have already said, The Avengers is a perfect comic-book action-hero film. The pacing is spectacular, the performances are well-rounded and unique, the action is intense and focused, the dialogue is smart - and since it’s Joss Whedon, you (should) know it’s also hilarious.

I’m no expert in the Marvel universe; I’ve never even read a comic book. I’m also not up-to-speed on my Marvel movies (I’ve only seen Iron Man, I think!). Still, I pride myself on knowing a good project, a good movie when I see one, and a good performance is a good performance in any genre. When a movie is as well-cast as this one, it’s exciting to see the performances build off one another. Chris Evans unexpectedly earns his Captain ranking as Steve Rogers, Scarlett Johanssen really moves like spider, while Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark still exemplifies everything that’s wrong with my taste in men. Mark Ruffalo makes no more (or less) sense than Ed Norton cast as The Hulk, but brings a really nice studiousness to Dr. Banner. Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye is sublimely effective - he’s no stranger to action (The Hurt Locker), but at least this time he gets to have some fun. Chris Helmsworth stirred up a storm when Thor hit theaters, and his presence here is grounding and passionate. As Thor’s brother Loki, Tom Hiddleston is absolutely unrecognizable from his charming turn in Midnight in Paris, where he brought F. Scott Fitzgerald to life. Here Loki’s selfishness and superiority complex is entertaining enough to keep the film light, and his shallowness - rather than an evil nature - staves off cliches of Good vs. Evil. But make no mistake: the threat he poses is real enough to require The Avengers.

Downey Jr. has found a renaissance in his career thanks to the sharp wit he’s been able to demonstrate as Tony Stark and Sherlock Holmes - but that’s not to say that Iron Man is the film’s comedic relief. Each character has at least one really funny moment or line, and one doesn’t have to be a Marvel master to get the joke. There were probably a great many more references that I missed, but the ones that I did catch were entertaining.

Whedon is smart to assemble his team slowly, let it snowball and develop. Rather than create a different film for each character to explain where they’re coming from, he manages to collect them slowly, so that our heroes are not truly united until it’s nearly the end. Without giving away too much, I want to say that the sparring between Thor and Iron Man, then Captain America too, is like the best game of rock, paper, scissors I’ve ever seen. Captain America Shield vs. Thor hammer... not really sure what beats what. Especially impressive is the climactic action, which speaks to Whedon’s immense skill as a director. The battle is split among The Avengers as they work in teams or on diversionary solo missions to tackle alien invasion as a team.

The Avengers is so very good, it practically harkens back to the first Christopher Reeve Superman film. It’s old-school good, balanced filmmaking. The action is focused enough to remind us of classic battle scenes and not the overly computer-generated business that happens now. It’s an action comedy of epic proportions and on a tremendous scale. A criticism may have occurred to me somewhere in the middle of the film... but I’ve all but forgotten it. If there’s room for Nathan Fillion in the next Avengers, I think Whedon fans might literally break the box office.

Bonus trivia/links:

* Agent Hill is played by Cobie Smulders, whom you may recognize from How I Met Your Mother.

* A waitress in the film is played by Ashley Johnson - Chrissy Seaver from Growing Pains.

* Top 23 Things Joss Whedon Should Do After The Avengers, by Calvin Peat 

http://www.shadowlocked.com/201106241945/lists/top-23-things-that-joss-whedon-should-do-post-avengers.html

* The Man Behind The Avengers, from CBS Sunday Morning (featuring a brief clip from Whedon’s forthcoming Much Ado About Nothing - yay!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXcMLP3ozXs&feature=player_embedded

* Clip from Midnight in Paris - see Tom Hiddleston as basically the opposite of Loki
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wekpRlmUDSM&feature=related
* Illustrator/cartoonist Noelle Stevenson's brilliant blog has loads of Avengers-related comics, but she also posted this fabulous gif of Tom Hiddleston.
* Nominated for Academy Award: Best Visual Effects