It's been quite a while since my last Editorial/Review as many other things have firmly secured themselves between being the regular contributor I was and simply checking in when I get a free moment. However, anyone familiar with anything I have had to say over the years, probably remembers one simple truth....I am one of the most outspoken
Avengers fans on this site. I can honestly say that I have been reading
The Avengers longer than most of you have been alive. So, I felt compelled to wake up early this morning and let the CBM world know how I felt about seeing
The Avengers film, after waiting 35 years to see these heroes on screen.....
"Like a kid again" From beginning to end, this film not only didn't disappoint, but surpassed all expectations. The scope of the film was amazing. This movie never bothered to "ground itself" in reality, largely due to the fact that Marvel has gone out of their way in their five previous films to stretch our version of "reality" into the extremely, expanded version that exists within the "Marvel Cinematic Universe." They succeeded. It feels perfectly natural while watching
The Avengers to see an aircraft carrier suddenly rise from the water to reveal itself as a Hellicarrier. It feels perfectly natural for an Asgardian God of Thunder to land on the wing of a Quinjet in order to retrieve his brother from the custody of three other "Superheroes." It feels perfectly natural to glance around a packed theater on a Friday afternoon (at a time when people should be working or in school) and see that you're not the only one "geeking out." This movie offers no apologies.
After watching previous super team films like the
X-Men, (who were transformed into matching leather, seldom displaying their power, waiting for
Wolverine to save the day caricatures of themselves,) and
The Fantastic Four (which I won't even get into,) I was certain there would be changes made in
The Avengers that I would simply have to accept as a fan. I was wrong. BUT, it was the little things that brought the team to life for this longtime fan. Little things certainly gelled this movie together, like Sam Jackson not caring about and then disobeying orders, just like the classic Nick Fury has done so many times in the comics.
Thor gives us a glimpse of that "this is going to be fun" smile when he realizes that there will be no subduing
The Hulk without a battle worthy of his power. Finally, after two previous films,
Iron Man shows the world that he is more than a self centered, eccentric, moron, who is not only worthy, but deserving of the "hero" title.
Iron Man also gets another notch in this category by hanging a great big, whopping
A where the name STARK once stood on his gleaming tower in New York.
And finally...after reading
The Avengers for so many years, there was one thing that stood out more than any other, which immediately gave me goosebumps (and it was very small in the scheme of things.) In the middle of an epic battle, in the middle of New York City, we see Hawkeye helping injured people out of a wrecked bus. This is a scene that is a regular occurrence in any
Avengers comic. My good friend
teabag (who is also a diehard
Avengers nut) and I were discussing this scene yesterday. I can't tell you how many times I have seen
Cap spout orders to whoever was on the team to "help these injured civilians and get them to safety" in the comics, while
Thor and
Iron Man and the other big guns dealt with the enemy at hand. As I said, it was all the little things.
I was also drastically, overjoyed to see the team steadily drifting out of SHIELDS control towards the end of the film. This team has never been anyone's puppet.
There is one aspect of the film I've noticed other reviewers complain about, that I would like to address. I've heard some say that the Chitauri fail to give the team much of a fight. While I think this is somewhat correct, I believe there is a perfectly good reason for this. They are not meant to. They are meant to show that the team (and therefore Earth) is not to be messed with. It's established relatively early in the movie that there are other "worlds" or "dimensions" out there that even Asgard has no knowledge of. I think the fact that the Chitauri's shear numbers fall drastically short of even being a match for
The Avengers is the signal to those "other worlds" that Fury talks so much about, mid-film. The team makes the point that the Tesseract-based weapons would have.
As for the stand out performances by the cast....they were all spot on. Evans, Hemsworth, Downey, Ruffalo, Renner, Johansson, Jackson, Hiddleston and right on down the line. They each expand on the characters introduced in previous films. Joss Whedon deserves more credit than I can even begin to express for his re-writes and directing. He has certainly given us what I consider to be the best comic adaptation to date and I am beyond ecstatic that he chose
The Avengers to do it with.
I'm sure there will be many of you reading this that will dismiss my words as another "fan rant" and you may be right. However, I know there had to be at least a few people in that theater with me yesterday who were not "lifelong fans" like myself and it has been almost forever, since I noticed the same "shit eating" grin on so many faces. They all got it. They all enjoyed it. If you haven't seen it yet, I'm sure you will also.
Joss Whedon's
The Avengers starring Chris Evans, Cris Hemsworth, Robert Downey Jr., Jeremy Renner, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, Samuel L. Jackson and Tom Hiddleston is
IN THEATERS WORLDWIDE RIGHT NOW!.
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