Review: The Avengers.

There are so many smug one-liners in the first half of Joss Whedon's The Avengers that you could seamlessly add a continual sitcom laugh-track, complete with "Wooooos!" and cheers every time somebody enters a room. Sure, Tony Stark is jokey, but now everyone is jokey and quirky. Thor drops one-liners. Coulson is crazy quirky. The random guy working on the computer in the background on the hellicarrier is quirky and jokey (I'm not exaggerating here - you'll see for yourself what he's doing). At times it's like watching an episode of Friends set at a cosplay convention. I guarantee that at some point in the future someone WILL cut it together with a laugh track and we'll all laugh again but for a different reason.

Is that a criticism? Well, yes and no. Because it also makes the movie a lot of fun. It jets along at a solid pace, always thrusting new characters and conflicts into our face (literally if you're watching it in 3D - more weapons break out of the screen than any modern 3D movie I've seen prior to this) and the script is generally quite funny. The jokes don't always work, but there's enough of them flying around for many of them to stick. 

And that's a perfect example of the mixed feelings that I have about The Avengers, a film that I was desperately excited to see, and am still kind of buzzed about in its wake. It's story is messy bordering on non-existent, the tone is uneven, many things happen purely because the advancement of the plot demands it or - even worse - because it services a punchline. And yet this movie is incredibly entertaining. There's no question that it's a must-see on a scale that dwarfs its predecessors, and with an action-packed second half that will be sure to appease anybody with a pulse. The midnight crowd I saw it with were certainly appreciative and I would guess that most adored it. 

If you can relax, switch off and have fun then it's a perfect popcorn adventure. But we're going to try to go a little deeper than that. Because remember Michael Bay? He makes movies with paper thin, jumbled stories; quirky, jokey characters, and huge action scenes, but we don't give him a free pass, right? We pull it all apart and talk about what does and doesn't work. Whedon is certainly no Bay but this movie perhaps skirts that arena a little more than you might think. Nobody pulls down their pants or humps anybody's leg though. We can still love Whedon for his wit.

Both spoiler-free and spoiler-filled reactions after the jump.

Firstly I would say temper your expectations in terms of all the supposed "secret" stuff. No specific spoilers here, but even though we find out who the aliens are it's not really important. They could be anyone or anything. You've seen them fighting on the city streets in the trailer? Well that's all you're really going to see of them. You'll see A LOT of fighting, and yes, it is thrilling and awesome, but if you expect more backstory or a change of environment then don't. The same goes for their mysterious leader. The secret villain is revealed but incredibly briefly. (If you're wondering if our previous article was right about that identity then I will talk about it in the spoiler section below). 

So what I'm basically saying is that if you've seen the trailer then you know the basic layout of the movie. There are no huge surprises. But it's the details that you haven't seen. There are plenty of great unseen action shots within the set-pieces you're familiar with that will blow you away. The second half is really great. I think if I'd known this going in then I might have enjoyed it a little bit more, and I think repeat viewings will be more enjoyable with this in mind. 

The story itself is a little thin and I'm never really sure what Loki is ultimately trying to accomplish. The cosmic cube is really nothing more than a macguffin and the movie seems less interested in driving forward a coherent plot, and more interested in character banter and superhero clashes. There's a lot of in-fighting which is fun from a fan perspective but does little from a narrative perspective as the fights all fizzle out without consequence and foes quickly become friends. I'd also argue that the set up of forming the team takes a little bit too long, especially given the groundwork from previous films.

This certainly isn't a Christopher Nolan movie with themes, twists and an escalating, tightening plot. It's more a ramshackle adventure filled with light-hearted spectacle and fan service. (And as I said, the fans seemed to be on board. Any comic reference was met with a HUGE response. "HAAHAHA HE SAID 'HULK SMASH'!!! HAA HAAHA HE SAID 'LIFE MODEL DECOY'!!! I READ THESE THINGS IN A BOOK!!!!!") (Relax, I'm teasing you). (But it's true).

Which leads me to say that this is easily the most comic-booky of all the comic book movies. If you have read classic Marvel comics then you'll know exactly what I'm talking about, i.e. a whole lot of bizarre, over-the-top shit happens which mixes together a lot of wild ideas and genres and there's no real attempt to ground it in reality. And I do applaud that. Very early on in the film Loki appears in full costume and Sam Jackson is all, "Hey is Loki from Asgard! Thor's brother! Get him!" and you go, "Oh Okay... it's that sort of movie." It's kind of camp in a way, and some of the early scenes particularly are very silly. You realise that Whedon was probably right to try and keep it light because in the few scenes where things start to get serious it looks silly to see grown men in crazy costumes trying to play it straight. Kenneth Branagh handled such things a lot better, although Whedon produces the more enjoyable film. 

I think the silliness is inevitable in all comic book movies. Fans can be overzealous and really try to take these things seriously because I think they don't want to be looked at as enjoying foolish things. But foolish things are fun and I'm willing to embrace that to a degree. As much as I love The Dark Knight Returns, Bale growling in a bat costume is still incredibly silly. It's no different here. Especially for Captain America.

Can we talk about the Captain? I feel sorry for Chris Evans in this film because he really gets the shitty end of the stick. He's the most earnest of the Avengers and therefore the least fun. There's those occasional moments where they try to shoehorn in something very heroic/patriotic or street level for him to solve. If he wasn't already enough of a wet blanket he even makes a pompous statement about there only being "one god and he doesn't dress like them!" But above all he looks so damn ridiculous! There is zero reason for him to wear that silly suit and the movie makes an early attempt to try to play it off as something inspiring but for the most part he looks like he's off to jazz ballet. He lacks the bulk of the old costume so he looks crazy running around with his huge upper body and little lycra legs. 

In this crowd, it's easy to forget that Cap is a super soldier. He really just appears to be an athletic guy with a fancy shield. You don't really get any super human feats from him. There was early criticism that Hawkeye and Black Widow would be dead-weights in a super-powered team but both performers actually acquit themselves quite well. Joss has always worked well with women and he gives Scarlett a lot to do and gets a lot more out of her in return. Renner takes everything he's doing incredibly seriously and shines through as a solid actor even though he's in a supporting role. At times he plays it so straight that I almost feel like he's in a different movie from everybody else.

And I'd be remiss to not mention the Hulk. Ruffalo is great as Banner, but Hulk is the real star of the entire film. It took Hulk's first appearance for me to really become invested in Avengers. It was the first scene with real consequence and Hulk manages to steal every scene he appears in after that. In my opinion he's the film's biggest triumph and everything sparks to life whenever he's on.

Okay I am dying to talk specifics so only the foolhardy should continue to...

THE SPOILER SECTION

Did you know that Loki calls Black Widow a "mewling quim". That means "crying vagina". It made me laugh because it's like when you hear Americans throw around the word "wanker" with zero idea of how it is used or what it means. It made me wonder if Hiddleston, as an Englishman, threw "quim" in to mess with the Americans on the set. Calling someone a crying vagina doesn't even make sense!

I got a little distracted there.

Bigger spoilers: From a story perspective I'm really frustrated at how many things happen purely to serve the story. So many things are motivated by the characters or their situations at all. Other things just happen to service a joke but have no further consequence or pay off. 

How does Thor return to earth after being trapped on Asgard at the end of Thor? We don't really know but we need him here to serve the story. It was probably magic Loki muses. Magic might explain a lot of things here.

Why does Hulk quickly turn from an uncontrollable beast to a helpful ally? The story needs him to.

Why does Black Widow decide to tell Loki her entire background? The story needs her to. 

And what are Loki's powers? What are his limitations? It's whatever the story requires at the time.

But the silliest scene for me is when Loki is in Germany. He strolls out into a crowd of civilians looking like a Cirque du Soleil escapee or a street performer and commands everybody to bow before him. AND THEY DO! That would be like being in Paris and suddenly submitting to a mime. Loki looks ridiculous and there's no reason for the crowd to do anything he says. Then to make matters worse they add the even sillier looking Captain America to the scene and have him attempt to say meaningful things about Hitler and persecution. It's silly, Saturday morning cartoon stuff and it felt like a misstep. 

Gwyneth Paltrow is in this film. Did you know that? She's only in the sitcom parts though. Natalie Portman's Thor character is reduced to a quick shot of her photo. We're assured she's tucked away somewhere safe. I'm actually surprised at how many loose ends this movie has to tie up, explain away, or sweep under the rug. This has been an ambitious experiment and it's not without its baggage.

Okay let's do the big one...

Last month I posted this article about who the leader of the aliens was. I subscribed to the growing belief that the secret villain was Thanos. And he is! But he doesn't really have a role in this film - he isn't seen until the post credits scene where he turns around and mugs at the camera for a couple of seconds. He's actually grinning and almost looks cute. But he's very close to his comic book design with purple face, huge craggy chin and gold helmet. So he's definitely the one leading the aliens but the aliens themselves are the Chitauri - the Marvel Ultimates version of the skrulls. That said they don't shapeshift or anything, they're just soldiers and could have been anybody. Thanos is their boss but they don't necessarily appear to be of the same race. 

NO SPOILERS ANYMORE BUT DON'T READ THE BIG SPOILER RIGHT ABOVE THIS HEADING.

So do I recommend it? Of course I recommend it! Absolutely! It's Avengers! Go and see it as soon as you can and we can talk about it. It's easily the most entertaining of the Marvel movies to date (although the first Iron Man is still the tightest) and I think it will make it hard for them to continue to live up to this scale. Aren't Iron Man 3 and Thor 2 going to feel a little empty and small after this? The Avengers does manage to give itself a loophole as to why the characters will be working solo again. 

Anyway, all said and done it's a lot of fun. Let me know what you think.