The Avengers Are Indeed Mighty
Well, I finally got to make it to see the Avengers movie. After all the hype, I was expecting a lot out of it. I’m glad to say I wasn’t let down. Although I was disappointed that Ed Norton would not be returning as Bruce Banner, Mark Ruffalo did a good job in the role. The effects were good and the story was decent. One thing that stands as a good warning, there are 2 extra scenes. One is just into the credits and the other is at the very end. As for anything else, I’ll put the information past the general warning.
The cast is good overall. Most of the cast pulls together early on though Thor doesn’t show up until half way through the movie. The alien race that Loki brings forth, the Chitauri, are supposedly a version of the Skrulls from the Ultimate universe. (Not surprising they chose one from there since we also have the black Nick Fury from the Ultimate universe.
Loki, while having some humorous moments, could have been more interesting. He’s just a took and a bit of a joke throughout part of the movie. You have to have Loki to pull the Avengers together though.
As Captain America, Chris Evans could have been more interesting. Yes, Captain America is pretty militaristic and sometime stoic but he was even more so in the movie. Almost to the point of being boring. Chris did a better job playing the Human Torch in the Fantastic Four movies. (Maybe if he had been half naked as he was in those…)
Bruce Banner/the Hulk made an interesting showing in the movie. Mark did a good job playing Bruce, just on the edge half the time. The one thing about the hulk was the fact that the first time, Bruce turns into the Hulk, he’s all rage and strikes out against the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. When he changes later during the battle, he’s more in control and only fights the bad guys. (I’m not counting the comedic punch that sends Thor flying.) I’m not sure if the difference is supposed to be that he triggers the change himself the second time or what.
Chris Hemsworth is sexy as ever as Thor. I think he plays the part perfectly as well. It was just disappointing that he doesn’t show up until half way through the movie after Loki is already captured the first time. The battle between Thor and Iron Man was fun though.
Live action Hawkeye. What more needs to be said? OK, so I’m a big fan boy when it comes to the archers. Sadly, since Clint is under Loki’s thrall for half the movie, he doesn’t get too much of a character build-up. It was cool seeing him use all sorts of arrows and, yes, he actually does run out of arrows. The mechanism for him to pick the arrowheads he needs is a nice explanation. I think Jeremy Renner did a good job with the character and I’m hoping to see the character built up more in the sequel. I’d love to see some of famous arguing between Captain America and Hawkeye.
Scarlett Johansson does a decent job as the Black Widow. Like with Cap, the emotional range wasn’t great. There were some good scenes with her where she reverses the interrogation, getting the bad guys to spill the beans while they think they have her on the roll. Overall, there wasn’t too much depth to the character for as much as she was around.
As far as S.H.I.E.L.D. goes, Samuel L. Jackson played his usual forceful self which which suited the Nick Fury character. It was good to see Maria Hill added in as another agent as well. The sad part was seeing Agent Coulson, who has been around since the beginning, get killed. His death is what really pulls the team together though.
Were there faults to the movie? Of course. I listed enough above. I’m sorry but I’m not one of bow down to Joss Wheadon. I enjoyed Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but I think another director might have done better. Maybe a little less comedy. The action scenes were good though and it was overall a good movie. It was the teams early growing pains so hopefully a sequel will be better when they can show them working as a team. I still want to see Ant-Man and Wasp. And I really hope they don’t pull Spider-Man and Wolverine in for ratings. It would be better to see classiic characters like Black Panther, the Vision, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, the Black Knight and maybe even Hercules show up. (Yeah, I know, I’m rooting for the half naked buff hairy guy on that one. Who knows when the next one will be. From the first extra scene, we have a hint that it may include Thanos though. I was expecting more from the second scene though other than them just sitting and eating.
