THE AVENGERS - MOVIE REVIEW April 25, 2012

THE AVENGERS - MOVIE

Wednesday, 25 April 2012 – PALACE WESTGARTH CINEMA, HIGH STREET, NORTHCOTE, VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA
Reviewer: Joe Calleri
Stars: 3.5 (out of 5)

I’ve been waiting an awfully long time for this movie. Ever since I bought my first Avengers comic in 1971, at the tender age of 9, when Marvel comics sold for 25 cents. Those comics are beside me as I write this. And, to this day, I remember fondly those wonderfully simple, Jack Kirby drawn, 1960’s Marvel cartoons that we watched on our TV's.

That brings us to the much-anticipated, 2012 movie version of, The Avengers. So, what’s the fuss about? And, is the fuss worth it? Story-wise, at least, there’s not much to report: Loki and a mysterious alien force (so mysterious in fact, they don’t even get a mention on the cast and character list) join forces to seize control of The Tesseract - or Cosmic Cube – so they can invade and take over the Earth. Standing in their way are the collective might of SHIELD and the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, The Avengers: Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, Black Widow, and Hawkeye.  

The bottom line? While The Avengers will delight lovers of big, bang for your buck, action flicks, it will frustrate the living heck out of everyone else.

SPOILER ALERT!!! Here’s some of what to expect, including spoilers, so read on only if you dare!

Here’s what I liked

While there is much in this movie that I enjoyed, I narrowed the list. Here it is, in no particular order:

Perfect casting. The characters look exactly the way that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby first envisaged them. And, by and large, the ensemble cast do a fine job in their roles.

The SFX employed in this movie, courtesy of a number of fine SFX studios, including ILM, is mind-bogglingly good. It’s what audiences expect these days. Those climactic battle scenes between our heroes and the mysterious alien menace, are tense, and wondrous to behold. Five years ago, this movie would have been near impossible to make.

Nick Fury finally gets to do something rather than just look cool in that fantastic long black coat. He actually moves (though not too quickly), shoots guns, and an RPG. Wow, Nick, way to go! The character of Nick Fury makes me laugh, because he has achieved a "reverse Michael Jackson". What's that, you ask? Nick Fury started his comic book life as a white man, with hair, fighting alongside Captain America in WWII. Talk about revisionism.

Black Widow kicks serious butt! Nick Fury should take a leaf out of her book.

Hulk, Hulk, Hulk! The true star of this movie, and he’s not flesh and blood! Not since Gollum in The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, has a computer-generated character stolen a movie and outshone its human counterparts. The funniest moments in this movie are, mostly, courtesy of our ever-loving, not so jolly, green giant.

SHIELD’s spectacular all floating / all flying base of operations is a joy to behold, but hands up who else thinks it looks a bit TOO much like Spectrum’s Cloudbase from Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons puppet series? Don't believe me? Google it. Conversely, why bother have a floating, flying base? Doesn’t that render SHIELD an easier target for enemies?

Here’s what I didn’t like

Despite the relatively high score I bestowed on this movie, it's by no means perfect. I believe that, Batman Begins, the first Christopher Reeve Superman movie, and Watchmen share the honour of the perfect superhero movie. Those films succeeded because the superhero characters are fundamentally flawed, and with Watchmen tortured and deeply neurotic. With The Avengers, what you see is what you get. Good looking, cardboard cut-out characters. No emotional layering, Achilles heels or vulnerabilities whatsoever. Even Tony Stark’s Iron Man is seemingly invulnerable.

I hate to say this, and no-one else may agree but, this is just one big, expensive propaganda film. If Hitler were commissioning the making of a film in 2012, it would look like The Avengers. White, wholesome, good-looking superheroes take on ugly aliens from faraway places, and triumph. More on this point below.

Loki isn’t a bad villain, he's just a bit misguided and full of himself. But, doesn’t he sound a bit too much like Terence Stamp’s General Zod from the second Christopher Reeve Superman movie, right down to “Kneel before me” line? Zod was, in my opinion, a far more menacing villain.

The way that Agent Coulson’s death is handled my the makers is absolutely appalling and reflects the total absence of any feeling and humanity in this movie. For god’s sake, Coulson doesn’t even receive a simple 20 second funeral or farewell speech. Surely, some of the $220 million budget could have been spent on a floral wreath. But, I guess the producers just had to blow more shit up rather than honour a dead comrade.

Hulk is just TOO obedient. Since when does Hulk listen to anybody, let alone take orders?

Why did the producers bother including Pepper Potts? A waste of space.

Cobie Smulders as SHIELD’s Agent Maria Hill: Ditto, a waste of space.

Who and what the heck is “The World Security Council” or “Council”? I mean, what has happened to the US government, the President, the United Nations? Was there a revolution? No explanations are provided.

More propaganda and revisionism: The movie serves as a retelling of the 9/11 tragedy. Try to follow me: The world is not in danger, but the United States and specifically, New York are. The threat is ugly, foreign, alien. Their intentions are not entirely clear. The heroes are out-manned, out-gunned. Some scenes of the aftermath of the alien attack closely resemble some of the news footage from 9/11, showing dust-covered survivors emerging from the wreckage of the World Trade Centre. Thank god, though that, on this occasion, New York is saved by The Avengers, ably led by Captain America. And, what about the silly interview with a woman who thanks Captain America for saving her and the world. How downright mawkish, jingoistic, and nationalistic can you get! By the way, tattoo parlours should order extra ink to fulfill a wave of orders from silly folk wanting red, white and blue shield tattoos.

SHIELD’s intentions with the Tesseract, including harnessing the power of the Tesseract to develop newer, smarter weapons, are never clarified. Director Fury’s infantile excuse for developing new weapons is along the lines of: “Well, we’re the good guys, so we’re allowed to do that.” Sounds like the same twisted logic our favourite real-life superpower - no names - employs to justify their possessing huge stockpiles of nuclear weapons when other countries just shouldn’t because, well, they're just nasty and will do nasty things with their weapons of mass destruction. Hmmm.

Sorry, but, the villains in this movie just aren’t villainous and threatening enough. That’s one of the problems with PG-13 rated movies, villains can only be so villainous. Sure, Mr Villain, go ahead and blow lots of stuff up, but just limit the blood and gore, ok? Resembling the Green Goblin from the Spiderman movie (right down to their weird helmets and flying platforms), I never got the sense of whether the aliens were humanoid or robotic, or what their intentions were with the planet. And, I never once got the sense that they stood any chance of defeating our heroes. Frankly, the Cloverfield monster was a far greater and more credible threat to humanity.

Conclusion

The undoubted box office success of The Avengers will, I assume, spur major comics rival, DC Comics, into action to revive the failed Justice League of America concept. But, I hope they don’t. Just how many times can you save the world – or the United States, at least - from disaster? And, how many superheroes do you need to save it? Sounds like one of those infernal questions about how many angels can dance on a pin head. While there are only a few more sleeps until Batman and Superman return to our big screens, we can sit back and enjoy the spectacle of our favourite heroes saving, well … New York!