I went to see The Avengers the day after the Tallahassee Writer’s Conference. I had seen the trailers on Youtube, heard the hype, hoped it would be good, and prepared myself for the disappointment that the movie would not be as good as hoped. And it Rocked most excellently. Sure, it wasn’t perfect, at least not to this comic loving boy who grew up on the lore of the Marvel Universe. There was no way they could make it prefect, and if I wanted to I could have sat there and picked apart every little mistake they made about the Marvel Mythos. And there surely were a lot of them. Instead I went to the movie wanting to see the superheroes I had grown up loving brought to life. And were they ever.
Nick Fury was actually shown as the action hero he was when he was an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., not just a desk sitting director. The flying aircraft carrier did not just have a bit part as I feared, but was an integral part of the story. There was the obligatory battle between Ironman and Captain America versus Thor, just to show that testosterone powers the Marvel Universe, and Thor was show to have true super strength in this movie, maybe not quite as much as the Hulk, but in that range. The battle between Thor and the Hulk was a gem, in which the big green guy was the stronger, though Thor got in his licks, and the hammer equalized them. I loved it when the Hulk was shown incapable of lifting the hammer. Only Thor could do that in the comics, and that was shown in a great manner in the movie. Otherwise the Hulk was shown to be pretty much unstoppable once the anger got going. Loki appeared to be much stronger than he was in the Thor movie, but that might have been because now he was dealing with mere mortals. One of the more humorous parts of the film was when Loki reviled the Hulk, calling him beneath the Asgardian God that Thor’s brother was. The result was predictable but still very funny.
Even Hawkeye was shown to be worthy of the mantel of hero, even if not super. The little automatic arrow head attaching quiver system was very cool. Black Widow had her moments, although as a mere human, no matter how good at martial arts, I still felt that she didn’t really belong in the Avengers. The big four of Ironman, Thor, Hulk and Captain America definitely belonged. I really wish they had put Giant/Antman in the movie along with Wasp, but I guess since they didn’t have their own movie Marvel thought they wouldn’t do well in this one. Or the special effects budget was already too high, so they left out the growth and shrinking effects.
One of the complaints I had read about this movie was that it didn’t have enough action. Now granted, it wasn’t all action, and there was some plain old talking conflict. But not enough action? No way. The movie started off, after the introduction of the villains, with Loki invading a secret SHIELD lab that is destroyed. There is a fight with Captain America and Ironman versus Loki, then a fight where Thor takes Loki and Cap and Ironman fight him. Then the battle on the helicarrier, in which Thor fights the Hulk, Ironman and Cap fight some thugs while trying to save the ship, and Black Widow fights Hawkeye. Then the battle between the Avengers and the aliens that had to run forty minutes or more. That was a lot of battle scene, and probably took most of the non-actor salary budget. But then again, some people are never satisfied. All in all I found it to be a very good movie that I decided not to pick apart for its mistakes, but instead appreciated for its triumphs. They set up the sequel, and I for one can’t wait for it. I guess I will have to, as it will be at least a year before it comes out. Maybe they will have a chance to introduce Giant/Antman and the Wasp in that time.
