Joss Whedon’s Avengers is already on the path to box office gold having earning over twice the box office receipts in its opening day that his previous theatrical directorial effort (Serenity) made in its entire run.
I’m not going to waste time here and go over the plot and characters. You’ve already seen it. If you haven’t you aren’t reading this.
We know it’s a financial success, but what about critical success? I’ve read everything from best comic book movie to date to sucks fucking donkey dick.
Neither review is right, or wrong.
The thing about ‘The Avengers’ is it isn’t a perfect film. There are some pacing issues in the first act, some forced character development, and some laughable dialog. But that’s missing the point. You don’t go watching a movie like The Avengers for David Mamet like dialog. And if you do you have bigger problems than whether or not you like a movie.
‘The Avengers’ is a victory lap for marvel studios. It’s the culmination of the past successes from the original ‘Iron Man’ forward. It doesn’t waste our time telling us who these characters are again. It knows that we’ve all seen the previous movies. And if you haven’t the characters aren’t exactly Hamlet. But don’t distress! Tony Stark briefly tells Loki who they are all in case you weren’t paying attention.
I liked ’The Avengers’. I liked it a lot. That’s not to say it doesn’t have its problems. But they don’t really matter. By the time you start analyzing what’s going on you are treated to some really clever Joss Whedon dialog. And as soon as you are done laughing you are treated to some awesome eye candy. I’d recommend skipping your Ritalin that day because ‘The Avengers’ is an assault on your senses but in a good way if you get my meaning.
It has the over the top action that is a staple in summer movies. And if that’s not what you want you should sit this one out. It suits this movie. You shouldn’t be expecting a psychological romp full of social minutia. Let’s say the third act puts aside the action for Loki and Tony Stark playing a chess game for the fate of the world. That would be a bigger sin that Iron Man going mouth to ass on a giant space centipede could ever be.
The stand out in this movie was Mark Ruffalo’s take on the Hulk. He really seems to have done his homework for this role. He nailed the balance between rage and super genius that we’ve been sorely missing in the previous Hulk movies. And add to that Joss Whedon knows the character. He understands the power that he is holding at bay and gives us a real reason to be afraid of making him angry!
So all in all I liked it. It’s not a perfect film. But I think it just might be a perfect Avengers movie. For my taste I still prefer some of the previous Marvel films to this one for the same reason I’m not a big X-men movies. I prefer a smaller more personal story.
But support of one thing isn’t criticism for another.
