The Avengers, Revisited
Well, we’ve reached the point in the series where objectivity goes out the window and I replace the text of the article with about a thousand words of just fanboy squeeing noises. Okay, not really, but I did love this movie when it came out, and I saw it at least a few times in theaters. It has been awhile, though, so let’s see how it goes!
Release Date: May 4, 2012
Directed by: Joss Whedon
Budget: $220 million
Domestic box office: $623 million (uh, holy shit)
What Holds Up
Bringing together the four big characters from the previous movies and having them all get their time in the sun is already a pretty tricky proposition. Add in all of the S.H.I.E.L.D. people, and it gets tougher still. But this movie pulls it off. Every one of the main characters has a direct personal interaction with Loki, every one of them physically fights him in some capacity, every one of them contributes meaningfully to resolving the Battle of New York, every one of them butts up against their teammates in ways that are true to their own character, every one of them gets at least one funny moment. Whedon has a reputation for understanding how to balance these kinds of team affairs, and I think this is him at his best.
The action is still top-notch as well. The characters are given cool and dynamic things to do throughout, and their powers play off of each other in interesting ways. It’s also very clear what’s happening in the moment-to-moment as well as the various stages of the battles, which is definitely not a given when you’re dealing with this kind of pace and scope. Perhaps most importantly, the heroes are all handling aspects commensurate with their particular abilities and power level while still being useful in the overall scheme. Some of those tracking shots from one hero to another in the final battle are still iconic for a reason.
What Doesn’t Hold Up
Certain CGI elements are definitely starting to show their age. While I like the overall redesign of the Hulk as more gorilla-like, he sticks out like a sore thumb in several sequences. The Chitauri look fine at a distance with their helmets on, but you can’t linger on them too long or too closely either. Any time there’s a human character flying or falling, the green screen is virtually shouting its presence behind them. I didn’t find it to be totally immersion-breaking, but it’s noticeable for sure.
Interestingly, one of the things that has suffered most is as much about the way the pop culture landscape has shifted as it is about the movie itself. We’ve got the whole “bad guy gets caught on purpose” twist, the “evil sky beam destroying the city” in the third act, even the “pretend a main character is sacrificing themselves but don’t actually follow through on their death” cliché. Some of these tropes were annoying at the time, but they’ve definitely gotten worse as a lot of other blockbuster movies have run them into the ground. The wild success of the Avengers gave us a bunch of imitators oversaturating these storytelling techniques, and I think you get a little bit of the “Seinfeld is Unfunny” effect as a result.
How Bad is the Villain?
I’m a little bit torn on this one. As I’ve made clear, I love Loki as a character and as a villain. Tom Hiddleston is still great and knows how to chew scenery with the best of them, but he loses a lot of nuance amidst all the mustache-twirling. I think part of that is Loki’s general contempt for humanity, and part of it is humiliation from his loss in Thor. I’m glad he gets a somewhat conflicted moment with his brother early on, but after that it’s all evil all the time. Still, this means that all of the good guys get to bounce off of his villainy in their own ways.
On the other hand, I am not conflicted about the Chitauri at all. They are the absolute definition of generic CGI bad guys. They’re basically instantly forgettable, poorly defined punching bags. The weird flying worms are by far the most memorable, but the footsoldiers are essentially non-entities. It’s also not made clear in the movie why all of them suddenly drop dead upon the destruction of the ship, but whatever. They serve their purpose, and they strive for absolutely nothing more.
After-Credits Sequence
Well, we get our first mid-credits sequence as well as our first look at Thanos. This is one of those teases that is pretty damn cryptic to any but the most diehard Marvel fans, and the big purple guy doesn’t even bother saying anything to clear up his significance. It’s funny that it will have been six years between this moment and Thanos actually showing up as the central villain in Infinity War.
After all of the teasers and trailers and hype-builders, I genuinely love that the final image you get if you stay at the theater for long enough is just the Avengers hanging around awkwardly eating shawarma. It keeps seeming like someone will say something at any second — but it never happens. Kind of amazing.
Wrap-Up
I definitely haven’t changed my mind on the fundamentals of this movie — it’s fun, funny, and deftly balances action with humor and character work, somehow without getting bogged down by any of it. I’ve enjoyed a lot of these movies over the years, but my current stance is that this is the high water mark.
Next week, Tony Stark gets a third standalone movie before anybody else gets a second. Also, it’s a Christmas movie for some reason! See you then for Iron Man 3!
You can find the rest of the series here
