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Marvel's The Avengers


Wally Q
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Guest El Chalupacabra

How's it rate compared to Iron Man 1, Thor, Captain America, Incredible hulk? Better than any of the stand alones?

 

How about compared to X men first class?

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I refuse to fall into fan hyperbole! It was NOT perfect, there were a few dumb parts, the third act was contrived... But that said it was an awesome movie, and kind of what you always wanted from a superhero movie but have never gotten. I'm impressed how everyone got a significant bit of character growth in an ensemble film. Star Trek never pulled that off.

 

Hulk totally stole the show, for sure. Ruffalo should get his own movie. A decade ago the only marvel characters he average non comic fan knew were Spider-man and the hulk... Maybe the X-men... Ruffalo could put the green dude back on top.

 

My favorite part was seeing Darth Whoevers name in the credits.

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Yeah, Ruffalo was great.

 

And on the other side of the coin Hawkeye just sucked. But then, that was to be expected. You can't have all of those other guys and expect a guy with a bow and arrow to hold his own next to them on film. Whatever little backstory they gave him did not work at all for me.

 

And wha? Dubya was in the credits for it? Clearly I'm out of the loop on this. What is he doing now?

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I don't want to be backed into the corner as a naysayer, cause I really liked the movie. I'm just saying that when the final act of the film started, it was already plainly obvious what had to happen. Sure there was a fight to get to that point, but there were no twists or reversals-- which frankly in a movie like this, you need. I mean come on, the Avengers aren't going to lose, so you need to at least ratchet up the tension so we don't know how they'll win.

 

You had Dr. Selvig still under Loki's control building the device on Stark Tower. He's been established as the only credible expert on the tesseract/cube and he's been temporarily made into a bad guy-- so its obvious to me that he'd get knocked out of Loki's control and instantly have the answer on how to reverse it. No tension.

 

The tesseract opens a portal to let in an army we've been hearing a ton about, but haven't really seen squat of. Loki was our villain face, and he was a great villain (compared to Red Skull or Whiplash) but the whole alien army thing was just there because without them you'd have no big final battle. Simple example, but after you see Stormtroopers kill Luke's parents, murder some Jawas and you have a whole crew of Imperial douche nozzles blowing up planets, even swatting those tie fighters down as you approach the death star feels like justice is being delivered. These guys were just a bunch of CG cyborgs there for the purpose of being blown up.

 

Maybe we needed to see more of this army, with more of a face, for more of the film to care about that fight. Problem is, they gave the second villain role to Hawkeye for the first two acts. Maybe Selvig needed to get killed before he told them how to close the portal-- then there'd be some tension as to how they were going to pull it off.

 

Then there's the "council" that try to **** block Fury left and right, so you know they're going to get in the way and try and do their own thing in the end. That was an attempt at a swerve in the final inning, but they went right to a nuke-- was there any question as to where that missile was going to go?

 

I had the exact same problem with the final acts of Iron Man 1&2, Thor, Captain America, and Incredible Hulk. Each one has the same third act-- the hero has to face off with a villain that their own path to herodom created, and the villains become faceless cgi slugfests.

 

BUT, like all of those movies, the ride there was awesome enough that it didn't ruin my enjoyment of things. Avengers was fun and well made and didn't try to be anything it wasn't.

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It was enjoyable and the pay off worked. It's far from perfect as the cinematography is still a weak point for me (I despised the argument in Banner's Lab for how it was shot but at the same time, the scene with Loki and Black Widow was gorgeous.) There was the one tracking shot showing all the heroes doing their thing in battle that really showed its seams and needed cleaning up because it appears in the final product that the camera is moving, finds it's target and all of a sudden, there's a stillness like someone had shut a camera off and picked right back up like one would notice.

 

Anyhow... it's the best of the Marvel films since Iron Man and I enjoyed it but it's far from flawless.

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This is a nitpick, and I'm hoping somebody can explain it, but after seeing the whole thing and looking back, was Loki's plan to get captured just to trigger Banner into becoming the Hulk and distract them from what Hawkeye and Selvig had to do? That seems like a really convoluted way to go about things.

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Well I had a problem with that too...

 

It's easier to buy he was just there to sew dissent in general, not JUST to make Banner Hulk out... then again, if he knew Banner was the only one with the expertise to find the gamma ray signature... but I really had to think to recall that.

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Loki's plan was to hurt Thor. Thor cared about the Earth, about the people on it, so Loki was going to hurt as many people and cause as much devestation as possible simply out of spite and jealousy. Everything he did was just a means to that end.

 

And I ****ing loved the movie. While not perfect (no movie is), and with a few minor nitpicks, it was still one hell of an awesome film. As Pong said, it was one of the funniest movies I've seen in a while (Hulk's beatdown on Loki was particularly hilarious), the dialogue was snappy and interesting for the most part, every character got adequate screen time (Although I would've liked to have a little more focus on Hawkeye and Black Widow, one of the aforementioned nitpicks), and the intrapersonal conflicts on the team was engaging. I rarely see a movie more than once in theatres, but I am definately going to do so with Avengers.

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My seven year old would agree. He laughed many times!
He's got good taste. I've chuckled at superhero films before, but there were a couple scenes I just couldn't contain myself. Even the Hulk-punch of Thor/beatdown of Loki -- and I tend to find physical humor pretty unfunny.
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My seven year old would agree. He laughed many times!
He's got good taste. I've chuckled at superhero films before, but there were a couple scenes I just couldn't contain myself. Even the Hulk-punch of Thor/beatdown of Loki -- and I tend to find physical humor pretty unfunny.

 

Yeah, I'm not a big physical comedy fan either, but the bits of it in this movie WORK. Probably because it fits the character involved so well.

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I don't want to be backed into the corner as a naysayer, cause I really liked the movie. I'm just saying that when the final act of the film started, it was already plainly obvious what had to happen. Sure there was a fight to get to that point, but there were no twists or reversals-- which frankly in a movie like this, you need. I mean come on, the Avengers aren't going to lose, so you need to at least ratchet up the tension so we don't know how they'll win.

 

The tesseract opens a portal to let in an army we've been hearing a ton about, but haven't really seen squat of. Loki was our villain face, and he was a great villain (compared to Red Skull or Whiplash) but the whole alien army thing was just there because without them you'd have no big final battle.

 

The film was pretty good in sections, but the handling of the extraterrestrial threat and its attack on the city could have been swapped with that seen in Green Lantern without a blink, and that's not good.

 

Cap's characterization was just kickass from start to finish; I really enjoyed how the other Avengers naturally recognized his tactical strength/leadership--that will work well in the sequel. Oh, and he was fearless when dealing with Thor & Iron Man--great stuff, not to mention his "God" line to Black Widow--one of the best in the film.

 

The Banner/Hulk moments were interesting from start to finish--too bad he did not have more screen time, but...

 

 

You had Dr. Selvig still under Loki's control building the device on Stark Tower. He's been established as the only credible expert on the tesseract/cube and he's been temporarily made into a bad guy-- so its obvious to me that he'd get knocked out of Loki's control and instantly have the answer on how to reverse it. No tension.

 

Agreed.

 

 

Simple example, but after you see Stormtroopers kill Luke's parents, murder some Jawas and you have a whole crew of Imperial douche nozzles blowing up planets, even swatting those tie fighters down as you approach the death star feels like justice is being delivered. These guys were just a bunch of CG cyborgs there for the purpose of being blown up.

 

...and with that rests the problem with the some of the modern fantasy films: the need for a "big bang" at the end in order to tickle the butts of people reared by the games & movies of the past 20 years. Unless the secondary villains actually participate in causing the problem--the pain and/or conflict felt by the heroes, when the villains are defeated, there's no emotional connection for the audience. In your spot-on Star Wars example, Stortmtroopers were clearly causing pain throughout ANH, so the audience could believe in/support the heroes fight against them. Same with Tarkin: after his Death Star demonstration earlier in the film, watching his last second alive--was as much an emotional payoff as the actual explosion you knew was coming.

 

I hope the sequel will have time to really dig at the personal lives of the heores--give them the kind of personal pain tied to a larger issue Marvel used to do well (in print), and the threat is not another "all or nothing" deal--especially since the mastermind behind Loki was introduced (I will leave nameless for anyone yet to see the film). Save him for the 3rd or 4th film, but not in the first sequel. It would be more of the same (how could it be anything different considering the "neighborhood" he hails from), and that could be a series-killer

 

 

Then there's the "council" that try to **** block Fury left and right, so you know they're going to get in the way and try and do their own thing in the end. That was an attempt at a swerve in the final inning, but they went right to a nuke-- was there any question as to where that missile was going to go?

 

No...and that's the problem. If the nuke's real use was too predictable, which takes the element of surprise/payoff away from the conflict.

 

Avengers was fun and well made and didn't try to be anything it wasn't.

 

The film was pretty good. Just that. I was not expecting it to be "the greatest film in cinema history," but Whedon, et al, had to know a team film would need more meat to avoid looking like a mindless CG-fest, even if the actual film had some very fun, nice scenes.

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My favorite part was seeing Darth Whoevers name in the credits.

I pointed that out to one of my friend's kids when the credit rolled by. I said "I know that guy." The kid was already wired before the movie but his eyes got big and he replied "You do?"

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