When Marvel Studios decided to make “The Avengers,” they were really attempting to do something that had never quite been done before. Crossovers had happened before, sure. But an on-going series of interconnected adventures, with a large cast that could bounce back and forth between movies as needed, all leading up to a massive event film... It was something new, the comic book style storytelling truly coming to the big screen. By 2010, it was apparent that “The Avengers” was in fact going to be a real movie. So who was going to direct this massive undertaking, this crazy idea that had no guarantee of working? A man best known for screenwriting, who had worked largely in television, whose only previous big screen credit was a financial disappointment. I wasn't sure, at the time, that Joss Whedon was the right man for the job. In retrospect, this seems hilariously naive, since “The Avengers” wound up being an enormous success and totally changed the course of Hollywood filmmaking.
S.H.I.E.L.D .has collected the Tesseract, a cosmic cube that can open gateways across the universe. Out of that gateway emerges Loki, the Norse God of Chaos. Armed with a powerful staff that can control minds, Loki has come to Earth to prepare it for an invading army. S.H.I.E.L.D. now pulls together the Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Billionaire-turned-armored crime fighter Iron Man, recently defrosted super soldier Captain America, master spy Black Widow, and the Incredible Hulk are soon joined by Thor, Loki's thundering brother, and previously brainwashed super-archer Hawkeye. But will even these extraordinary individuals be enough to save the world when Loki's army arrives?
“The Avengers” works and there's one very important reason why. The film understands each of its iconic characters perfectly. Never once does the story betray the central heroes' identities or make a false move. Captain America is a man out-of-time, in a modern world he doesn't entirely understand, but remains a figure of incorruptible principals. Thor and Loki operate in a world of mythic, quasi-Shakespearean high drama. The Hulk is half monster movie, half tragedy, a man desperate to control the beast inside. Black Widow is the super spy femme fatale, operating in shadowy rooms and always aware of how to play the situation to her advantage. Iron Man, as always, remains the smart-ass super-scientist thrill seeker. Marvel Studios took the time to established these characters and Whedon was smart enough to respect that work.
Supposedly, “The Avengers” went through about a dozen rewrites before the final script was solidified. It's easy to see that Marvel, Whedon, and the rest of the team worked hard to fine-tune the story. “The Avengers'” narrative is assembled in such a satisfying manner. There's an elegance in the A-to-B way the characters are brought together. How Loki, and thus the story's threat, is immediately introduced. How S.H.I.E.L.D. brings the team together, how the crisis aboard the Helicarrier breaks them apart. How the death of Agent Coulson provides the emotional catalist to reunite the team. It all builds towards the extended showdown of the last act. Everyone gets an arc of their own, with Tony's – learning to fight for something bigger than himself – being the biggest. It's clean, concise, and focused. A story that is going to have a lot of moving parts by its very nature is made to look easy.
Certainly, after re-watching the film several times, I can appreciate the smoothness of “The Avengers'” writing. Watching the movie for the first time, in a theater packed with other nerds, I was most struck by the sheer joy “The Avengers” made me feel. Whedon and Marvel knew to deliver on the crowd-pleasing moments. The film is packed with them. The three way fight between Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America is the classic comic book “first they fight, then they team-up” moment. The first appearance of the Helicarrier is a moment imbued with a real sense of awe. The Hulk's rampage through the carrier climaxes with Thor summoning Mjolnier and clobbering him upside the head with it, a spectactular action beat. The final third is when the film really packs these in. Tony's suit assembling around him as he falls from a tower, the team assembling in a circle, the heroes teaming up in various duos against the alien forces. The Hulk killing a giant monster – everything leading up to that scene, really – with one punch or how Loki is defeated. They are all show stoppers, scenes designed to make people cheer.
There are other ways Whedon was a good fit for “The Avengers.” The way Marvel makes its movies, in many ways, resembles television more than film. The interconnecting stories and characters means a certain status quo must be maintained. Not to mention their tight schedules and precisely planned budgets recall a TV production too. Whedon would be the first TV director to make the leap to superhero films, with Alan Taylor and, most notably, the Russo Brothers following in his footstep. I don't want every movie to be made this way and I certainly understand the objections people have to this. Yet it does work for Marvel.
By the same card, I think “The Avengers – and many of the other Marvel films, for that matter – look better than people give them credit for. Certainly, if you compare “The Avengers” to “Serenity,” you can see that Whedon's visual approach is far more cinematic and dramatic than before. There's a nice use of shadows in the earlier scenes. The extended action sequence that makes up the last third are fantastically shot and choreographed. A sweeping shot across the back of one of the massive vipers, as Thor and Hulk attack it, certainly sticks in the mind. Or a tracking shot of one of Hawkeye's arrow as it sails into Loki's hand. Speaking generally, the action in the last act kicks a lot of ass. The film continually finds new ways for its heroes to fight off the alien foot soldiers, keeping the action exciting and clearly depicted.
The third time's a charm when it came to casting a cinematic Bruce Banner. Mark Ruffalo is more charmingly nerdy than Edward Norton's Banner, while never leaving behind the uncertainty and fear inside the man. He has especially excellent chemistry with Robert Downey Jr. Samuel L. Jackson's way with words is greatly used for both a rousing monologue and an attitude-filled interjection. Agent Coulson was really just a minor supporting character up to this point but he has a pivotal role to play here. Clark Gregg's charming, everyman presence absolutely cements that. Lastly, Thomas Hiddleston is delightfully devious, playing Loki at his most sadistic and conniving. You can tell Hiddleston really relishes the chance to ham it up this way.
However, Loki's characterization does create something of an inconsistency. Marvel likes to pretend they have everything planned out years in advance. Going back and re-watching the first “Avengers” after the so-called Infinity Saga has wrapped, you really notice how untrue that is. Loki acts so differently from the more sympathetic depictions in the “Thor” films, that there's recently been a sloppy retcon of Thanos manipulating his personality. Thanos, as briefly depicted here, neither looks nor acts much like the character that would come to be. He resembles his comic book counterpart more, in appearance and motivation. The villainous smile he gives upon hearing the words “courting death” is, in retrospect, totally meaningless. What he actually hoped to accomplish on Earth is not clear. Especially when you think about the locations of the various Infinity Stones. None of this really matters or impedes my enjoyment of the film any but it is funny to think about.
“The Avengers” remains one of my favorite film-going experiences. With two of my oldest and best friends, both also huge nerds, I drove out to the midnight debut at a local theater. Some of the people in line that night were wearing homemade costumes. The crowd could not have been more into it. There was cheering, laughing, clapping, at all the right spots. I left with a contact high afterwards. That's the magic of the movies, the way they can pull a room full of strangers together into a communal experience. Yes, I acknowledge the corrosiveness of the unending blockbuster machine, on both the film industry and the creative process. “The Avengers” is not groundbreaking because of its story, direction, acting, or thematic weight. Yet it is undeniably a great piece of entertainment, a massively satisfying blockbuster that succeeds at everything it sets out to do. That counts for a lot too. [Grade: A]
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