The Avengers - My Spoiler Filled Thoughts

Avengers Poster – Marvel’s Avengers Red Carpet Premiere – Toronto (Photo credit: TonyFelgueiras)

WARNING: SPOILERS TO FOLLOW

Just in case you missed it from my title and the first line, and you are one of the 14 people who has yet to see The Avengers, spoilers will abound in my thoughts on the movie below.

Again, WARNING: SPOILERS TO FOLLOW

(don’t say I did not warn you)

On the whole, I liked The Avengers movie.  Joss Whedon did an excellent job with the script and the directing.  Whedon has always known how to produce an action movie/TV show with just the right amount of thrills and humor.  Just as with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, he knew just when to throw in the right line (“We’re adopted”) or scene punchline (Hulk punching Thor after taking out Chitauri battle… worm… ship… thingee) and make it work without it diminishing the overall feel of the movie.

That being said, I did have a few points which I felt I needed to bring up.

First, I thought Thor’s return came out of no where.  I would have liked to have had more set up for it.  At least, something more than Loki commenting about how much energy Odin must have expended to send him back to Earth.  Thor also seemed to more far more about what Loki’s plans, both involving the Tesseract (I can accept it not being called a Cosmic Cube, which does sound a bit corny), and about the Chitauri.  Remember, the last Thor saw of Loki at the end of his movie was his (adopted) brother falling, seemingly to his doom.  I think we really needed a scene which explains both better.

Mark Ruffalo did a good job as Bruce Banner, but I still favor Edward Norton from The Incredible Hulk as the better Banner.  Ruffalo at times seemed to have too much inner zen going on, where as Norton felt more like a man struggling to keep control.  Again, this is my own personal preference.

I also had a problem with how they freed Hawkeye from Loki’s control.  It seems that a blow to the head was just too convenient a ploy for freeing him.  Personally, I would have liked a simple one-off scene where Loki explains (okay, taunts) that he released Hawkeye because he was no longer of use to him.  This would have made sense since Loki tells Black Widow that he would release Hawkeye just before he was to finish her so he could see what he was made to do.

I also felt like they needed to back off Iron Man just a bit.  There were times when I felt like I was watching Iron Man 2.5 rather than The Avengers.  Some of that may be my torn feelings about Iron Man (love the movies, find the comic character a tool).

That being said, there was much more that I did like about this movie than I did not like.  I was sad to see Agent Colson die, though it was cool to see him get one shot off on Loki.  Whedon handled his death perfectly, making the audience saddened by the loss of a relatively minor character that they have seen throughout the other Avengers related movies.  Whedon has an excellent knack for really making you care about characters before killing them, making their deaths that much more shocking.  If you don’t believe me, look back at the death of Joyce Summers and Jenny Calendar in Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Doyle, Cordelia, Fred, and Wesley in Angel, and Reverend Book and Wash in Serenity, for just a few examples.

The action in the movie built well, and it was cool to see Cobie Smulders actually get the first major action sequence, as opposed to standing around on the bridge of the helicarrier and not doing all that much.  A co-worker told me that she’s been nicknamed “Agent Sparkles” online, and somehow I think that’s going to stick.

I loved the Hulk in this movie.  It was one of the few times that I felt like he was allowed to fully unleash, especially against Loki.  And the scene where Banner explains how he tried to deal with his other persona… chilling.

I also found it interesting to see the brief memory/flashback scene with Captain America working the heavy bag.  I never would have imagined Cap suffering from anything like post traumatic stress disorder (which the scene suggests), but the inclusion made Cap just a bit more human for me.

One thing I have gotten over is the lack of a Russian accent from Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow.  I liked that they included a bit of her past history in this movie, something which Iron Man 2 did not really cover, including that she was a Russian agent, much like her comic book counterpart.  This, at first, bugged me, mostly because of the straight American accent she has.  But, thinking (and talking) it over with other people, I found it made sense.  If she was the super-spy she is made out to be, she would have developed a dead on American accent, something which she may be more apt to keep using as she works to wipe the red off her ledger.

As with Thor, Loki reveals himself to be the master manipulator.  Though, Loki here is played just a bit more straight on than in the Thor movie.  I loved how you had no idea what Loki was actually planning in Thor, and I did not get enough of that in The Avengers.  But, he was still enough the God of mischief to make himself more than challenging for our fledgling team.

Finally, there is the final scene.  Not the shawarma scene at the very end of the credits, but the scene midway through the credits.  Such an awesome set up for the next major villain and the next movie.  Seeing Thanos show up made my jaw drop.  And knowing that the Infinity Gauntlet is in the Asgardian weapons vault, I can see the set ups for the next Avengers related movies (Iron Man 3, Thor 2, Captain America 2, and Rampaging Hulk, or whatever they decide to call it) along with the inevitable sequel.

 

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