6.08.2012
The Avengers
IMDb | Official Website
Prequel films: Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Captain America, Thor & The Incredible Hulk
Overall Grade: B+
I don't want to knock this movie too much, because it is the awesome superhero flick of the summer, but I do have a few beefs with it. Although the villian is Loki (Thor's brother, see the 'Thor' movie) and whatever aliens he's joined forces with, we hardly see the aliens until the end when everybody teams up to fight them off. Before that, the movie might be more properly titled, the Avengers vs. the Avengers, because it's pretty much a series of fights and arguments between all the team members. Which isn't too surprising when you stop to think that Stark is an egotistical genius, Steve is a time-displaced goodie-two-shoes, and that's just two of the members. It's like one big pissing contest all the time.
Ensemble moves like this also suffer from the danger of shifting between characters so much that you don't really get a feel for any of them. While it helps that we've had an individual movie (or two) for Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and the Hulk, we definitely feel the lack of character-building for Black Widow and Hawkeye. What is this shared past between them? Are we supposed to be feel romantic vibes between them or not? And as far as I know (not being a comic person) they are the only two Avengers without superpowers (or a supersuit).
I won't expound here on the cringe-worthy science discussed in the movie. I would just cautious the reader that sources of gamma-ray radiation are really dangerous, and should not be treated as cavalierly as shown in the film.
And finally, as you hopefully know from the prequels movies, stick around through the credits (ALL of the credits) for a couple more scenes... can we say sequel setup?
Labels: genre: action, genre: superhero/villian, media: movie, series: MCU
