The Avengers: More Than Just A Review

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Before I was ever a movie nerd, I was a comic book nerd. In fact, you can say that I was destined to be one. When I was in utero, my parents believed that I was going to be a girl. My brother, Arik, how was seven at the time, held on to the hope that I would be a boy. An active comic book reader, himself, he struck up a deal with my dad to name me if I was a boy. At the time, Arik’s favorite comic book character was 

The Atom, a super-hero that had the power to shrink to the size of an atom. The compromise was that if I was born a boy, I would be named Adam rather than The Atom. As I grew up, I learned how to read with comic books.  By the time that I started school, I was already familiar with Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, The Fantastic Four, and my favorite, the X-Men. As a pre-teen, I remember saving my allowance until I had enough money for a year-long subscription to two different comic books. I was afraid that if I asked my mom to write a check for me, that she would tell me to spend my money on something more practical. So I wrapped my subscription paper around a wad of cash and sealed it in an envelope. Then I walked several blocks away from my house and dropped the envelope in a mailbox.  I saw neither a magazine nor my money again.

In 2000, the first X-Men movie was made and it changed the world of movies forever. With its success, the movie was able to please comic book fans while changing enough to keep the non-fan equally happy. It showed that just because the story came from a comic book, didn’t mean that the movie had to be like a live-action cartoon. The problem with the X-Men movies was that it wasn’t focused on a single hero and it took time to develop the back story of an entire group. Marvel learned from this and bought back the rights to Black Widow from Lions Gate Entertainment in 2004, Iron Man from New Line Cinema in 2005, the Hulk from Universal Studios and Thor from Sony in 2006. They then developed movies as individual franchises all leading up to an eventual super-movie, The Avengers. During this process, Disney acknowledged the potential in these properties and bought the company, Marvel for $4.24 Billion.

This purchase left many fans afraid that Disney would convert these properties back into cartoons aimed at children. Others were excited at the fact that Disney also owned Pixar. This is an animation studio that has grown a reputation for making movies that make money hand over fist not only in the box office, but also with their toys and licensing. But one thing that Disney has always done well is protect their licensure. In 2010, Disney bought the distribution rights for The Avengers and Iron Man 3 from Paramount.

So, how did the movie work out? I was one of the people that helped The Avengers gross over a billion dollars worldwide in just 19 days. This was the first movie that I went to go see in the theaters since Avatar came out in 2009. It was also the perfect movie to take my 5-year-old son, Tate.  Tate loves movies and superheroes, Iron Man in particular and leading up to The Avengers, we watched all of the individual movies together.  There were several points during the movie that I smiled to myself and couldn’t help but think that movies like this are the reason why people love going to the theater. At one point, I put my hand on Tate’s leg and he was vibrating. He wasn’t cold or bouncing his foot, but excited and completely absorbed in the movie.

The thing that worked so well about this movie was the fact that it the characters had already been established in other movies, allowing us to jump right into the action. Through Joss Whedon’s writing and directing, the characters were able to establish themselves in the world of the movie and also to create believable relationships with one another. The heroes didn’t immediately like each other because they were all good guys. Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man/Tony Stark was great a great portrayal of well-liked character that’s biggest fan is himself. He seemed like an older brother that is always poking and prodding others to do better. Chris Evan’s Captain America walks a fine line between character and caricature. Captain America is a good man that feels obligated to do whatever he can for his country, but he isn’t beyond asking why. Or willing to come to fisticuffs with Tony Stark without his Iron Man suit on.  Thor is a torn between the pride of being an Asguardian and the brother of Loki, the man set on ruling Earth. Whedon gives a lot of love to the second-tier heroes of Black Widow and Hawkeye, too.  But the character that I liked the most was the Hulk. While Mark Ruffalo did a great job as a subdued scientist always trying to bury his anger and prevent the immersion of the personification of pure anger.  But when the Hulk comes out and starts smashing, that’s what people want to see. That’s also why his movies never work. The best parts when he’s destroying everything around him. While the 3-D for the movie didn’t rely on gimmicks and people throwing things directly at the audience, I found it distracting. To me, a guy with a film degree, I found the special effect shots disruptive in 3-D. That’s because it was during these shots that Whedon showed his hand. It became obvious to me that this is the type of movie that uses a lot of green screen effects.  And I just spend $4 extra to have that pointed out to me. A couple hundred times. 

As we were walking out of the theater, I asked Tate if he liked this movie better than the Iron Man movies. After thinking about it for a few seconds, he told me that he liked The Avengers better.  Then he said that he needed to tell me something. He grabbed his crotch and told me that had an accident.

“Why?” I asked him.

“The movie was so good,” he told me, “I didn’t want to miss anything.” And that was that. I couldn’t be mad at him. It seemed to me that The Avengers had live up to all of its hype. It also seemed to me that I had created a bigger movie fan than myself.