Like everyone else on the internet, I saw the Avengers this weekend and loved it.
The Spoiler Free Review: The script was good - lots of funny moments and the dialog and plot actually made sense! Chris Hemsworth continues to be very pretty and Black Widow is so BA and awesome, it's not even funny. This is also the first Marvel movie featuring Pepper Potts wherein she is not a dingbat - in the comics, Pepper is pretty sweet and at least in this movie, they let her have lines that an adult woman with self-respect would actually say. They also gave Bruce Banner a personality/motivation outside of being the Hulk which was exciting.
I left the theater wanting to see the movie again and really wanting them to make a Black Widow movie. Black Widow in Iron Man 2 is a hot chick in a painted on costume pretending to kick asses; Black Widow in The Avengers movie is a scarily BA spy with mad skills who is awesome and who has a reason to be kicking so much ass.
The Spoiler-full Review (for serious, don't read this if you haven't already seen the movie):
Knowing that Joss Whedon wrote the script, I walked into this movie wondering "Who is going to get Jossed?" and, I was not disappointed.
I was one of those people who thought that Serenity was a better movie because Wash died at the end - not that I didn't love Wash, not that I didn't bawl like a baby when he died (and then, more crying when Zoe wears a slinky dress to his funeral *sob*), but it made the movie more ... real. When a character that the audience is invested in for reasons other than their inevitable death (see previous post on The Hunger Games and Rue) dies, it shocks you out of your comfort zone, it adds suspense and drama and it just gets to you so much more than other storytelling tropes because in large part because it is always so unexpected. The thing about Joss Whedon is that, by now, it's not really surprising.
I feel that when Agent Coulson died, I somehow... expected it. I felt like, ah! Here is the lovable character who Joss needed to kill. I will say, it did advance the plot in the best ways - really, what else could bring people together than the death of the lovable guy? But, having made killing lovable characters his signature move, I feel like it's lost a lot of its power. At least, for Joss Whedon fans. For most people who saw this movie the term "jossed" isn't a thing, so for them, it was probably awesomely powerful because blockbuster movies so rarely kill such lovable characters who were not "destined to die."
I loved the characterization of Bruce Banner - he never gets a personality beyond nerdy scientist/HULK SMASH. I like that they set up his interest in the super soldier project with Capt. America, it sets up who he is in a way that most Hulk depictions miss. He did this to himself and now, he is struggling to live with the consequences. When he almost nonchalantly explains how he once tried to commit suicide and failed, it's chilling. The Hulk is a scary dude and Banner gets that in a way that is interesting to watch.
I also loved Black Widow. So much love. Her intro scene is so good. The scene where she interrogates Loki is priceless - she fools Loki! The freaking Trickster God himself is tricked. And! It's not with a wink to the audience, she tricks us into thinking that Loki has pushed her buttons too. So good. I really really really want to pay someone money to sit in an airconditioned room for 2 hours to watch Black Widow kick more asses. I'm envisioning an origin story that's like Marvel meets James Bond except with hot dudes in the place of hot chicks.
TL;DR: Avengers was a good movie. I will see it again though maybe not in theaters because I am a busy lady who also wants to see about 30 million other movies in theaters this summer (Brave! The Dark Knight!). I am waiting to pay money to see a Black Widow movie in theaters. Amen.
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2 comments:
Black Widow was great! I agree, the scene where she fools Loki is amazing. Best of all, even though we know that she did this deliberately to trick Loki, I think he did push her buttons. That same phrase about a red ledger comes up in a later conversation, where she's giving a serious motivation. In dealing with Loki, the Black Widow deliberately put herself in a scenario that was just as emotionally vulnerable as that earlier chair-tilting-over-the-precipice scene was physically vulnerable. She knew she could get hurt. She went ahead and did it anyway. Because that's just how BA she is.
My only problem with The Avengers is that it is Bechdel-weak, surprisingly so for a Joss Whedon movie. Otherwise, fannnnntastic!
Yes, I didn't even hit the fact that this film fails the Bechdel test. It has three women with names and speaking roles (Blakc Widow, Pepper Potts, and Maria Hill) but they don't ever have a conversation between any two of them. I blame the awesome explosions and Chris Hemsworth's prettiness for my failure.
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