From May 4, 2012
Rating: B+
The action in 'The Avengers' is great. And there are some big laughs.
There is a bit too much of in-fighting of the individual superheroes for me, though. They often argue with each other for no reason or fight with each other for no reason. It gets annoying after a while. But don't worry. Soon enough there will be a close-up shot of Scarlett Johansson's butt, so I guess that makes up for a multitude of sins...
I should say that this movie is enjoyable and it is my favorite thing that Joss Whedon has done.
Now, do keep in mind that normally I dislike anything Whedon does (except 'Toy Story' and 'Alien: Resurrection') because I just don't see what the hype is all about. Most fanboys basically worship Whedon and everything that he does. I don't know why. He's not that good of a writer. Buffy? Firefly/Serenity? Please. They're "ok" at best. I read a few issues of his run on X-Men and that was decent.
But back to 'The Avengers':
My biggest beef with the movie is that they constantly weaken the main villain: Loki. Every time he gets the upper hand for one instant, the heroes cut him down to size way too easily.
Loki has a great evil speech, Black Widow just shakes it off. Loki makes the humans bow before him, Iron Man shoots him down. Loki reminds Hulk that he is a god and the Hulk is not, and the Hulk beats the shit out of him. That gets the biggest laugh in the picture but it totally weakens the villain. He is little-to-no threat to the heroes. So why should we as the audience fear him? His character was much more powerful in the 'Thor' film, wherein he took over Asgard, nearly destroyed Jotenheim, and almost killed Thor and Odin. In 'The Avengers' he's portrayed as a VERY weak villain.
I guess I'm in the minority thinking that the movie is only a 'B+' seeing as 'The Avengers' has made almost $2 Billion worldwide. I don't understand why everyone likes it as much as they do. People that normally wouldn't be into superhero/comic book movies like it especially. Yes, it was good, but not nearly as good as any of Christopher Nolan's Batman flicks or 'X-Men 2'. I assure you I will buy 'The Avengers' DVD. (Why not further along Joss Whedon's so-so career?) I think that the individual superhero movies from Marvel have been successful overall and I like a few of them better than 'The Avengers'. My ratings of them would be as follows:
A+: 'Thor'
A: 'Iron Man'
B+: 'The Avengers' and 'Cap't America'
C+: 'Iron Man 2'
C: 'The Incredible Hulk'
