As I write this it’s just been revealed that Marvel’s THE AVENGERS has a set a new opening weekend box office record by a wiiiiiide margin. $200.3 million. Take that in. Not only is an Avengers movie actually real, it’s hit the zeitgeist.
Well I guess so! The movie plays like gangbusters with an audience. I don’t know when the last time was that I was in a theater where the audience responded so audibly and INVOLUNTARILY to what was happening on screen. Writer/Director Joss Whedon is a man who knows how to weave and twist a scene to both play into and subvert our expectations to great effect. In other words, he knows storytelling. There are moments in THE AVENGERS that demand reaction, and more often than not my reaction was joy.
I’m not going to spoil a single great moment for those of you that haven’t seen the movie yet, but when you see them, you’ll know. Sometimes it’s an action beat, sometimes it’s a line of dialogue. It’s always brilliant.
Good thing too because this is by no means a perfect movie. I still don’t fully understand villain Loki’s motivation and plan. The movie has no second act. A couple of characters–Hawkeye and Maria Hill–are pretty much non-entities. Nothing about the aliens that populate the film is distinct or driven by character.
But, incredibly, none of that matters. Of course, not one of the movies that preceded THE AVENGERS were perfect either: Iron Man, Iron Man II, The Incredible Hulk, Thor and Captain America. But none of those movies sucked. And now, pretty much all of them have been surpassed by THE AVENGERS. (I hold a soft spot in my heart for Thor.)
Everyone at the marathon got a souvenir cup with topper. My wife and I managed to get a full set!
I should say that this is not my final word on this movie. I saw it at the end of a 14 hour Marvel Movie Marathon at my local theater. Let me tell you, it is possible to become numb to watching guys hit each other. I was bleary-eyed (but amped) as I watched THE AVENGERS. I think a revisit is in order and I won’t have final thoughts about the quality of the film until then.
I’m keeping this short because you already know you want to see this (and if you don’t then enjoy not grinning like an idiot) and I don’t want to ruin it. Stop reading now if you haven’t gotten out to the multiplex yet.
But, for those of us that have seen it, I’m declaring the comments on this post a SPOILER ZONE. Let’s share our favorite moments and get our geek on and talk about that mid-credits sequence and what it could mean!
Written by : Brock Heasley
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perhaps Loki’s motiviation…”He’s adopted” I felt the low blow for all things adopted but had to admit it was very funny. I liked the Red Skull and hope he gets to test Nick’s faith in the Avengers team.
I think I got that Loki felt slighted and betrayed by his adoption and how that played out in his family dynamics, but from minute-to-minute I was never quite sure what Loki was trying to accomplish. For example, all the stuff on the Hellicarrier and the what he was trying to do with the Hulk. Still not clear on that.
I’m guessing we’ll see the Red Skull again in Captain America 2. I hope so.
I think that was mostly a distraction and keeping an eye on them while his underlings finished the portal device. The important thing to notice just before everything went to hell was how the Avengers weren’t quite acting like themselves during the confrontation in the lab, right up to the point where Banner picked up the sceptre without noticing. I took that as Loki being able to use it to influence them from a distance, and his plan was to trigger a hulk episode at the same time Hawkeye came to pick him up in order to destroy the helicarrier and take out most if not all of the people who might have been able to stop him.
Lewis, that makes a ton of sense. I wish that movie were a little more upfront about it, but I now that I think back it’s all there, isn’t it? Nice work. I really need to see the movie again when my brain isn’t so blitzed.
A little late, but it took me a while to see. I thought that Loki’s plan with the Hellicarrier was obvious. Because of his possession of Hawkeye, Erik, and other Shield agents, Loki knows the existence of Shield and, more importantly, Fury’s “response team.” The Hellicarrier sequence was nothing more than a preemptive strike, with the Hulk as the key to destroy Shield’s communications and operations center and create crippling dissension among the Avengers, then launch his attack before they can recover. Woulda worked, but then he killed Phil.
As far as Loki’s overall motivation–he’s simply the boy who would be king. Earth is the source of his exile from Asgard, so there’s a bit of vengeance wrapped up in his desires.
Having gone through the Marvel Movie Marathon as well I know what you mean by becoming numb to the experience, but no matter how long I sat there seeing them back to back like that and seeing the continuity form (minus The Incredible Hulk) was really amazing to see. There were so many great memorable scenes (Hulk punching Thor, Hulk vs Loki, Thor vs Iron Man) and so many wonderful lines “Secret is I’m always angry”, etc.
The aliens were a bit of a let down for me at the end after the Nuclear weapon detonates on their ship it took a page from Star Wars Episode I and all the advancing forces just collapsed. I may have missed the fact that they were all of one mind after being awake for so long with the previous marathon, but I felt that was a bit of an odd conclusion. As far as Loki’s motivation, yeah that was missed on me as well, but he made an excellent villain. I liked how even after all he’d done Thor wanted to make sure he was taken safely back to Asgard and didn’t just leave him out hanging in the wind.
I was glad they didn’t keep Hawkeye bad for more than 1/4 of the movie, it would have been a major let down to have that character bad for the majority and then suddenly come around at the end. His character was a bit underplayed for me, but I look forward to seeing more of him in the future. I’ll miss agent Coulson, that was a hard character to watch go. But his line of “That’s what it does.” was a fitting end to him, and served as a good catalyst for the group to band together.
I’m not as familiar with a lot of the Marvel Universe villains as I used to be, but was that Thanos at the end? I assumed it was cause he was in pursuit of the Cosmic Cube himself at one time, so that would be a good setup for the Avengers 2 I suppose. I’m very excited now about the next in the line of Marvel movies (Iron Man 3, Thor 2, etc.).
Over all I loved the Avengers movie and would definitely put it up on my top 5 list.
Coulson’s death kind of bugged me. It seemed like a cheap and easy way to pull the team together, and it’s a trick I’ve seen Whedon pull before. Now, I don’t know a better way accomplish what it did, but it did yield one great moment in Nick Fury’s appropriation of Coulson’s cards and blood to manipulate the Avengers. That was a cold move.
Definitely Thanos at the end. The Infinity Gauntlet story would be a great one to tell for Avengers 2. I hope they go that way. I read one bit of speculation that said that the stone in Loki’s staff could be an infinity gem.
Near as I could figure, Loki’s motivations largely stemmed from the what occured in Thor. Loki came across in that movie as someone tired of living in his brother’s shadow and wanting either Odin’s approval and possibly confirmation that he was viewed as Thor’s equal instead of just the little brother tagging along. Loki discovering his parentage pushed him to the edge as he felt like the father he loved had been lying or decieving him for all those years he was growing up. Then at the end even though Loki, in his mind, had done everything to prove himself worthy to rule Asgard, Odin’s look of dissappointment at the end made Loki believe he could never be accepted by Thor or Odin.
What happens in The Avengers is basically Loki taking the only form of vegence against Thor and Odin he could. Conquer and enslave the world Thor is supposed to have under his protection. Also we don’t know what happened in the meantime between movies. Loki obviously encountered and got support from Thanos at some point in between and we don’t know what exactly occurred between them, but Loki did seem geniunely afraid of crossing him.
The army going dead at the end is actually in keeping with the speach Loki gave earlier regarding free will. A group or individual that felt that way about free will and gives people staffs that can basically instantly turn someone into a loyal unquestioning follower, would probably favor an army that can’t turn against them or could be instantly shut down if someone else took control of them.
I did feel the nuke one-shotting the control ship like that a little unlikely, but then again maybe it didn’t have defenses up because at the time they believed Loki that humanity wasn’t capable of threatening them.
Overall though, the movie was a blast from start to finish. Juggling that many characters can be hard so unfortunately Hawkeye and Black Widow got the short end of the stick in terms of focus, but really it was handled well and the story could hold onto people’s attention all the way through. Given that something bad seems to happen to him almost everytime he starts monologuing, I wonder if Loki will start cutting the speaches short?
Loki’s monologue getting cut short was perhaps my favorite moment.
Did anyone else whisper “Superman…” as Iron Man flew the nuke up into space?
Notice Loki got cut off mid-rant not once but twice…Phil got him too. “So that’s what that does.”
You were unclear on Loki’s motivation because he himself was unclear… because he was being manipulated by Thanos to test the mettle of te humans (and the Avengers!) That was the true motivation behind the attack…
I see the appeal of the Infinity Gauntlet for A2, but doesn’t that make S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers Odin’s private security team? That would be the second item lifted from Odin’s vault that they had to chase down. Dude needs a locksmith.
I loved this movie! It was nice to see a comic book film that really digs its nails into itself, it didn’t bother with trying to make it super dark or “real”, you could tell it was a comic book movie. We haven’t seen that in a while. The one thing I didn’t like (and it is a total nitpick) was that one scene between Black Widow and Loki in the Helicarrier. My problem with these two characters were that Loki could’ve been more threatening and Black Widow was basically an attractive but emotionless robot. I think the scene would’ve been better if they’d ended it when he gets to her psychologically instead of having it be a setup. It would’ve gone a long way toward both characters. Plus, when she turns around and deadpans “Oh so you’re going to use the Hulk to escape,” …that’s a pretty huge leap… and they never do anything about it. You’d think with that info she’d put Bruce on lockdown or at the very least stay away from him but she does nothing and tells no one. That just seemed weird… But again, it’s a nitpick to an otherwise very awesomely fun comic book movie.