RADICAL ROCK’S REVIEW – MARVEL’S THE AVENGERS

And, there came a day… FINALLY

Or

Getting the band back together for the very first time


There was an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer that was by and large another romp in monster-slaying land. At the very end of the episode, Buffy gets home, walks in the front door and starts talking to her mother who is lying on the couch. It takes her a few seconds to realize her mother isn’t holding up her end of the conversation. That’s because Buffy’s mother is dead. Not because of a vampire. Not because of a zombie. Not because of a haunted piano being dropped on her head. She died from a brain aneurism. A medical condition that the doctors thought they had fixed. Just like that. Fine one moment, dead from something (not so) benign the next.

I call that The Whedon Twist.

What M Night Shamalamadingdong did to great effect in Sixth Sense, Joss Whedon did on a weekly basis throughout the run of both Buffy and Angel. At some point in the story he twisted everything on one action, one moment. Like the shower stabbing in Psycho or, “Luke, I am your father.” You think you know exactly where the story is going when… GAME CHANGER! This makes it very difficult to review something from Whedon. This also explains why my review for Cabin in the Woods was so short. But, mainly it explains why watching Whedon’s work is such a joyful experience.

You just never know when The Whedon Twist will smack you upside your head.

I will, of course, NOT go anywhere near the spoilers that abound in this film. That will make this a short review. (Now you know the reason for the extended preamble) Suffice it to say your head will get smacked.

I’ve been tingling for this movie since Sammy L spoke the words, “Avengers Initiative” after the credits of the first Iron Man flick. That moment was pure geekasm, and has carried me through four other movies as I awaited this culmination. For years I’ve been anticipating huge set pieces, over the top action, great CGI and big battles.
What I got was intelligent dialogue, well thought out characters, amazing pacing, laugh out loud humor, deep pathos, blood, devastation, death, war, horror, hugesetpiecesoverthetopatctiongreatCGIandbigbattles.

Almost all the principles are back. And, they all bring the same great characterizations from their standalone movies. The one exception is we get Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk. Many, me included, were distraught over the news that Ed Norton wouldn’t be reprising the role. He was the best thing about Incredible Hulk. But by the end of this movie, I really was thinking, “Ed who?” Ruffalo is Bruce Banner now. Period. That’s how impressed I was by his performance. Especially as he had to make his mark with his limited screen time, being only one out of the bunch. It was also the best looking CGI Hulk we’ve been given. The key reason is they made him look like a “Hulked” out Mark Ruffalo. That connected Hulk to Banner in a way the two Hulk movies didn’t.

One difficulty I expected was how hard it would be to merge such disparate characters. Yeah, they’re all comic book superheroes, but each with a different take on what that means. And, each of their movies was given form by different directors. How do you get Favreau’s Iron Man in the same world as Brannagh’s Thor? The perfect answer was to give them all to Whedon. He’s always excelled at ensemble casts who each have their own voice. In the past, he’s taken an Ex-military Captain, a mutant, a preacher, a prostitute, and a mercenary and put them all on the same spaceship. Whedon made that work. He made this work too.

Let’s not lay all the credit at the feet of the various filmmakers. Keep in mind there are DECADES of character development and storylines that created a pretty extensive template to work from. Thank you Messrs Simonson, Byrne, David, Brubaker, Michelinie, Kirby, Millar and of course The Main Man Stan Lee. If you don’t know these names, that’s okay. Just take my word for it. There were many more, but I haven’t got the time.

Speaking of time, never has two and a half hours gone by so quickly. The pacing of this movie worked perfectly for me. I’ve seen that some feel the first hour dragged a bit. I didn’t feel that way at all. We get enough Bangs and Pows in the first hour to keep it chugging while all the pieces get in place for the next ninety minutes of HOLY CRAP! And, I cannot possibly say enough about the humor that permeates every scene. Another Whedon staple is how the laughs come at all the right times. Mostly one-liners from Downey’s Tony Stark. But, Ruffalo and his green alter ego get the best moments. Hulk funniest one there is! Everyone gets a bad-ass moment. That includes the SHIELD trio of Fury, Coulson and newcomer Maria Hill. The action kept shifting from one character to another so smoothly, without short-changing any of them. The whole movie just rocked back and forth like a good roller-coaster summer blockbuster is supposed to.

The casting was spot on perfection. The director was correctly chosen. The story didn’t disappoint. The action was fantastic. The entertainment value was through the roof. And, yeah, stay through the credits for a little epilogue.

Prime’s Bottom Line – EXCELSIOR!!!! (I know I used that before, but it really fits here.)