The Avengers

By now, I'm sure most people have seen this movie.  If you haven't, shame on you.  I rewatched it last night with the intent of viewing it more critically.  There's so much awesome in this movie that it's easy to get lost in the convoluted plot and dismiss all the things that just don't add up.  But I'll get to that later. 

Direction:
For those who don't know, this movie was written and directed by Joss Whedon, a god to most comic geeks.  If Buffy and Angel are your only frame of reference for Whedon, then shame on you and you must watch Dr. Horrible or Firefly to see his "real" work.  In fact, I may do a review of Serenity sometime soon, but then I would get into obscure discussion of Firefly and rant about how unappreciated Whedon's genius is and...now I'm doing it.  Long and short, I feel that Whedon did a great job of taking these characters who were all pre-developed in stories of their own and making them come together.  I think the idea of them all initially arguing or disliking each other was brilliant.  It also made Nick Fury seem like a completely unhinged volatile madman who just happened to be right.

TELL ME NO AGAIN!  I DOUBLE DOG DARE YOU!

Oh wait, no, that was Tony Stark. Never mind.  I loved how Fury NEVER lost faith in the Avengers Initiative. Seeing as all the main characters were already developed previously, I'm not sure how much input Whedon had in the way the characters were portrayed by the actors, but he obviously did his homework. 

Plot:
Okay, I'm going to get into spoiler territory here, so be forewarned.  Of course, if for some reason you haven't seen this already, you probably won't care.  And if you do care, stop reading this and go watch the movie on NetFlix RIGHT NOW.  If you don't have Netflix or know someone who does, yet still have a computer, I don't even...
Moving on,  I'm just going to focus on what I liked the most, what I thought could have been better, and what was so out-of-sync that it needs saying.

The Good:
First of all, this:

The action scenes were amazing.  Especially the battle at the end.  Eve though there were enough explosions and destruction to be a shared wet dream between Michael Bay and Roland Emmerich, it was still cohesive and flowed well.  There was so much going on and yet the tactical positioning of all of the Avengers was great.  The first time I saw this, I expected Iron Man to be leading, but then upon re-watching, I see that Cappy was the perfect tactical leader.  Even 70 years removed from the environment he was a military leader in, he still knew exactly where to place everyone to achieve maximum effectiveness.  Of course, we've been using Sun Tzu for military tactics for hundreds of years, so, I guess it's not that unbelievable. 

I loved the interaction between the characters.  Especially between Tony Stark and Steve Rogers.  Two men with the same goal who despise or at least look down on the way the other wishes to achieve it.  Here, just watch this and you'll see my point:

This is probably one of the best scenes illustrating the interaction.  It's very reminiscent of why Superman and Batman never got along.  In a way, Cappy and Iron Man are like the Marvel equivalents of Superman and Batman.  One is a young, idealistic crusader who was removed from the world he knows, fighting with a sense of moral justice.  The other a brilliant billionaire who used his company's assets and money to fund a vigilante, at-all-odds, I-decide-what's-right kind of justice.  Yet, they come together to lead. 
The interaction between Thor and Loki was also very good.  It kind of reminds me of Mufasa and Scar in Lion King, in a way.  Maybe that was intentional.  Maybe also a bit like Professor X and Magneto.  They both have very different ideas of what is best for humanity and very different ways of achieving their goals. 
I liked the dynamic between Barton and Romanov as well.  Former enemies with a bit of a love story, perhaps?  I especially like how the tables get turned.  When Barton is turned by Loki, he becomes the bad guy and Romanov, the former Russian spy becomes the good one.  I wih they could have focused on these two a bit more, but they are minor characters and really just trained assassins, not superheroes.  They still rock, though.

Finally, I have always loved the way that Coulson seemed to be the guy pulling all the strings, bringing them all together without ever getting his hands dirty.  This point was firmly driven into the ground by what happened when he actually did decide to get his hands dirty, along with his trading cards.  I especially loved his fanboyness around Captain America. 

The Not So Good:
There was little about this movie that was straight up bad, but there was a lot that annoyed me.  Like the way they completely wasted Hawkeye through the majority of the movie.  He's always been one of my favorite supporting Avengers and I didn't like the way he was just quickly turned into a liability.  Also, I think Loki's overconfidence was played up too much.  He could have ended it for everyone at multiple times, yet didn't.  The scene where Loki and Romanov are talking was a great example of his arrogance betraying him.  It's my favorite scene with him in it other than him getting his ass beat by Hulk.  When Romanov gets him to spill his plan, it reminded me of that scene in the Incredibles where Syndrome says , "YOU SLY DOG!   You had me monologuing!" 
The continuity of Romanov's past also seems to be a disconnect, especially concerning her age.  She's old enough to have been a Soviet spy, yet too young to remember the Commodore 64.  Even if she was only eight when employed as a Russian spy, she'd still have to be at least 35 to have enough in her checkered past, unless she was just working for the Russian Mafia throughout the mid-to-late 90s.  Her outright fear of the Hulk through a majority of the movie seemed out of place, too.  This is a woman who is cunning, agile, and resourceful enough to take out eight armed Russians while handcuffed to a chair, yet pisses her pants at the thought of Banner Hulking out.  And WHY THE HELL did this scene even happen?

At first, this scene seems like it makes sense, but when you see how in control Banner is of his Hulk side at the end of the movie, this seems so out of place.  ESPECIALLY since they all knew that this is what Loki wanted to happen.  The only way it makes sense is if Loki is using some sort of magical means to control Hulk.  If he could control himself while an army of aliens are blowing up Manhattan, why does an explosion in mid-air make him lose control and attack Black Widow?  And the WAY she's scared of him is like a woman faced with a man who had raped her.  Was this a subtext that was somehow removed?  Someone please explain this.

Coulsen's death pissed me off.  It basically reduced all of his cool, calculating, behind-the-scenes swagger to a McGuffin to make the Avengers do their job.  Or maybe it was a statement about how he was all bark and no bite.  He did at least figure out what that gun did.  Okay, in fairness, it was Fury who reduced him to a McGuffin by using the bloddy cards as a push.  I still didn't like it.

So, in conclusion, This movie was quite amazing, and even when you look past the splodey, shiny parts, it carries well.  Also, upon rewatching, I was able to catch the cameos of Ashley Johnson and Harry Dean Stanton.  They are easy to miss if you don't watch the deleted scenes.  They aren't superstars or anything, but it was cool to see the little girl from Growing Pains and the captain from Alien randomly show up.

What were your fave parts?  What bothered you about the movie?  Did anyone else watch the shwarma scene at the end?  If not, here it is: