The Avengers

The Avengers unites various Marvel super heroes, including Iron Man, Captain America, the Hulk, Thor, and more, for a gigantic action film about the same thing as every other gigantic action movie these days: digital characters fighting each other and blowing shit up. Writer/director Joss Whedon manages to do a few things with his screenplay that set this picture apart from the average comic-book film: for instance, unlike the X-Men films, it is believable that each of these individual superheroes could actually exist in the same world, despite the fact that they don’t seem to cohere to the same laws of physics, the same universes or even the same reality as each other. That this works is mainly due to how well each characters is set-up within the context of eachother, not just their own backstory.  Since most of these characters have starred in their own movies beforehand, there is much less exposition than one would normally get in an ensemble superhero films--or ANY superhero film.

But none of this makes the first act any less dull than in the average superhero film, and Whedon’s script can’t prevent the third act from being any less pointless and tiresome than almost every other summer action movie of the last ten years. In fact, the tone he sets in the more-enjoyable middle section of the movie actually undercuts the third act's battle royale sequence, because all the characters are still so busy wisecracking and bonding that there is no sense of danger from the alien army and digital dragons that have come from another universe to wreak havoc on midtown Manhattan.  Of course, I know this good-natured ribbing and team spirit is what I’m supposed to find delightful at this point in the movie, but the tone and writing just can’t sustain the mind-numbingly protracted action.  So many of the people who praise Whedon as a genius are equally quick to dismiss Michael Bay as a hack, but can anyone explain to me the difference between the endless fight scenes in this film and the ones in Transformers?  They look the same to me, and I have as little investment in one as in the other.

Here's what does work in The Avengers: the many heroes all have enough character meat on their bones to make them engaging as individuals, and I actually got interested in their interpersonal relationships for about five minutes right before Act Two.  But then the fists and lasers started flying, and whatever group dynamics had been established went right out the window. So much for nuance.  By the end of the film, it’s clear that all the Avengers are indestructible, super-fast, and capable of flight--or at least really high jumps, while the menacing villains that terrify the world are easily disposed of with one well-aimed punch or arrow.

I don’t get the fanboy appeal of comic book superheroes much more than I do the fanboy appeal of zombies, apart from a few potentially interesting thematic or metaphorical currents that are invariably either too overdeveloped or too underdeveloped.  Watching a digital Hulk smash stuff doesn’t tickle me, because I’m still trying to figure out how the Hulk works. He’s a monster who can’t die and is totally out of control, except when he wants to be in control? And if he can suppress his rage when he wants to, then why does he ever turn ito the Hulk?  Whatever the case may be, I do seem to be missing the part of my brain that derives hours of pleasure from fare like The Avengers, and I honestly can’t understand how anyone could praise this movie but think Howard The Duck is a piece of crap.