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The Avengers (Film Review)
The short, unspoilery version? Woo, and also, hoo! Seriously, I loved the film. Which among other things demonstrated you can do justice to a huge ensemble, provide character scenes for all of them, progress their relationships, and deliver the genre-required amount of fighting scenes. (Mind you, it's the Marvelverse, so in-team-fighting is part of everyone's characterisation, but still. *g*) And when I say huge I mean huge: in addition to the titular superhero line up plus Loki as the main villain, we also have Nick Fury, Phil Coulson, Maria Hill, Pepper Potts and Erik Solveig, all of whom get to their share of on screen character scenes. In fact, given that Natasha and Clint are both SHIELD agents, I'd say this is as much a team SHIELD as a team Avengers film, and in a very good way, too. All that, and Joss throws in a character scene just for me, which takes palce in Stuttgart, and features an old man delivering the single best put-down to Loki or any megalomaniac ever. What makes the scene is that this isn't a superhero, or agent; he's a civilian, and in a genre that's prone to present the humanity Our Heroes are supposed to see saving as a screaming (or grateful) mass, it's a beautiful humane moment of making each of us individuals.
The moment comes when Loki, after a bit of terrorizing a crowd and supervillain posturing (which btw has a plot point; he's not just showing off), does his "kneel" speech from the trailer, culminating in that line he stole fromJaime Lannister G.R.R. Martin who stole it from Servalan Tanith Lee: "There are no men like me." At which point the old man just looks at him in disgust and says: "There are always men like you." And with that, making Stuttgart the location ceases to be random and contributes to making this one of my favourite film scenes.
As is to be expected in a Whedon script, the witty one liners fly, but they're always tailor-made for the character who says them. And he's great with hinting at fascinating backstories. If there is no onslought of movieverse Black Widow/Hawkeye backstory fanfiction after this film, there is no justice in this world. (Wait....) Speaking of Natasha, who had minimal dialogue and cool fight scenes in Iron Man 2 and thus was something of a blank enigma which fanfic could only flesh out via comics characterisation, here she still has cool fight scenes but gets her complex, morally ambiguous due in the dialogue. And I loved, loved, loved that the script always remembered she's a spy first and foremost, which means her skills aren't just in the karate department but in playing people psychologically. She has two interrogation scenes, one of which was the one making the rounds some weeks ago which is her screen introduction, and the other one later with Loki. Which is just made of awesome and my newest loved example of a scene where one manipulator thinks he's doing the manipulating while actually the other one is manipulating even more.
Of course, Überspy Nick Fury is no slouch in the manipulating department himself. We get morally ambigous Fury here, with just the right balance of ruthlessness and sincerity in what he aims for, and am I ever glad one of the Marvel films finally uses Samuel Jackson's acting skills instead of just giving him cool cameos. Meanwhile, our heroes have the Whedonian distrust towards institutions, including those on their side, and thus get to be smart there as well, but also realistic. And responding in ways that reflect their respective backstories: figures that Bruce Banner and Tony Stark would be the first to wonder just what Nick Fury is hiding from them.
Apropos Bruce and Tony: they are the new movieverse best buddies, y/y? Their scientific geeking out together adorability is awesome to behold. Bruce/The Hulk has, err, had something of a mixed history with his two origin movies and third actor in a row portraying him, but this version finally makes him just as interesting as all the others. I could never quite warm up to him in the comics, but I must admit I am completely won over. One of the reasons is the everyone with everyone interactions, which you didn't have when it was Bruce & Betty and Bruce & various evil generals; here, in addition with the Banner-Stark combo, we also get Bruce and Natasha, which I'd never have thought would be as compelling as it is, and Steve gets to show one of the reasons why he's team leader, which is that he gives Bruce and the Hulk the confidence that they can achieve something by using them. Hulk & Thor are hilarious.
Thor: has a lot of fraternal angst and moving "I love you, come back with me" speeches but also reaches his limit with Loki via Loki's sheer callousness with everyone-not-him lives, which is what I hoped for. The other thing I hoped for was that we wouldn't get Misunderstood Woobie Loki here, and no, we didn't. He's snarky, he's entitled, he's clever though not as much as he thinks he is, and the scene where Tony realises the next part of Loki's plan by admitting they're both narcissisting show-off divas had me in stitches.
Now of course wit isn't the only thing Joss Whedon is famous for. You know that other thing he's famous for? Yeah. I will say that when it came, it felt right.
Also: one thing I love is when team movies remember that they are just that and not "star name and some people" when it comes to the grand climax. Here everyone contributes to saving the day, and that's just terrific to watch.
Lastly: reading the credits is worth it for discovering Alexis Denisof's name there (and whom he plays). I don't know who,![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
likeadeuce or someone else, once suggested that Joss after the ending of Angel must have assumed that after the stellar job AD had done there as Wesley, he'd have a great career ahead of him, and when that mystifyingly failed to materialize kept and keeps coming up with news of keeping him employed (see also: Manchurian Candidate character in Dollhouse, Benedict in the unreleased Much Ado). Now he's smuggled him into the Marvelverse!
The moment comes when Loki, after a bit of terrorizing a crowd and supervillain posturing (which btw has a plot point; he's not just showing off), does his "kneel" speech from the trailer, culminating in that line he stole from
As is to be expected in a Whedon script, the witty one liners fly, but they're always tailor-made for the character who says them. And he's great with hinting at fascinating backstories. If there is no onslought of movieverse Black Widow/Hawkeye backstory fanfiction after this film, there is no justice in this world. (Wait....) Speaking of Natasha, who had minimal dialogue and cool fight scenes in Iron Man 2 and thus was something of a blank enigma which fanfic could only flesh out via comics characterisation, here she still has cool fight scenes but gets her complex, morally ambiguous due in the dialogue. And I loved, loved, loved that the script always remembered she's a spy first and foremost, which means her skills aren't just in the karate department but in playing people psychologically. She has two interrogation scenes, one of which was the one making the rounds some weeks ago which is her screen introduction, and the other one later with Loki. Which is just made of awesome and my newest loved example of a scene where one manipulator thinks he's doing the manipulating while actually the other one is manipulating even more.
Of course, Überspy Nick Fury is no slouch in the manipulating department himself. We get morally ambigous Fury here, with just the right balance of ruthlessness and sincerity in what he aims for, and am I ever glad one of the Marvel films finally uses Samuel Jackson's acting skills instead of just giving him cool cameos. Meanwhile, our heroes have the Whedonian distrust towards institutions, including those on their side, and thus get to be smart there as well, but also realistic. And responding in ways that reflect their respective backstories: figures that Bruce Banner and Tony Stark would be the first to wonder just what Nick Fury is hiding from them.
Apropos Bruce and Tony: they are the new movieverse best buddies, y/y? Their scientific geeking out together adorability is awesome to behold. Bruce/The Hulk has, err, had something of a mixed history with his two origin movies and third actor in a row portraying him, but this version finally makes him just as interesting as all the others. I could never quite warm up to him in the comics, but I must admit I am completely won over. One of the reasons is the everyone with everyone interactions, which you didn't have when it was Bruce & Betty and Bruce & various evil generals; here, in addition with the Banner-Stark combo, we also get Bruce and Natasha, which I'd never have thought would be as compelling as it is, and Steve gets to show one of the reasons why he's team leader, which is that he gives Bruce and the Hulk the confidence that they can achieve something by using them. Hulk & Thor are hilarious.
Thor: has a lot of fraternal angst and moving "I love you, come back with me" speeches but also reaches his limit with Loki via Loki's sheer callousness with everyone-not-him lives, which is what I hoped for. The other thing I hoped for was that we wouldn't get Misunderstood Woobie Loki here, and no, we didn't. He's snarky, he's entitled, he's clever though not as much as he thinks he is, and the scene where Tony realises the next part of Loki's plan by admitting they're both narcissisting show-off divas had me in stitches.
Now of course wit isn't the only thing Joss Whedon is famous for. You know that other thing he's famous for? Yeah. I will say that when it came, it felt right.
Also: one thing I love is when team movies remember that they are just that and not "star name and some people" when it comes to the grand climax. Here everyone contributes to saving the day, and that's just terrific to watch.
Lastly: reading the credits is worth it for discovering Alexis Denisof's name there (and whom he plays). I don't know who,
likeadeuce or someone else, once suggested that Joss after the ending of Angel must have assumed that after the stellar job AD had done there as Wesley, he'd have a great career ahead of him, and when that mystifyingly failed to materialize kept and keeps coming up with news of keeping him employed (see also: Manchurian Candidate character in Dollhouse, Benedict in the unreleased Much Ado). Now he's smuggled him into the Marvelverse!
no subject
Thinking of your long, deliciously plotty AtS fanfic now makes me ask: will you write movieverse Avengers fic? And suggest a backstory for Natasha, working on those hints, if we don't get an origin film?
no subject
Maybe? I hope so? I haven't written anything in a long time and have been fandomless for ages, but the Avengers is the first thing that's come along that's made my fannish instincts perk up. I've been reading some of the fic that's already out there but I need a certain amount of canon to get me started, so I was never going to be able to write movieverse Avengers fic without seeing what the movie did with the characters and how it left them. Steve/Tony was my gateway pairing, but I found myself interested in pretty much *everyone* in the movie. Natasha and Natasha/Clint has an interesting dynamic, and it's the first movie version of Bruce Banner that's worked for me (I loved, loved, loved his "I'm always angry" -- that was a great character moment). I am desperate to read the long, plotty fic that results from the movie -- maybe that'll motivate me to write some!
no subject
Same here. I mean, I read some of of the existing stories and enjoyed them, but not many precisely because I wanted to see what the film did with the characters. I hear you on the interest for everyone - that's perhaps Joss' biggest achievement with the film, he really made everyone intriguing that I'd be happy with stories about every single character. And yes, so true about Bruce Banner!