The Avengers

The Avengers had the biggest opening weekend of any movie EVER, by a huge margin.  Is it the best movie ever? Not even close, but it is a lot of fun and way above average as far as superhero movies go.

I wouldn't necessarily say it's fun for the whole family though.  I saw quite a few very small children being dragged into the theater because, well, even though movie tickets are expensive they are still much cheaper than a baby sitter these days right?  Anyway, not too far into the movie there was some particularly vigorous fighting going on.  I honestly can't quite remember just exactly who was trying to kill who but some kid whose mother no doubt still tells his/her age in months starts crying like, well, a baby.  He/She was apparently yet unable to realize that the great big mean people just over there were just nice rich actors here to entertain us all and that they weren't even going to be coming after him/her next.

The Earth is about to be attacked by aliens (your basic ugly, kinda funny lookin' but not too slimy which is always a plus and overall close to humanoid in shape, kind of the space version of the baddies from LOTR.)  The aliens need a glowing cube called a tesseract to open a portal/shortcut to access Earth. The main villain Loki (Thor's adopted brother) arrives ahead of the main party to facilitate all of that. As far as villains go I quite liked Loki and thought Tom Hiddelston who played him did a great job.  What made him great was the way that he delivered lines like this: (speaking to Black Widow) "I won't barter Barton! Not until I make him kill you. Slowly, intimately, in every way he knows you fear. And then he'll wake just long enough to see his good work, and when he screams I'll split his skull! This is my bargain, you mewling quim!" Yeah, he was awesome, no wait, I mean bad... bad bad bad.......awesome!

The boss of the good guys, the guy who gathers all the Avengers together wears an eye patch, so you know he is a bit of a maverick himself and will surely at one crucial point disobey a direct order via skype because he knows better than all the suits in the war room.

And finally, The Avengers themselves are gathered from near and far during the first half of the movie.  We learn enough about each of them and their stories that even those of us who haven't seen all of the superhero movies over the last few decades become well enough acquainted with them to gain a vested interest in their fates. (Oh yeah and the fate of the rest of the world too, sorry almost forgot about all us little people.)

They were all awesome, or I guess I should say super, but the easy standout for me and I would guess for many others was Iron Man.  I'm sure they could have considered naming this movie Iron Man and Friends but knew that wouldn't be quite right.  Just as Johnny Depp will always be remembered as Captain Jack Sparrow so will Robert Downey Junior always be remembered as Iron Man.  The role fits him so well I can't imagine anyone else playing it.  He provides most of the humor and maybe more surprisingly, much of the heart for the film. You may recall he gave out a few nicknames to his fellow Avengers.  When I heard him call Thor "Point Break" I first thought I had misheard him, then I realized who had said it and knew that's exactly what he said, how could they have possibly have thought that would work, but it did, and it was brilliant.  All this took about 1/10 of a second inside my head.  Then I laughed along with the others in the room who were old enough to get the reference.

In the end, the Avengers save the world except for everyone who died of course.  The climax is very similar to the one in a pre Pixar Brad Bird movie called The Iron Giant. I'm sure you've seen it. If not you should, right away.  In fact I think, like a good Pixar movie, The Avengers has a healthy balance of story, characters, humor, conflict to overcome and heart.  The obvious ingredients of any good movie that are surprisingly lacking in so many.

Am I a fan of the ensemble cast superhero movie?  Well, I am of this one.  I'm not sure I want them to make a habit out of them though.  Part of the whole superhero gig is the bitter sweetness of being super yet dealing with the loneliness of having to keep it all a secret.  Watching Bill Bixby walk away as the lonely music played, with his duffel bag slung over his shoulder yet again at the end of every episode of The Incredible Hulk on TV in the 70s was always sad.

Now that The Avengers have their super club, others to identify with and understand, well... I suppose it's a good thing.  Apparently at the very very end of the credits there was one more scene (which I missed yet again) of them all having dinner together or something.  I suppose that's fine, just as long as they don't start all going to the bathroom together.

8.5/10 for me.