Yes, I heard the excellent press for Avengers Assemble, but I had no idea how fully the blockbuster would live up to this. Firstly, the concept of a multiple superhero mash-up was clearly going to be a winner. The film is, as you would expect, an explosion of some of the sweetest action scenes committed to CGI. From Thor whooping some ass with his volatile hammer, committing the ultimate man affirming move by head-butting the Iron Man, to Robert Downey Junior's 'I'm going to restart an aeroplane engine by pushing the fan to lightspeed'; and even Captain America impresses with his trusty infallible shield.
The film doesn't take itself too seriously. I laughed out loud at many instances, including when the Hulk and Thor take down some gigantic robotic worm (you've seen the trailer, they're called a Lethiathan), and out of the blue the Hulk punches Thor. The Hulk beating the beans out of the "you can't treat me this way, you dull creature, I am a God!" fellow. The Hulk in general was a pleasant surprise. I have to admit, and I think a lot of people shared my sentiment, that when I initially saw the advertisement for the Avengers I thought to myself, well the Hulk's the Meg Griffin of this group; he's big and green and angry, who cares? But he ironically became my favourite Avenger in the film, not just from the comic relief of his obvious anger management issues, but because he does live up to the others in terms of fighting capability.
With this mash-up narrative, it was inevitable that there was going to be a lot of comparing... foot size amongst the superheroes. They draw attention to what we all were thinking, with Iron Man ripping it out of Thor's just-stepped-out-of-a-Shakespeare-play manner of speaking, someone commenting that Iron Man is just a costume, Iron Man dissing Captain America's lack of apparent function in the group. Tony Stark generally being a lovable arse.
I also liked the way, unlike with most superhero movies, there wasn't necessarily a black and white, good and evil side. Yes, of course the Avengers are the goodies, and irritatingly persevering Loki and the alien invaders are the bad guys. But, perhaps like Nolan's The Dark Knight, human authority isn't necessarily presented as the Good Guy. The theme of American arms aggression within the higher ranks of the administration, I felt was very brave from a Hollywood Blockbuster to address; the Nuke-Happy leaders are shown to be at least a catalyst for world war here, and this questions the notion implied by other film where Good = America and Evil = Everyone Else.
Hats off to Joss Whedon, the writer-director responsible for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the screenplay of Toy Story. It just shows that you don't have to be a big screen Michael Bay to make something entertaining but also sharp, fresh and witty. The new ideas, the unpredictability of the narrative and the slick writing are what keeps us on our toes in Avengers , an audience which has been zombified by other predictable Hollywood money-machines. Overall the story was conducted smoothly and wrapped up very satisfyingly at the end, really polished.
I genuinely would pay to watch it again in the cinema. In 3D. And I would recommend you do so too. A slap in the face to conventional action film, Avengers Assemble is a heroic call to step the hell up. Whedon coming atcha.
