Movie I Liked #49: The Avengers

2012

I like superpowers. They’re fun! They’re flashy. They’re something different then what is.

Finding a good superpower/super hero/super villain movie is really difficult because either the power is too much, the hero is too good or the villain is too ridiculous. The tendency is to get lost in the special effects or corny humor or bad costumes and have a deficiency of character development.

But this is where Joss Whedon’s Avengers succeeds. This super-hero ensemble piece is about as non-cheesy as you can get without being Christopher Nolan.

The film features Ironman, Thor, Captain America, the Hulk, the Black Widow and the Hawk, a demi-god with a grudge from ancient Nordic mythology and yet another appearance by Samuel L. Jackson. Their task is a simple one, yet one that never gets old…save the planet from the angry bad guy’s big monsters. Obstacles are the bad guy, forces of nature, and, my favorite, interpersonal conflicts.

I like stories where the characters start out hating each other and have to come together. Get two or three or four big egos in a room together, coupled with really good acting and you can’t take your eyes away. I suppose something about that is true to real life. Egos getting together and getting on each other’s nerves.

I felt like the story was well balanced. Every character had something to overcome and to contribute. The villain was crazy but not stupid and thankfully didn’t talk too much or too little. Costumes were, well…I suppose we’ll never get away from spandex, however more people should wear capes! Good action, good humor.

As a kid, I didn’t have television or comics so didn’t know much about superheroes until I was much older. In many ways, the Marvel movies leading up to Avengers was my introduction to each other them. Being new to the characters, I found them quickly likeable and ultimately understandable, all within one movie. Kudos to the writers, movie makers and did I mention this is by Joss Whedon, one of my other favorites? Oi! This flick just gets better and better!

I took a friend to see this for his bachelor party, so there will always be fun memories attached to it for me.