Heads up, this review is going to be a long one.
7.
The Avengers: 2012 (PG-13)
USA / Paramount
92% (CF)
This was the ultimate culmination of the comic book movie boom. Not only is it one of the crowning achievements of comic book movies, it was started by and tied together 5 different movies! This is the cinematic version of a comic book crossover event! But holy hell did it took a while to get here. Like I said before, after Blade we got good comic book movies like X-Men (2000), Spiderman (2002), Blade II (2002), The Punisher (2004), and Batman Begins (2005). But we also got some really terrible movies like Ang Lee’s Hulk (2003), Blade Trinity (2004), Fantastic Four (2005), Elektra (2005), Superman Returns (2006), Spiderman III (2007), and Green Lantern (2011). Trust me there were a lot more! And after 2004, the bad movies began to outnumber the good. Well in April of 2005 Marvel’s CEO Avi Arad with some help from Merrill Lynch began to organize the company to finance its own movies based on its characters, namely an Avengers movie where it would be tied together by five different films. And since Marvel would be pulling the strings, this would allow not only more control over what was put on screen, but also enable better quality, and more faithful adaptations. The result became Marvel Studios.
And the very first film Marvel Studios worked on was a character whose rights they had regained from New Line Cinemas, Iron Man (2008). And it was awesome! Robert Downey Jr. was a perfect casting choice for Tony Stark. He perfectly captured Starks ego, arrogance, swagger, and eccentricities that make him such a good character. And while I miss Tony being an unashamed hawk like in his early days of the comics, they stayed pretty damn close to his more contemporary origin story. So I can’t complain too much. It also introduced Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) of the organization that would later be called SHIELD. And at the end of the credits for Iron Man was the first of many post credit scenes, which introduced Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury and he wanted to talk to Tony about the Avengers Initiative! After that the fanboy waters had been chummed!
That same year a reboot Hulk movie was released called The Incredible Hulk (2008) and it was a major improvement on the horrendous Ang Lee Hulk of 2003. Best of all was getting Edward Norton to be Dr Bruce Banner and a far improved CGI Hulk who actually said some of his signature dialogue like, “HULK SMASH!” instead of being a silent grunting brute. Best of all those lines were delivered by Lou Ferrigno who played the Hulk in the 70’s TV show I used to watch on the Sci-Fi Channel as a kid. Both movies were financial successes (though Iron Man was far more successful).
What followed included Iron Man 2 (2010). I am probably in the minority, but I really liked this movie. We got more pathos with Stark and Mickey Rourke, who rarely gives a poor performance, played Ivan Vanko who was an amalgamation of villains Whiplash and the Crimson Dynamo. This movie also introduced Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, and was another box office success.
The following year came Thor (2011) which gave the Odinson his first movie appearance since the God awful TV movie Return of the Hulk. It also introduced to the world Chris Hemsworth in the role that made him a star. And it is actually my favorite of The Avengers tie in movies. I thought Hemsworth was perfect casting for the Thunder God; he had the look, the build, and the presence of royalty. And Tom Hiddleston as Loki was absolutely flawless! However I thought the change from the actual pagan gods to beings from another dimension called Asgard and being an immortal race of aliens from who were mistaken for gods on Earth and where worshiped as the Aesir was pretty silly. But I really liked everything else about the movie, so I did not let that get me down. And this fact allowed the casting of really good actors in certain roles which normally would not be given to a non white actor. Most notable was Idris Elba as Heimdall and Tadanobu Asano as Hogun of the Warriors Three. It had great characters, a perfect balance of action, drama, and humor to break up the tension. Hell Kenneth Branagh was in the director’s seat! So you know that Thor’s speech patterns would be regal when you have Hamlet directing. It did not have as many “doths” or “yay merrilys” as the comics, but it was enough to get the point across. And it did show Thor's transformation from arrogant prince to humble defender of Midgard. And to top it off, it also introduced Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye.
Finally there was Captain America: The First Avenger headed by Chris Evans. And boy was this a surprise! Chris Evans previously appeared in the horrendous Fantastic Four movies where he played the Human Torch. And he was extremely annoying and unlikable. In this movie though, Evans gets the part right. He plays Steve Rogers as young and idealistic, if not a tad naïve. But the kid’s heart is in the right place, and he expertly portrayed the Star Spangled Super Soldier on the big screen! It was also in this movie that set the plot for The Avengers by revolving around the Tesseract (or Cosmic Cube for comic book fans) that was shown in the Thor post credit scene. And it also included a few nods to the original comic such as the show Roger’s puts on where he punches Hitler in the face (which was the cover of the first issue in the 40’s). And at the end of the movie was the trailer for The Avengers movie itself!
All of the primary cast members from the previous movies would be in this movie (save for Ed Norton who was replaced by Mark Ruffalo) and the story would continue from where the previous movies left off. Now a lot of people were very worried that such an anticipated movie would not live up to the hype. I mean this is a massive movie with a huge budget and ties together the stories from all the other movies. There are a lot of things that could go wrong. And it could not be helped that one anxiety at the time was that this movie was being directed by Joss Whedon. Whedon at this time was primarily known for directing TV shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. And to be honest I was one of those who had major worries about Whedon’s directorial capabilities. I did not watch Buffy, and while I did watch a few episodes of Angel, it was nothing impressive. That was until a few months before the movie came out. I had checked out another TV show Whedon worked on called Firefly, and I really liked it. Unfortunately the TV show was canceled after only one season and during mid story to boot. But I knew that after the TV show was canned Whedon directed a movie to finish the story of the show. This was a movie called Serenity, and after watching that movie a lot of my concerns were relieved. It showed not only can Whedon direct a big sci-fi action movie, but he can also balance a large cast. All of which would be necessary for this movie.
Then the day came when I saw The Avengers, AND IT WAS EVERYTHING I HAD HOPED FOR AND MORE! Whedon balanced the cast members screen time very well. Each member of the Avengers was given their “moments” which was where they had either a really kick ass scene or action sequence. So everyone got to look badass. Loki also made his return as the main villain. The plot is standard superhero fare. Villain runs amok, tries to take over the world with an alien invasion, and the heroes must come together to stop him. The action beats were all there, the scale was huge, the world was at stake, and the final showdown was easily one of the best I had ever seen! What sets this movie apart from the others is not only the scale but what can be called the movies “Whedonisms.” Joss Whedon likes to add a little bit of comedy into his works. As a scene progresses on, and you get quick comedic beats in, usually in the form of a funny line, a quick visual joke, or the occasional running gag (like Agent Colson’s Captain America man crush). This movie has a lot of Whedonisms, but that does not distract from the movie. The movie is still an action movie based around superheroes and you never lose that feeling. It is just something extra that enhances the movie experience. This movie is a gigantic fun action movie, and helps separate it in tone from the more dark and serious comic book movies like The Dark Knight. In addition, The Dark Knight was a movie where Nolan tried to set the character of Batman in reality. Hence certain elements that were present in the comics were omitted because… they work better in the context of the comic book universe. That’s why Ra’s al Ghul had no Lazarus Pits, and Bane was presented without the muscle enhancing drug Venom. The Avengers on the other hand fully embraces the comic book movie idea. It blends science, magic, and an inverted character who turns into a giant green rage monster when he gets pissed the **** off! And it was fantastic! It gained praise from critics, and also annihilated box office records, becoming the 3rd highest grossing movie of all time. This was mostly due to repeat business as a lot of people went and saw this movie multiple times. Hell I saw it four times in the theaters! This is the movie I saw the most in theaters. I also acted as the guy who got some of my friends and co-workers to see the movie with me. I even broke my general rule of not seeing a movie in 3D (the other reason it made so much money) for three of those viewings just to get the box office up. And I hate paying extra cash to see a movie with 3D, and quite frankly I generally hate 3D movies! But the 3D in this movie was okay. And most importantly I wanted this movie to out-gross the very mediocre Avatar, and the over long Titanic, so I had no issues paying extra. It is also the movie where I had the most fun seeing it in theaters, and the movie that I can honestly say is my favorite movie in terms of pure entertainment. Sure it has a few flaws. Namely the fact that the majority of the character development for Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and the Hulk was in the 5 tie in movies. Like any good comic book tie in, you really to read the tie in issues to know the bigger picture. It makes the movie that much better. But with that being said, the movie was exactly what it needed to be. And the movie delivered what it needed in spades! One of the greatest comic book movies ever and a milestone in fanboy history, The Avengers, at number 7.
7.
The Avengers: 2012 (PG-13)
USA / Paramount
92% (CF)
This was the ultimate culmination of the comic book movie boom. Not only is it one of the crowning achievements of comic book movies, it was started by and tied together 5 different movies! This is the cinematic version of a comic book crossover event! But holy hell did it took a while to get here. Like I said before, after Blade we got good comic book movies like X-Men (2000), Spiderman (2002), Blade II (2002), The Punisher (2004), and Batman Begins (2005). But we also got some really terrible movies like Ang Lee’s Hulk (2003), Blade Trinity (2004), Fantastic Four (2005), Elektra (2005), Superman Returns (2006), Spiderman III (2007), and Green Lantern (2011). Trust me there were a lot more! And after 2004, the bad movies began to outnumber the good. Well in April of 2005 Marvel’s CEO Avi Arad with some help from Merrill Lynch began to organize the company to finance its own movies based on its characters, namely an Avengers movie where it would be tied together by five different films. And since Marvel would be pulling the strings, this would allow not only more control over what was put on screen, but also enable better quality, and more faithful adaptations. The result became Marvel Studios.
And the very first film Marvel Studios worked on was a character whose rights they had regained from New Line Cinemas, Iron Man (2008). And it was awesome! Robert Downey Jr. was a perfect casting choice for Tony Stark. He perfectly captured Starks ego, arrogance, swagger, and eccentricities that make him such a good character. And while I miss Tony being an unashamed hawk like in his early days of the comics, they stayed pretty damn close to his more contemporary origin story. So I can’t complain too much. It also introduced Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) of the organization that would later be called SHIELD. And at the end of the credits for Iron Man was the first of many post credit scenes, which introduced Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury and he wanted to talk to Tony about the Avengers Initiative! After that the fanboy waters had been chummed!
That same year a reboot Hulk movie was released called The Incredible Hulk (2008) and it was a major improvement on the horrendous Ang Lee Hulk of 2003. Best of all was getting Edward Norton to be Dr Bruce Banner and a far improved CGI Hulk who actually said some of his signature dialogue like, “HULK SMASH!” instead of being a silent grunting brute. Best of all those lines were delivered by Lou Ferrigno who played the Hulk in the 70’s TV show I used to watch on the Sci-Fi Channel as a kid. Both movies were financial successes (though Iron Man was far more successful).
What followed included Iron Man 2 (2010). I am probably in the minority, but I really liked this movie. We got more pathos with Stark and Mickey Rourke, who rarely gives a poor performance, played Ivan Vanko who was an amalgamation of villains Whiplash and the Crimson Dynamo. This movie also introduced Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, and was another box office success.
The following year came Thor (2011) which gave the Odinson his first movie appearance since the God awful TV movie Return of the Hulk. It also introduced to the world Chris Hemsworth in the role that made him a star. And it is actually my favorite of The Avengers tie in movies. I thought Hemsworth was perfect casting for the Thunder God; he had the look, the build, and the presence of royalty. And Tom Hiddleston as Loki was absolutely flawless! However I thought the change from the actual pagan gods to beings from another dimension called Asgard and being an immortal race of aliens from who were mistaken for gods on Earth and where worshiped as the Aesir was pretty silly. But I really liked everything else about the movie, so I did not let that get me down. And this fact allowed the casting of really good actors in certain roles which normally would not be given to a non white actor. Most notable was Idris Elba as Heimdall and Tadanobu Asano as Hogun of the Warriors Three. It had great characters, a perfect balance of action, drama, and humor to break up the tension. Hell Kenneth Branagh was in the director’s seat! So you know that Thor’s speech patterns would be regal when you have Hamlet directing. It did not have as many “doths” or “yay merrilys” as the comics, but it was enough to get the point across. And it did show Thor's transformation from arrogant prince to humble defender of Midgard. And to top it off, it also introduced Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye.
Finally there was Captain America: The First Avenger headed by Chris Evans. And boy was this a surprise! Chris Evans previously appeared in the horrendous Fantastic Four movies where he played the Human Torch. And he was extremely annoying and unlikable. In this movie though, Evans gets the part right. He plays Steve Rogers as young and idealistic, if not a tad naïve. But the kid’s heart is in the right place, and he expertly portrayed the Star Spangled Super Soldier on the big screen! It was also in this movie that set the plot for The Avengers by revolving around the Tesseract (or Cosmic Cube for comic book fans) that was shown in the Thor post credit scene. And it also included a few nods to the original comic such as the show Roger’s puts on where he punches Hitler in the face (which was the cover of the first issue in the 40’s). And at the end of the movie was the trailer for The Avengers movie itself!
All of the primary cast members from the previous movies would be in this movie (save for Ed Norton who was replaced by Mark Ruffalo) and the story would continue from where the previous movies left off. Now a lot of people were very worried that such an anticipated movie would not live up to the hype. I mean this is a massive movie with a huge budget and ties together the stories from all the other movies. There are a lot of things that could go wrong. And it could not be helped that one anxiety at the time was that this movie was being directed by Joss Whedon. Whedon at this time was primarily known for directing TV shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. And to be honest I was one of those who had major worries about Whedon’s directorial capabilities. I did not watch Buffy, and while I did watch a few episodes of Angel, it was nothing impressive. That was until a few months before the movie came out. I had checked out another TV show Whedon worked on called Firefly, and I really liked it. Unfortunately the TV show was canceled after only one season and during mid story to boot. But I knew that after the TV show was canned Whedon directed a movie to finish the story of the show. This was a movie called Serenity, and after watching that movie a lot of my concerns were relieved. It showed not only can Whedon direct a big sci-fi action movie, but he can also balance a large cast. All of which would be necessary for this movie.
Then the day came when I saw The Avengers, AND IT WAS EVERYTHING I HAD HOPED FOR AND MORE! Whedon balanced the cast members screen time very well. Each member of the Avengers was given their “moments” which was where they had either a really kick ass scene or action sequence. So everyone got to look badass. Loki also made his return as the main villain. The plot is standard superhero fare. Villain runs amok, tries to take over the world with an alien invasion, and the heroes must come together to stop him. The action beats were all there, the scale was huge, the world was at stake, and the final showdown was easily one of the best I had ever seen! What sets this movie apart from the others is not only the scale but what can be called the movies “Whedonisms.” Joss Whedon likes to add a little bit of comedy into his works. As a scene progresses on, and you get quick comedic beats in, usually in the form of a funny line, a quick visual joke, or the occasional running gag (like Agent Colson’s Captain America man crush). This movie has a lot of Whedonisms, but that does not distract from the movie. The movie is still an action movie based around superheroes and you never lose that feeling. It is just something extra that enhances the movie experience. This movie is a gigantic fun action movie, and helps separate it in tone from the more dark and serious comic book movies like The Dark Knight. In addition, The Dark Knight was a movie where Nolan tried to set the character of Batman in reality. Hence certain elements that were present in the comics were omitted because… they work better in the context of the comic book universe. That’s why Ra’s al Ghul had no Lazarus Pits, and Bane was presented without the muscle enhancing drug Venom. The Avengers on the other hand fully embraces the comic book movie idea. It blends science, magic, and an inverted character who turns into a giant green rage monster when he gets pissed the **** off! And it was fantastic! It gained praise from critics, and also annihilated box office records, becoming the 3rd highest grossing movie of all time. This was mostly due to repeat business as a lot of people went and saw this movie multiple times. Hell I saw it four times in the theaters! This is the movie I saw the most in theaters. I also acted as the guy who got some of my friends and co-workers to see the movie with me. I even broke my general rule of not seeing a movie in 3D (the other reason it made so much money) for three of those viewings just to get the box office up. And I hate paying extra cash to see a movie with 3D, and quite frankly I generally hate 3D movies! But the 3D in this movie was okay. And most importantly I wanted this movie to out-gross the very mediocre Avatar, and the over long Titanic, so I had no issues paying extra. It is also the movie where I had the most fun seeing it in theaters, and the movie that I can honestly say is my favorite movie in terms of pure entertainment. Sure it has a few flaws. Namely the fact that the majority of the character development for Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and the Hulk was in the 5 tie in movies. Like any good comic book tie in, you really to read the tie in issues to know the bigger picture. It makes the movie that much better. But with that being said, the movie was exactly what it needed to be. And the movie delivered what it needed in spades! One of the greatest comic book movies ever and a milestone in fanboy history, The Avengers, at number 7.