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jackThe Avengers film is, unsurprisingly, awesome. As another friend said, "Joss Whedon should make all the movies" :)
It's not perfect. There are a few nitpicks (below), and I didn't end up as blown away as I have with some other films, and some other of Joss' work, but everything it does do, it scores nearly perfectly on.
Good things:
* It's laugh-out-loud funny in places, always without forcing it so hard it feels fake when you don't get it. Not everyone laughed, or felt sad, at exactly the same time, but the film kept moving with witty banter used to shore up the plot, rather than the usual "put the breaks on, stop the movie, have a painful buildup so everyone sees the obvious joke coming, pause for laughter" which is so annoying if you've seen it before.
* The same for being moving and exciting. There are sad moments, but integrated into the plot so they don't feel mawkish if you're less affected.
* It manages to cram in half a dozen plus super heroes into one film, without seeming that their powers are arbitrarily scaled up and down to fit the needs of the dramatic moment.
* It manages that tension between the characters rises naturally out of their characters, rather than bases solely on stupid miscommunication
* The characters are integrated into the plot well enough that even if one is a character you don't recognise as coming from the comic books, it still works in film.
* It doesn't spend two hours on character building, it plunges straight into the plot, with conflict that feels like it matters from the opening scenes.
* It doesn't scrape past the Bechdel test as I recall, and the two main female characters always seem to be dressed slightly sexier than they need to be, but both are treated straightforwardly as characters, not as romantic objects. Tasha is pretty awesome.
* Several times they do something really sensible. At the end they gag Loki silver-tongue, not just sit around listening to him talk to them! Similarly, earlier, they didn't let one character go off and talk to Loki alone, which is more intelligence than I've seen from any five superhero movies before...
Nitpicks
* The Avengers are exactly what you need to fight Loki. But for an invading army of aliens on hoverbikes, isn't there a middle ground between "six guys on foot fighting hand-to-hand" and "nuke manhatten"? Isn't the situation where conventional fighter aircraft would do the job perfectly? Or plan from the start to nuke the OTHER side of the portal.
* The physics is better than most films, but obviously isn't up to the standard of the rest of the movie. Not to mention the biology.
* The flying aircraft carrier is awesome. But I can't help but think it would have been a lot more effective if it didn't fly! :)
It's not perfect. There are a few nitpicks (below), and I didn't end up as blown away as I have with some other films, and some other of Joss' work, but everything it does do, it scores nearly perfectly on.
Good things:
* It's laugh-out-loud funny in places, always without forcing it so hard it feels fake when you don't get it. Not everyone laughed, or felt sad, at exactly the same time, but the film kept moving with witty banter used to shore up the plot, rather than the usual "put the breaks on, stop the movie, have a painful buildup so everyone sees the obvious joke coming, pause for laughter" which is so annoying if you've seen it before.
* The same for being moving and exciting. There are sad moments, but integrated into the plot so they don't feel mawkish if you're less affected.
* It manages to cram in half a dozen plus super heroes into one film, without seeming that their powers are arbitrarily scaled up and down to fit the needs of the dramatic moment.
* It manages that tension between the characters rises naturally out of their characters, rather than bases solely on stupid miscommunication
* The characters are integrated into the plot well enough that even if one is a character you don't recognise as coming from the comic books, it still works in film.
* It doesn't spend two hours on character building, it plunges straight into the plot, with conflict that feels like it matters from the opening scenes.
* It doesn't scrape past the Bechdel test as I recall, and the two main female characters always seem to be dressed slightly sexier than they need to be, but both are treated straightforwardly as characters, not as romantic objects. Tasha is pretty awesome.
* Several times they do something really sensible. At the end they gag Loki silver-tongue, not just sit around listening to him talk to them! Similarly, earlier, they didn't let one character go off and talk to Loki alone, which is more intelligence than I've seen from any five superhero movies before...
Nitpicks
* The Avengers are exactly what you need to fight Loki. But for an invading army of aliens on hoverbikes, isn't there a middle ground between "six guys on foot fighting hand-to-hand" and "nuke manhatten"? Isn't the situation where conventional fighter aircraft would do the job perfectly? Or plan from the start to nuke the OTHER side of the portal.
* The physics is better than most films, but obviously isn't up to the standard of the rest of the movie. Not to mention the biology.
* The flying aircraft carrier is awesome. But I can't help but think it would have been a lot more effective if it didn't fly! :)