Joss Whedon achieved what I consider a Herculean task in making this movie. There could only be two outcomes: really impressive or incredibly awful. He had to harness and integrate three characters from successful features, one with poor results (twice) and two obscure heroes who had minor roles in the successes. Fans of all levels (diehard to casual) know these superheroes all come from the same shared comic-book universe yet a larger, broader audience doesn’t know this, thus he has to overcome the movie’s first major hurdle. Here Whedon scores a hat trick* through The Avengers because he pulled off the equivalent of writing/directing a team-up picture starring James Bond, Indiana Jones, Sherlock Holmes, John McClane and Lara Croft fighting Professor Morarity and his army of Predators. Either concept is like a sensitive machine with over a dozen moving pieces to integrate and balance. Should one component break down, the entire thing will collapse into a huge steaming heap of crap. Whedon probably has an ulcer named after The Avengers and it went away when the movie raked in a billion smackers.
Enough praise for Whedon’s feat, on to the actual movie…
The story begins sometime after Thor and Captain America with Loki materializing in a SHIELD base courtesy of the same Nazi-Asgardian tesseract from the “prequels.” Loki then starts blowing crap up, turning people into his flunkies and takes the tesseract SHIELD was trying to harness. Nick Fury decides that the Norse god of mischief is too much for SHIELD so he re-activates the failed Avengers Initiative. Captain America is already under his command but the other two heroes need to be convinced to join: the egocentric Iron Man and reluctant Hulk. Thor soon joins the fight since Loki is messing with his beloved Midgard. As per the Marvel Comics tradition, the good guys battle each other due to misunderstandings, mistrust and hormones (Marvel Comics appeal more to pre-teen/teenage boys). With the obligatory infighting completed, Loki is captured. Everybody returns to SHIELD’s flying headquarters to figure out where Loki took the tesseract but realize too late how they all played into the villain’s larger plans. It would be a short movie if it went any other way. I’m not spoiling anything by revealing the inevitable alien invasion Loki fosters, it’s the core of every commercial for The Avengers. For an event movie, it’s the perfect conclusion and dramatic climax. Sit through all the closing credits too. You will see a preview of what’s next and a little dose of humor for such a heavy movie.
The additional 3-D glasses were worth the extra few bucks during the first hour. Afterwards, my brain started to treat it as a flat film; ergo no panics caused by my fear of heights. I even peeked without them a couple times and couldn’t tell the difference. Maybe the 3-D will be more effective on the eventual Blu-Ray.
For comic-book purists, I believe Whedon went mostly with the rebooted take of the Marvel Universe known as The Ultimates. The original Sixties version of The Avengers entailed Thor, Iron Man, Ant Man and Wasp banding together to stop the Hulk who was under Loki’s influence. Whedon chose wisely to go with the more recent continuity despite it being a ripoff of DC’s The Justice League of America‘s origin story involving an alien invasion as the catalyst to form a super team. I think Whedon’s time spent writing various Marvel titles certainly paid off and proved he was the right person for the job. It still doesn’t change my opinion of the overrated and incredibly boring Firefly, he just gets a pass from me regarding anything involving superheroes. Maybe DC can convince him to make a live-action movie that doesn’t suck with the exception of Donner’s Superman and the Nolans’ Batman flicks.
Additional Alamo Drafthouse perks: Whedon stuff I’d seen before (yawn!) like Dr. Horrible; an ongoing gag of Nick Fury showing up at the end of non-superhero movies such as Black Swan and Twilight; some old Sixties Marvel cartoons Ralph Bakshi worked on; and a couple How it Should’ve Ended cartoons.
The Summer of ’12 is off to a strong start. Maybe in 30 years, Alamo Drafthouse will have another festival showing at least eight well-loved movies that stood the test of time.
*-baseball and its analogies bore me