Saturday 28 April 2012

Assembly


I saw the Avengers movie, yesterday. This isn't a review (I shall wait for a release on disc before attempting a proper critical assessment), it's just a few general comments, and my initial reactions to a movie that I've waited decades to see…

Well, I liked it a lot! It's a great super-team adventure, but I'm not convinced (yet) that it is a real classic of genre cinema about comicbook heroes. I'd have to see it at least a couple of times more, to decide on whether it's an 8/10, or 9/10 (for effort), movie. Avengers Assemble managed to fulfil my expectations of it, but failed to surpass them. That said, Joss Whedon was faced with a quite impossible task - of pleasing fans of Marvel comics and followers of the franchise of recent movie productions, including Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, and Captain America

The director and cast took it all seriously, but still made it good fun. Whedon's best movie to date is not in the same class as The Dark Knight, or Ang Lee's Hulk. Thankfully, however, the level of humour in Avengers Assemble is judged almost perfectly, throughout, with very few jokes at the expense of the characters, and no embarrassingly bad scenes that may have prompted me to cringe at slapstick or blatantly camp performances – of the sort we have seen before in The Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, X-Men, and Iron Man movies.  


I don't much care for that poster, though, as I would prefer a proper artwork version, such as this one. I hope the movie is a huge success, and would like to see production planning for a sequel (or two), starting next year. I'd also really like to see an extended version of Avengers Assemble on blu-ray, perhaps before Xmas… Is that too much to ask?

1 comment:

Patrick Hudson said...

I think it is/will be a classic although perhaps for reasons not necessarily connected to quality: it's the first movie of a "type" we've not seen before. Different from a series of sequels, it's like a sequel to at least four other movies. When Ang Lee Hulk, at least, was made, this was little more than the vaguest sort of idea yet nothing here invaldates Hulk. It'll be regarded as a classic for years to come simply because they pulled it off.

That said, I'm not sure that comparisons with other supers movies are always easy. The Dark Knight, eg, has a very different tone to.it than this. Both succeed in their goalsbut their goals are different. The darker tone makes The Dark Knight appear more profound but I'm not sure it is. Maybe all the Avengers has to offer are some airy thoughts on team work and playing nice with others, but they're no less true than the TDK's sententious deconstruction of good and evil.

I feel that Avengers was a bit tighter, despite the length and slight drag in the final half hour. TDK seemed to have a whole other movie tacked on to the end of it.

I've never been entirely convinced byt eh Ang Lee Hulk, either, but I'll be interested to read your book and see if you can change my mind!