Moroni's Review of "The Avengers"

Generally, I am a typical postmodernist and have a undefined disdain for anything too mainstream, sneering at anything designed to please the masses.  But there is a part of me that I have retained since childhood that thinks superheroes are frickin' cool.  As a result, I see just about every superhero movie that comes out every summer.  It kind of helps that I have kids who love superheroes, too.

Just because I see just about every superhero movie doesn't mean that I LIKE every movie featuring a caped crusader.  For instance, the "Dark Knight" series - I really WANT to like them.  I think Christopher Nolan is an excellent film maker.  But they don't move me.  I can't find myself excited for them the way I liked Tim Burton's version of Batman.

Marvel has come up with several movies with different heroes that lead up to the movie "The Avengers".  Some of them have been really good movies, some of them not so good.  "Iron Man" was really good.  Robert Downey, Jr. was really made for this role.  "Iron Man 2" was kind of dull.  "Thor" was a really  good movie.  "Captain America" - I wanted that movie to be good, but I was extremely disappointed when the movie devolved into a series of montages of the patriotic hero fighting with no story.  They have made a couple of movies with the Hulk, and I think that I am the only person on the planet who thinks that Ang Lee's verion (the first one) was more than a movie, but a work of art.

As we were on the way to the theater, I told my wives that I was afraid that I would be disappointed.  I didn't want to have any expectations for this movie, because I didn't want to be let down.  I wanted so badly for this movie to be good, but I knew that it probably wouldn't be.  I even made a prediction - the whole movie would build the plot up, and they wouldn't become the Avengers until the very end.

Boy, was I wrong.  This movie was action-packed from start to finish.  This movie reduced me to a quivering preteen boy.  With its apocalyptic battle scenes, it is everything that the "Transformers" movies tried to be and failed.  I guess I should have expected this from director, Joss Whedon, who created one of my favorite TV shows of all time - "Firefly".

The movie starts out with Loki, the villain of the preceeding "Thor" movie (played with pizzazz by Tom Hiddleston) finding a way to come to earth by means of the Tesseract, the mystical device from the "Captain America" movie.  So Nick Fury - in a disappointingly subdued role by Samuel L. Jackson - puts the Avenger initiative into effect, which is to assemble a team of superheroes to protect the earth.  They recruit the narcissistic Tony Stark, aka. Iron Man as well as the conservative Captain America, a role reprised by Chris Evans.  They track down the bitter Dr. Banner, played wonderfully by Mark Ruffalo, who refers to his alter-ego as the "Other Guy".  Chris Hemsworth again plays Thor, sent from Asgard to track down his adopted brother, Loki.  The team is completed by the Black Widow, played by Scarlett Johansson (rawr!) and Hawkeye, played by Jeremy Renner.  The last two characters were my favorite.

The effort to create an cohesive team fails when it becomes evident that every one of the superheroes has a super ego.  They can't seem to work together - which I think was the most compelling component of the movie.  Imagine that you are blessed with tremendous power, and suddenly you are expected to cooperate with someone equal powers and equally opinionated?  The team doesn't become effective until they learn to work in conjunction with each other.  But when they do - watch out!

Loki finds a way to use the Tesseract to open a portal in the universe that unleashes a hellish army - on Manhattan, of course.  Because the story would be different if it was in Concho, Arizona.  And the baddies seem bent on destroying familiar landmarks first - the Chrysler Building, Grand Central Station, etc.  The film culminates on a pitched battle - superheroes against aliens, trying to save us all.

I won't divulge too much.  But the audience reacted with laughter in one part when the Hulk confronts Loki, and Loki sneers at the green monster and says, "How dare you, you dumb brute!  I am a god!"  And the Hulk proceeds to turn Loki into a superhuman piñata.

This movie is a roller coaster ride.  It doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it is - which is a fun escape for two hours.  It was a good way to start the summer.  I plan on going back - again - with the kids.