The Avengers

I only saw The Avengers in the theater two times. The first time I loved it and would have given it 5 stars, the second time I saw it I began to see the flaws in the film and gave it 4.5 stars. I haven't seen the film since, but on a whim I decided to check it out of my local Redbox and see it again and it's sad to say The Avengers seems to get slightly worse every time I see it and that is what separates it from truly great films that hold up in after multiple viewings. I think I need to back up a little bit before I go into my review. First I am a Marvel fan. It was the comic company I grew up reading. I grew up on X-Men comics (X-MEN, X-FACTOR, UNCANNY X-MEN and X-Force) Spiderman comics (All of them) G.I. JOE and Transformers. Those were my first tier comics that were followed by The Avengers, Punisher, Iron Man, Daredevil and others. Marvel is my favorite comic company and though I don't buy comics anymore I still go back and read my old ones, so when the first X-Men came out in 2000 I was ecstatic. I loved seeing some of my favorite characters come to live and the great Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen play an older Xavior and Magneto perfectly. I know Blade films had come before, but this was the true beginning of the rise of Marvel comic inspired films that were followed by Spiderman, Fantastic Four and Daredevil films. I like everyone else was happy when Marvel took more control over their properties and making plan to make an Avengers film. It was an ambitious move by the company it needed the tie in films to be successful and they were. All of the films made money and I personally thought all the films were above average to great except Thor. Leading up to the release of The Avengers I was excited especially after seeing the trailers and it having Hawkeye my favorite Avenger in it. Going into last summer is was my most anticipated film outside of The Dark Knight Rises, and on the outside it did live up to the hype, but with three viewings I see that it didn't and The Avengers is an overrated film.

I know the vast majority of people know the plot of the film, so I won't waste my time or your time giving an outline of the plot of the film I will just point out its major flaws. First is the excitement and anticipation factor. Everyone wanted to see The Avenger film and all these characters and actors together and were overly excited about that as was I. That joy blinded me as I absolutely sure it did others to the flaws. I was too excited seeing all the characters together and the load noises to notices the lack of story and characters. I've done this before, but I've compared The Avengers to The Expendable films. Now don't cuss me out I'm not saying The Avengers is anywhere near as bad as The Expendables, but it takes kind of the same premise bringing together all these great action stars from the past and present into one film, and you automatically got your audience who cares if the film doesn't have a decent plot, character development or even great action people will still pay to see the likes of Jet Li, Jason Statham, Steve Austin, Bruce Willis, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Chuck Norris and the rest. I paid to see the first film and rented the second and once you get past the glow of seeing all these iconic actions stars on the screen together you see the major flaws the films had. That is the same with The Avengers.

All the flaws extend from the writing by the fanboys Joss Whedon who they think can do no wrong, and that was the overabundance of S.H.E.I.L.D. I understand they are necessary and I enjoyed looking at the beautiful Cobie Smulders (Maria Hill), but outside of Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) they should have been hidden in the back ground. Then there are the plot wholes like Thor appearing out of nowhere without real explanation even though at the end of the Thor film he is trapped in Asgard not able to return to Earth. I know Joss tries to attribute all the plot wholes to the captor and I find it to convenient like he couldn't come up with a real and good explanation. Moving onto the characters like Captain America played by Chris Evans. Though I am not a big fan of Chris I thought he did a pretty good job in the decent first Captain America film, but here he seems almost emotionless like he's some sort of robot and seemed to be sleep walking through the film adding nothing to it. Robert Downey Jr. of course gave a witty performance as Tony Stark. Mark Ruffalo is without a doubt the best Bruce Banner. He gave the best performance out of the cast showing the depth and emotion the character has stuck in the situation he is in. The two characters and actors who seemed to have gotten the shaft are the ones who deserved the most plot development and screen time. The Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) did get a little more screen time then Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), but her role and character development was overshadowed by the big three. She is a great character and deserved more screen time, and who doesn't want to see more of Scarlett playing Natasha. Finally there is Jeremy Renner who was basically shafted as Hawkeye. I biased because he's my favorite Avenger character, but Clint Barton is a great character being orphaned as a child, growing up in a carnival by Swordsman and Trickshot. There others including the character I love in the Ultimate Marvel universe. Hawkeye deserved better and Renner agreed saying the character in the film wasn't the one he signed on to be. It's a pity because Renner is a better actor then Evens, Jackson, Smulders and Hemsworth. The character and actor deserved more screen time especially with his chemistry with Johansson.

All right let's move on to the director and writer Joss Whedon. I really don't understand the overblown praise the man gets like his the second coming of the Messiah and can do no wrong. Don't get me wrong I like the man I think he's a really good writer. Though he had one really bad early misstep with his screenplay for Alien Resurrection he's done a really great job. He's done a really good job as a writer and creator with Buffy, Dollhouse, Angel and Firefly. I am still pissed off at Fox for canceling Dark Angel and Firefly. Though if Dark Angel hadn't been canceled I doubt Firefly would have made it on air on FOX, but maybe another channel would have taken a chance and the show would have been more successful. Any screw FOX let's get back to Whedon who is a really good writer and creator, but isn't perfect, and as a director he's even further from perfect. He showed great potential with Serenity which I think of as by far his best directorial performance. With The Avengers he just seemed out of his element with the story and actors/characters that weren't his own creations and I hope he hasn't gotten in over his head with Marvel giving him the power they have. As writer I still have faith in him, but as a director I am going to give him the benefit of the doubt and hope he is up to the task with sequel. I know it probably won't happen but I hope he doesn't include Iron Man, Thor or Captain America. I'd rather he writes his own back stories for other characters like The Wasp, Ant Man, Hercules, Black Knight and give more time to Hawkeye and The Black Widow.

I know this review sounds like I disliked or hated the film, but I didn't I really did enjoy. The action/effects were simply great as was Hulk who was finally brought to life nearly perfectly. As I said Downey Jr. was again good and brought humor to the film as did Clark Gregg who I was disappointed to see die. Scarlett with gave a good performance and with Renner did a good job with his limited and short changed role as Hawkeye. I also must mention Tom Hiddleston as Loki. He was one of the best think in Thor and was great in The Avengers. Overall is The Avengers a one of the best films of the year or a truly great film no. It's overrated, but a good action/comic book film with a flawed plot with a lack of character development/chemistry and some average acting.