Review: The Avengers Does What It Needs To, Perfectly
- Feb 1, 2018
- 2 min read
Phase One of the Marvel Cinematic Universe left a lot of hanging plot threads and questions. Thor asked, how will Thor get back to Earth, and did Loki actually die? Iron Man 2 asked, what happens now that Iron Man can't join the Avengers? The Incredible Hulk asked, what did the transformation at the very end mean? And Captain America: The First Avenger asked, how will Captain America adapt to the modern world? The Avengers not only answered these questions, it tied everything up with a ribbon. It also successfully pulled off a crossover never seen before in cinema history.
Loki (Tom Hiddleston) attacks the S.H.I.E.L.D. base where the Tesseract is being studied by Thor's Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård) and director Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson). He acquires it, but is later captured by Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and Captain America (Chris Evans). They are intercepted on the way back by Thor (Chris Hemsworth) who steals his brother to interrogate him. Following a fight with Iron Man and Captain America, they regroup on board S.H.I.E.L.D.'s helicarrier with Banner (Mark Ruffalo), Fury, and superspy Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) but are soon attacked by Loki's forces who rapidly overwhelm the heroes with the help of Hulk and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner). As Loki activates his Skybeam™, it's up to the Avengers to reassemble and save New York from the alien hordes.
The Avengers isn't a perfect film, but it's right up there. The pieces of the bad guy's plan actually make (some) sense and fall into place for once, and are almost effective - not to mention, the motivation makes sense given that someone is giving the orders. Avengers also treats each main character with the same amount of respect and screen time, recognising that a major portion of the audience have already seen the movies featuring these characters and are invested in each one individually. They all get a moment to shine in the action, and their stories are all wrapped up in a nice bow, at least for the meantime.
The Avengers was an important film, both to cinema and to Marvel Studios' franchise. It was responsible for resolving multiple plotlines, creating a team and a shared universe out of 5 movies, leaving plenty of room for future films, and laying the foundations for a shared universe full of characters from all over the universe. It may have spent too long on the in-fighting for some people, and Loki's plan may not make perfect sense. But it perfectly achieved things never achieved before, and had fun doing it.
Comments