Review of The Avengers (2012) by Anthony K — 29 Jan 2016

When I saw this movie three years ago, I loved it. My subsequent viewing on the plane earlier this week, however, revealed that I had been dazzled by a bunch of bells and whistles.

At the close of Phase One of their Cinematic Universe, Marvel seem to abandon all pretense of telling compelling, self-contained stories. Instead, we're subjected to biannual feature length trailers for upcoming feature length trailers as far into the future as box office returns are healthy. The Avengers is a glaring example of this. There's no tension because we know none of the characters are in danger (they all need to reprise their roles in the next Marvel adventure), Loki has officially worn out his welcome (can we please go back to the heyday of Obadiah Stane already?), and the movie devolves into a Michael Bay PG-13 action mess during the climax.

But what about the humor? Joss Whedon's character work and dialogue save the movie, right? Surprisingly, none of it actually works. The jokes are flat and the dialogue consists mostly of distracting banter (Oh, is Loki adopted, Thor? Is that how you're going to shrug off the death of hundreds?). It's lazy, insulting writing considering that each of these characters deserve better treatment. The backstories are there in the comics, but instead we're treated to two hours of two dimensional fan service. The only moment of real depth happens between Bruce Banner and Tony Stark in their lab, but buried under 140 minutes of trash, it doesn't do much to fix anything.

So is "The Avengers" bad? Unfortunately yes, very much so. 3.8/10.