Review of The Avengers (2012) by Txrangersfan72 — 04 May 2012

At the core of a great film is an even greater story. At the core of every great story are even greater characters, chemistry and a strong foundation of source material. The Avengers have been around since the early 60s, and the characters even far beyond that. Personally, in the midst of my parents divorcing, I decided to take a second chance on comic books after dipping my toe into Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew in March, 1982 while living in Broken Arrow, OK during one of my many, many trips to QuikTrip to either buy ice cream, donuts or penny candy while playing Ms. Pac-Man. It wasn't a wonder why I became fat around this time. Fast forward 2 years to May, 1984, when I purchased Avengers (Vol 1) number 243, mostly due to my being intrigued with Captain America. I instantly fell in love with comics, and needed them to help me cope with the massive changes going on around me at the time. My heart was broken when the first Avengers cartoon series in 1999-2000 was an embarrassment. Just a pathetic series. However, when the X-Men movies did well and other titles like Daredevil, Elektra and Fantastic Four started to be released, I was excited to eventually see, at least, Captain America, Iron Man, etc. on the big screen. Never did I think a studio would be ambitious enough to attempt The Avengers as a whole.

Over the past few months, I've seen some of the most uninteresting trailers for The Avengers. I have been so worried thinking that the movie I've waited 28 years for was going to be an absolute disaster. Trailer after trailer, it didn't look any better. Did Joss royally screw this thing up???

Well, I saw it opening night, tonight. The trailers show the tiniest fraction of what happens in this absolute masterpiece. Sure, it's action-packed. It's expected to be. Sure it's got funny moments. It's expected to, especially with Robert Downey, Jr. as a leading man. What Joss Whedon did was take the greatest care of characters since Nolan's Batman series. The interaction between the characters, the way they deal with their own personal concerns and flaws, and how they come together as a team is so perfectly executed it nearly brought tears to my eyes. To most people it might be looked at as an enjoyable popcorn film; a great kickoff to the summer movie season. To me, a die-hard, multi-decade fanatic of this comic, these films, these characters and the integrity of keeping them authentic was paramount and, honestly, impossible to achieve, in my eyes. Joss proved me oh-so-wrong. When I began seeing the very nigh praise, the 93% on Rottentomatoes, etc. my low expectations became super high expectations. How often are expectations like that ever met? Well, I can at least say they weren't met. They were left in the dust, exceeded beyond anything my fanboy mind could have conjured. Bless Marvel, Whedon and these actors for treating multiple generations of fans to a perfect example of how it can be done right. Sure, Nolan has become the gold standard, but Whedon showed everyone that Marvel can do it too. My only regret is that Edward Norton couldn't reprise his role as Bruce Banner. Of the 3 Bruce's, he was the best. Mark Ruffalo was the worst. I like him as an actor and he had some of the mannerisms, but Edward captured the intellectual, frightened and loner aspect of Bruce Banner perfectly. Hulk, however, stole the show. Without spoiling some of the key aspects of the movie, I will just say that Joss' inclusion of Hulk in the manner in which he was was the cherry on top of this perfect sundae. While I can't imagine them topping this one, I've been so strongly surprised, I would never say never. The setup at the end of The Avengers has me so excited about where these movies will continue to go. I even guessed the surprise ending way early in the movie, but that was a product of my pure geekiness made happy by clearly other geeky people who wrote the film. Bring it on, Marvel.