Review of The Avengers (2012) by Goingcritic — 29 Sep 2012

Wow. I had heard a lot about this movie. Heard it was possibly the best film of all time from some people. There's certainly been plenty of noise about The Avengers - from Marvel aficionados to old fashioned action movie fans. Fun, fast-paced, boundary-breaking, smart, genre-redefining...? Hm.

I'll grant some of that. It IS fast, it IS visually impressive, and it does have passable humour, but ultimately it's a vacuous piece. It is stuffed at the beginning with superfluous padding to provide a reason to draw together hitherto mutually exclusive superheroes. This distracts from the overal theme of the movie of mindless action. Mindless? Let's have a villain want to rule a world he clearly has no interest in through the assistance of an ally (of dubious loyalty) that also has no interest in the Earth but rather in the "Doomsday Device". Lol, jk; the aliens actually want to blow up New York taxis, and never bother ever attempting to obtain, protect or use the Doomsday Device in any way other way other than as an excuse for their taxi destruction antics. But hey; any excuse for cool explosions man! Want a aircraft carrier. Sure. Hell let's make it fly. So it's not a ship but an aircraft... carrying aircraft. Oh, and let's have it invisible. Actually... perhaps scratch the invisibility. Continuity error? Who'll notice! Sure, the aircraft command centre is only an excuse to have a localised firefight! For this purpose we will also have a high-security prison cell, nuclear research facility, weapons R&D and an army barracks on board. Sure why else would you have the supervillan, the Hulk, and the enemy's most powerful weapon all located at the centre of your command HQ? However, luckily for the good guys Bruce Banner for no reason presented on screen manages to work out how to control his Hulk form for the duration of the film. Continuity error? Ah, hell, we want to see the Hulk smashing bad guys, right?

Don't get me wrong; the fight sequences are cool, even though I would have preferred a universe where the US military existed in some shape or form (apparently the flying aircraft carriers also holds the entire stockpile of US nukes as well). The villains always seem outclassed; having only one named character who is no match even for his (adoptive) brother alone, let alone a whole posse of superheroes. Robert Downey Jr certainly buoys up the mood of the film, and some neat quips provide some laughs, but the Avengers is an entirely forgettable, if inoffensive, lights and noise affair. Worth a casual watch, particularly if drunk and with friends.