I wish there were a way for me to accurately describe how amazing it is that I woke up before noon and managed to do things beyond turn on the Xbox. With no exaggeration, this is the first, maybe the second, Monday in 2012 that such an event has occurred. And since it's been about three months since I wrote a blog (even longer since I wrote one of significance), I'm just going to take a moment to pat myself on the back for such a banner day.
Heh.
Banner. How's that for a
segway?
So in an attempt to:
A) write more blogs, and...
B) write more blogs in a timely fashion...
...let's talk about
The Avengers. Fair warning, there will be some spoilers in here somewhere, so proceed with caution. Then again, if you didn't see the movie this weekend... what the fuck were you doing? It's like you and one other dude that didn't see this damn thing. It made mad money. Like fix our national deficit money. Jesus. Go watch it. Now. Just leave work. Your boss will understand. He saw it on Saturday.
By random happenstance, I saw the movie three times this weekend. That was definitely not planned, but it worked out to give me a more informed platform on which to write this. Plus, I dig the shit out of that movie and had no problems at all doing something stupid like watching it thrice.
Awhile ago Marvel made the announcement that there would be an all day movie marathon leading up to The Avengers midnight release. Both Iron Man movies, The Incredible Hulk, Captain America, and Thor shown on the big screen before Avengers came out. Of course I jumped on it. My girlfriend was supposed to go with, but her job was in crunch mode so she was stuck working (we ended up getting home at the same time that night). Fortunately, the company offered to take everyone out to the movie Friday night. So I went with, because who turns down a free movie? And how am I supposed to turn down a free showing of The Avengers? At that point I realized I needed to make arrangements with a good friend of mine (follow
him). Sometimes he needs a push to do these things (by these things I mean watch the Marvel movies), and I like dragging him to them. So I asked him about next weekend and he wanted to get it in this weekend (good idea). Things fell together on Sunday and it ended up being a decent size group of people (shocking, since it's usually just the two of us).
None of that is important, I guess, but there you go. I saw the movie three times this weekend with three different crowds. What amazed me the most about that was the, uh... universal...ity(?) of the film. The marathon was, of course, a collection of dedicated nerds and geeks and fanboys. Our group Friday night was still composed of nerds, though I suspect far fewer comic book nerds. Sunday, our group was composed mostly of just people who had seen the other movies. Again, I'm making assumptions, but the crowd at the theater seemed to fit the bill. People who just wanted to see these characters again.
In all three theaters, at three different times with three different groups of people... the experience was almost the same. The crowd laughed, cheered, and applauded at almost all the same moments, (with the exception of the reveal at the end). I'm not just talking about a reaction to a scene. I mean the exact reaction. Everyone laughs at Tony Stark. Everyone cheers and applauds at "Hulk. Smash." Everyone laughs, cheers, and applauds when Hulk sucker punches Thor. Down to the volume and exact expression of appreciation, the response to the movie was the same. The same thing for the same scenes at each different viewing. This amazes me. I don't know if it's as amazing as it seems to me, but I'm impressed with the universal appeal of each joke and each moment.
We don't need to get into a long thing about how I loved this movie. Of course I did. There wasn't a lot of question going into it that I would. The best I can say is that I had high expectations for this film and it lived up to them. I love Marvel. I love Joss Whedon. I love the direction Marvel has taken their movies. I expected quite a bit out of the movie, and it delivered what I expected (and more).
I do want to break down a few things, though. Having seen it three times now, I've made some more detailed observations than I might have from just one viewing. I'll start with the negative (or as negative as I'm going to get). This movie has no real jump on point. I was thinking about it, and this is sort of like the third film in a trilogy. While a passive knowledge of these characters is enough to get through, the events in the Captain America and Thor films have a direct correlation to what happens in The Avengers. I think one could get through the movie well enough without having seen the previous incarnations of these heroes. Thor is a god. Cap is a soldier. Loki and Thor are brothers. Loki is bad. The tesseract is powerful. It's hard for me to say for sure, since I do not lack the more intimate knowledge of these characters and events, but I feel like the movie would be missing a certain punch with just these base models provided in the film. There are a few hints in the film, but it isn't made overtly obvious that Captain America was the hero of World War II and has been frozen ever since. How does one reconcile Cap's character and actions (particularly his dialogue) without that knowledge? It was mentioned once or twice, but I feel like with all that's going on, these cues are easy to miss. Who the hell is that woman kissing Tony Stark? Who the hell is that woman with Nick Fury? I'm almost certain they never used Hill's first name in the movie, (Maria, if you're curious). What the hell are the Chitauri? Who the hell is The Council and why does Fury answer to them? Who was that dude who smiled at the end of the movie?
The movie works without the answers to most of these questions. Perhaps even part of the point is to tempt people into seeking the answers. But I couldn't stop myself from asking them, and wondering if the answers were important enough to skew the viewing for people without them.
In that same vein, it's just one big action flick. An amazing, lovely action flick... but the kind of movie that lacks the same sort of plot and character development as any Statham or Schwarzenegger film. You have the do-gooders and the villains, and some strange plot to destroy some shit. Do-gooders will stop the villains from completing their evil. That's the extent of it. Now, of course, having seen the previous stand alone features films of these Avengers will fill in a lot of the blanks, but as a stand alone feature itself, The Avengers doesn't completely work. All of the pieces aren't there.
That said, I will brook no argument (unlike Mr. Jackson) to people who want to say this movie isn't good. It succeeds at everything it attempted to accomplish. It's exactly what it was supposed to be. But nothing like this has ever been done before. No one has ever taken five separate franchises and smashed them together. It has no real comparison. For someone who judges films on the usual standard, though... it might not hold up.
Tom Hiddleston and Scarlett Johannson are incredible. Their interrogation scene is easily my favorite moment in the film. There's a strange sort of meta thing happening with Black Widow. Scarlett, a really good actress, is playing one of the world's greatest spies. To be able to do her job, to feel all these people and assume all these covers, the Black Widow has to be a really good actress. So I watch the movie thinking that Johannson is doing an amazing job... only to have the script flip a bit and realize the Black Widow was doing an act all along. I bought it because Johannson is so damn good. She has to be, to make that role believable. It just... works. And I loved that.
I'm going to come back to Hiddleston in just a moment. I want to stick on Johannson for a bit, though. When I went into the movie for the second and third times, I was making a conscious effort to observe certain things. One of those things was Mark Ruffalo, and it sort of ties back in on Johannson. Watch the movie again and keep attention on the interactions between Black Widow and Bruce Banner. She is terrified of the Hulk. Nothing else seems to phase her. She puts on a front or a cover or whatever two or three times in the movie. With the Russian dude. With Loki. She is calm and collected and cool through everything that happens with the Chitauri and fighting aliens and all this stuff. Except with Banner. That look in her eyes when she pulls the gun on Banner the first time. Or after the Hulk attacks her and she's just sitting on the floor. The first time I watched it, I thought she was still recovering from an injury or something. Then I paid more attention. The way she's sitting there. The look on her face. That woman is fucking shaken to the core. It's not an injury. She's just gods damned terrified.
On the other side of that, keep track of what Ruffalo's doing in almost every scene. He's always doing something. He's wringing his hands or playing with something or biting his lip. There's a nervousness to him. I think it's easy to just assume he is nervous. Given the circumstances, he should be. But after watching it the first time when he tells Cap that the secret is he's always angry... I watched him with that in mind. And I noticed those these are things I do when I'm angry. These are some of the exact mannerisms I have when I'm trying to keep myself from exploding. I didn't think much of it the first time through, but on the subsequent screenings it becomes apparent. That still sort of amazes me. Overall, this is what amazes me about the film. Watching it a couple of times, I can still pick out things I want to observe in the next viewing. And on that next viewing, I am awarded because the detail I was hoping to see is there. The actors and creators of this film took care to put these things in there.
For instance, when you watch the movie again, pay attention to Iron Man near the end of the film. He does that crash landing through the bus stop (the one with the Jansport ad) right before Fury tells him about the nuclear missile. The building on that street where he crashes... one of them is a shawarma restaurant. I didn't notice it until the third viewing. But it's right there.
Lots of movies do things like this, of course. Avengers is not the first, but it is nice to note. It's cool that it's one of the movies that did this, because it very easily could have not. They could have taken the easy way out on this one and just cashed in and moved on. There was no doubt this thing was going to make fuck tons of money. Yes, that is an accurate measurement. But there was some care and love put into this. Sometimes, that can make all the difference.
Back to Hiddleston. I thoroughly enjoyed him in this film. Moreso than in Thor, I think. He was just such a fun villain to watch. There was a menace and confidence about him. Even when he was losing. The interesting thing, though, is that there is little doubt he's the villain. He's fun to watch, but not likeable. It's not like The Dark Knight where people begin to root for The Joker. People embrace The Joker. He's the best part of that movie. He's the character that people take from that film. The Joker almost becomes the hero figure, as it amounts to fan response, at least. I don't think the same will be said for Loki. I don't think people will walk away talking about how awesome Loki was. He was clearly defined as the villain.
Which is funny, because he may well be the hero of that Avengers movie. I've come up with this theory, and I'm probably not alone in thinking it. I've not bothered to do any research into whether it's true or not, but I think The Avengers can be viewed as Loki's attempt to save the world. I've gotten into the Thor comics over the past couple of years, starting back when JMS rebooted and I've kept on after Fraction took over. I also picked up on Gillen's Journey Into Mystery when that started (fantastic book you should be reading). In doing so, I've developed a certain love and respect for Loki and his particular brand of mischievous, self-serving heroism.
So I propose that The Avengers was all Loki's plot to save the world and get back home to Asgard. At the end of Thor, he drops off into a wormhole, abyss thing and disappears. The Asgardians assume he died, but we do see him appear in the after credits teaser. We find out at the beginning of The Avengers that he ended up on some barren planet or moon and somehow gets mixed up with Thanos and the Chitauri. Loki agrees to lead the Chitauri in a war to claim the Earth and take the tesseract for Thanos. This is the essential plot of the movie. We do see a hint that Loki may have been coerced or threatened into leading this army. At any rate, he's lost on this planet with no way to escape, so his options are pretty limited. Kind of just join up or die.
Loki kills how many scientists and SHIELD agents when he first takes the tesseract? He selects to turn Selvig instead of any of the other number of scientists. Note that this is after Selvig mentions Thor, and even later in the movie Thor points out that Loki must have selected Selvig on purpose. As it turns out, Selvig builds the tesseract portal machine thing with a failsafe. Without that, the portal would have been impossible to close and the Chitauri would have just unleashed wave after unending wave of their alien horde. Selvig's design of the machine helps save the day. It could be argued that his choosing Selvig was happenstance or that he just chose the chief scientist. Either of these could be true, too.
Loki more or less allows himself to be captured in Germany and taken to the helicarrier. This is made obvious on multiple occasions. Note first that his capture is the final act that brings Thor back to Earth. The Asgardians can't let one of their own face human judgement.Without being captured, who knows how long before Thor would have arrived?
Banner points out that Loki's "warm light for all mankind" jab was likely directed at Tony Stark. There is a discussion that takes place immediately after about Stark Tower, to which Banner and Stark assume Loki was referring. This is the exact location of the device that will open the portal for the Chitauri. It takes the heroes a little while to put that piece of the puzzle together, but Loki gave it to them fairly early on. Loki's plan of escape leaves the helicarrier crippled, but not destroyed (it can be argued that he would not have been able to escape had it been destroyed, but he's fucking magic so I call shenanigans on that). He also has Hawkeye lead the attack, which eventually leads to Hawkeye being reabsorbed into the SHIELD fold. He goes on to become a member of that Avengers team.
The attack on the helicarrier unleashes the Hulk, which was something everyone else was very keen on not letting happen. We should note that the Hulk (not Bruce Banner) goes on to become a very integral member of the Avengers. Also note that, with Loki in the holding cell, the Hulk has to be removed from the helicarrier before he destroys it. SHIELD initiates a plan to do just that (a predictable backup plan for this scenario, and it is not farfetched to think Loki would have expected this).
Before Loki escapes, he traps Thor and releases him from the helicarrier as well. So now Loki's plan has ensured that the two biggest hitters on the Avengers have escaped the possible destruction of the helicarrier. Even if the other Avengers die, the two strongest and most obvious threats to the Chitauri invasion are spared.
He also, of course, kills Agent Coulson. This is the driving force (as is pointed out multiple times) in bringing the Avengers together. This is the push that was needed. Loki's action was that push. And, I believe, Coulson was the only person Loki personally killed on the helicarrier (could be wrong on that).
Loki escapes and has a talk with Tony Stark at Stark Tower. Stark tells Loki that he pissed off all the Avengers, and Loki tells him that was the plan. Stark, of course, tell him it was a bad plan. Perhaps. But not if the plan was to bring the Avengers together to save the world in the end.
We should keep pointing out that Loki is a god with magic powers. He could have killed Tony Stark a hundred different ways. He could have just stabbed him with a spear. Instead, he throws Stark out of a window. Stark survives, (he has a flying robot suit, after all) and helps lead the Avengers on the defense against the Chitauri.
Then Loki fights his brother out on Stark Tower. Thor and Loki go at it, Loki loses his spear in the fight and just leaves it on the ground when he dives off the ledge to escape his brother. The spear remains exactly where he left it until Selvig points it out. Actually.... it might have been dropped there after Hulk tackles Loki. Either way, it's there and Loki has made no real attempt to recover it. The spear, it turns out, is the only way to close the portal and stop the Chitauri invasion.
So by the end of the movie, The Avengers have come together (thanks to all of Loki's scheming) and saved the day. Loki is taken back to Asgard (he had no way of getting back there before this), as is the tesseract (now under protection and kept from the hands of Thanos) and all is well in the world. Thus, this was Loki's plan all along and all that transpired was as he wanted. He escapes grievous punishment from the humans, gets to go back home, and keeps a dangerous weapon out of the hands of an alien warlord.
OK. So there's that. One last thing (as if this wasn't long enough). I have devised a few rules for an Avengers drinking game. We might need a couple more, so feel free to throw in some suggestions. Definitely need a rule for finishing a drink, but I've got nothing yet. Guess we could do this with shots and leave as is? This is what I have so far.
-Take a drink every time Tony Stark uses a "clever" nickname for someone.
-Take a drink every time Bruce Banner says "other guy."
-Take a drink every time someone is tackled. Take two drinks if someone is tackled from off-screen.
-Take a drink every time Cap or Thor throw their weapon. Take two drinks if it's knocked from their hands or dropped.
