TGW Review: The Avengers
NON-SPOILERY
You know those movies that show all of the best scenes and funniest lines in the trailer? The Avengers is nothing like that.
The Avengers is a funny, action-packed, cohesive love letter to the super hero genre. It also manages to convey a serious sense of danger and urgency, without becoming overwhelmingly dark.
The Basics
Captain America, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Iron Man, and Thor must overcome their vast differences and team up to stop Loki and his invading army from conquering the world.
With five years of teasing from Marvel Studios; a huge cast of A-list talent; a collection of characters who shouldn’t be in the same room; and a story too big to tell in a movie, the opportunities for this film to suck were numerous. Fortunately, Joss Whedon & co were up to the challenge.
The Good
Badass Moments All Around!
Every single character has many moments to shine. With a cast this big, it would be easy to push many characters into the scenery. That didn’t happen. I’m hard-pressed to pick a favorite moment because there were so many great moments.
Bringing the Funny
In typical Whedon fashion, this movie is just as humorous as it is intense. In that way it reminds me of my True Lies (one of my all-time favorite action flicks).
Fun with Clichés
One of Whedon’s talents that runs throughout everything he’s ever done is his manipulation of clichés. He is a master of taking what the viewer expects, and then suddenly turning it on its side. Where lesser writers will fallback on “classic” story elements, Whedon works like a magician and always keeps you guessing. That’s one of the things that made Cabin in the Woods (2012) so exceptional.
Nothing is Wasted & Everything is Earned
This story is tight! There’s no fat on it. Every line either establishes a character, or pushes the story forward. Even the post-credit scene is a call-back joke to an earlier line that seemed like an irrelevant throwaway line.
3D
I strongly dislike 3D, but I didn’t mind the 3D in The Avengers. For the most part it added depth like a diorama, instead of flying at the audience like a pop-up book. With the exception of one brief moment, I was cool with the 3D.
Sam Jackson
Mr. Jackson is not known for subtlety. In The Avengers his performance in remarkably understated, and I thought it was exceptional. I’m not sure who made that decision, but whomever made that call deserves a cookie. If I’m remembering correctly, his most badass moment is devoid of dialog (or pretty close to it).
Suspension of Disbelief
The best praise I can give any super hero story (comic, or movie), is that my suspension of disbelief went unbroken throughout. Will that be the case after multiple viewing? I’m not sure. But while I was watching The Avengers, I was completely invested in the story, and it never made me question the narrative.
The Not-So-Good
As much as I loved The Avengers, I do have some minor gripes.
One Big Cliché
I don’t want to give anything away, but there is one big alien movie cliché that Whedon used to wrap up the film, and I found it slightly disappointing… But I also understood why it needed to be that way. I still wish it wasn’t.
3D Serpent Thingie
There was one moment in the third act where the 3D disrupted my viewing experience. That giant metal flying serpent thingie from the trailer flies into the screen (kind of over the camera), and my eyes/ brain were not ok with that at all.
Further Exploring the Idea of Freedom
Early in the film, Loki talks a bit about humans and freedom. It’s a concept that Whedon plays with a lot. In The Avengers, he starts to dig into this idea, but never really does anything with it, other than expand on Loki’s motivation. I think it was a missed opportunity to add extra meaning to the overall story.
The Ugly
Nothing serious to report here…
I Want More!
The DVD is going to have something like 30 minutes of extra footage, and I can’t wait for it.
The Bottom-Line
If you haven’t seen it yet, just go. This is what mainstream comic heroics look like at their very best.
There are two credits scenes.
The mid-credits scene sets up the next film (if you’re interested in who that character is, click here). You have to stay to see this as it explains something that happens in the beginning of the movie.
The post-credits scene isn’t necessary to see, but it is both very funny, and delightfully Whedonesque.
Lastly, if you liked the humor and storytelling in The Avengers, you really ought to watch some of Whedon’s early work. Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Dr. Horrible & Dollhouse are exceptional shows that are smart, moving, funny, and very entertaining.
Who is Thanos – The Man with the Purple Grin
Call it a hunch, but I suspect many non-comic geeks are going to be asking this question over the next few weeks:
Who is Thanos, AKA, the man with the purple grin?
Thanos was created by comic writer/ artists Jim Starlin in Iron Man 55.
Those who studied psychology might recognize his name’s connection to the thanatos complex, or death drive. While students of mythology will know that Thanatos (Thanatus in Latin) is the embodiment of death. At this point you might be noticing a pattern.
Thanos is a character obsessed with death. Literally. He spent his villainous career courting Death (a purple cloaked skeletal god of death in the Marvel Universe). His obsession has led him to kill a lot of people in hopes of winning her affection.
Kate Moss could totally play her!
In terms of strength, durability, and energy projection he’s on the of the most powerful characters in the Marvel Universe. However his intellect is his most potent weapon. Thanos stories always involve grandiose schemes that play-out over many issues (a trait common of many Starlin characters and comics). What sets Thanos apart from most other villains is that his plans generally work perfectly. When he is defeated it’s usually because he doesn’t feel he is worthy of Death’s love, and allows his opponents to win in some way (my over-simplification makes it sound less interesting that it is).
The Bottom-line
Thanos is a total badass of a character, and has been one of my favorite characters for many years.
His stories are deeply psychological, and very twisted. He’s the kind of character that Joss Whedon could have a lot of fun with if he were to perhaps stick around for an Avengers sequel.
If Thanos interests you, you should checkout Infinity Gauntlet. This is the definitive Thanos story, and one of the most fun superhero tales ever told.
Isaiah Mustafa For Luke Cage!
Following in the footsteps of Kevin Tancharoen’s Mortal Kombat Legacy, it looks like Isaiah Mustafa (the Old Spice guy) put together an elaborate pitch to play Marvel’s Luke Cage.
I think it speaks for itself.
Isaiah Mustafa For Luke Cage!
Tiny Thor
During the Super Bowl, Volkswagen ran the incredibly cute “Little Vader” ad.
Now there is “Little Thor” pimping the upcoming Thor movie.
(Via Bleeding Cool)
McDuffie on Being a Black Comic Writer
The so called “hardcore” comic fans are a tough crowd. And by tough crowd I really mean that they are a bunch of bastards hell-bent on keeping everything the same. They aren’t kids, they are an older crowd who wants the characters of their youth to remain unchanged. When things don’t go their way, they get nasty.
This becomes clear under three sets of circumstances:
- Q&A panels at comic conventions. You’d be amazed at the questions asked by grown men.
- Web forums (the favorite trolling spot for assholes).
- When a woman or black man take over a mainstream book.
Here’s the late Dwayne McDuffie on being a black writer in comics:
He isn’t exaggerating one bit. Sadly, this really is how so called hardcore fans tend to react.
(Via BoingBoing)
On Dwayne McDuffie’s Passing
On February 21, 2011 comic great Dwayne McDuffie passed away due to surgical complications at the age of 49.
For the last few years McDuffie has been among the few creators who’s work I would buy simply because he was involved. His work on Justice League Unlimited is incredible. In my very geeky opinion, JLU is the greatest animated series to ever grace the airwaves. I enjoyed his short stint on Fantastic Four, and his run on the Justice League comic was very deep, even though his hands were tied by DC editorial.
For me, McDuffie represented the struggle between creative talent and the big two comic book companies. This comic by McDuffie which I hadn’t seen until today’s Bleeding Cool McDuffie send off is just beautiful.
To be honest, I’m not really sure where I’m going with this. I’m just kind of sad that the man has died. I will really miss reading and watching his work.
(Images)
Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Review
The Plot
Universes are colliding and the characters from Marvel Comics & Capcom video games have found themselves in the same pickle (again). It’s pretty standard cross-over material.
Plot doesn’t really matter, what does is that you can pick from an assortment of classic characters and battle it out in three on three matches, just like Marvel vs. Capcom 2.
The Good
Gameplay
If you played MvC2, you pretty much know how to play the third installment. The largest change is that the controls have been simplified. The simplification makes the game fairly easy to get good at quickly. After a few days I think I’m better at MvC3 than I ever was at two, even though I played two for over ten years.
The moves flow from one another, and I never encounter those “oh crap!” moments of MvC2 where moves would miss when they obviously should have hit.
Graphics
The art direction is comic booky, and it works quite well. The four cinematic sequences that you can unlock over the course of the game look hot. I wish there were more of them. Here’s one of them:
Sounds
My biggest complaint with MvC2 was that the sounds were incredibly grating. In MvC3 the sounds don’t piss me off, and I actually enjoy the music. Ryu’s theme is my personal favorite.
Characters
With a roster of 36 characters and at least two more coming in downloadable content, there are plenty of characters to keep the game entertaining.
None of them are clones of others, and there isn’t a single character who is outright unusable. The characters seem well-balanced as well.
The Not-So-Good
Over-simplified
While I’m happy with the simplified controllers, I have a feeling that competitive players might not be. This doesn’t impact me one bit, but it might encourage the more hardcore players to stick with Super Street Fighter 4.
Missing Characters
Yes the character selection is good, but there are also a ton of missing character on both sides. I remember when MvC2 came out talking with friends about all the cool characters they should include in the third: Mega Man X, Dr. Strange, Silver Surfer, and many more.
It would have been nice for a massive character selection, as that was one of MvC2′s claims to fame.
The Ugly
Story
The story is barely there, and consists of poorly written endings for each character. Most of them are downright dumb.
I actually think the game would have been better without them. Skip the lazy writing, and add more characters like MvC2.
Missing Modes
There are only two gameplay modes. Arcade and two-player. It’s anemic and disrespectful to gamers.
If the game industry doesn’t want players to sell their games back to Game Stop, they need to include enough player content to keep them interested for a long time. This was just plain old lazy.
The Bottom-line
MvC3 has to measure up against childhood and adolescent fantasies of what the game would be like. It succeeds on almost every level.
It’s a great game that I will happily play against my friends for years, but I can’t help but feel like Capcom stalled-out instead of going the extra mile for gamers.
There’s a reason why American game makers have been consistently beating the old guard of Japanese companies. It’s the details. Japan has gotten lazy and it shows in the story, game mode options, and character roster.
