?The Avengers? Review | The Cinema Jack

DIRECTOR // Joss Whedon

PRODUCER // Kevin Feige

WRITER // Joss Whedon

CAST // Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Renner, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson

B

Marvel? Studios has been building up to The Avengers since it was first teased in a post-credits scene in 2008?s Iron Man. Four films later, one of the most anticipated films of the past decade has finally hit big screens nationwide, and fan reaction has been more than generous. The Avengers is the fourth-highest-grossing film of all-time, the highest-grossing comic book adaptation, the highest-grossing superhero film, and the highest-grossing film produced and distributed by Disney. Much like its hype, The Avengers itself is a massive spectacle of a film, expensive and shiny and beautiful to look at, but it fails to do much beyond tantalizing the eyes and the ears.

The opportunity to witness a group of prolific superheroes gather in a single film is an enticing concept, and seeing Robert Downey, Jr.?s Iron Man, Chris Evans?s Captain America, Chris Hemsworth?s Thor, and Mark Ruffalo?s Hulk does inspire excitement and star-struck awe, but their interactions are exactly what anyone with a half of a brain cell would expect. Critics have praised the fact that these heroes do not get along initially, but would any mentally competent human being expect any different? Each character is expressed through the single punchline they are given: Tony Stark is an egotistical narcissist (more annoyingly so than he was in Iron Man and Iron Man 2), Thor is a fish out of water that does not understand human culture, Captain America is behind on the times, and Hulk is an angry green man; all of these heroes are played for laughs and none of them have any serious character traits.

That gripe is part of the film?s largest problem: the script. Writer-director Joss Whedon is and always has been a talentless hack, unfit to properly pen my order at a restaurant, let alone a big Hollywood adaptation of such a beloved property. His writing is massively and annoyingly pretentious; ?he wants you to know just how clever he thinks he is. I cannot think of a single point in the film that properly sustained a solemn or tense atmosphere for more than a couple minutes before Whedon butted in and tried to be funny. If I wanted to hear obnoxious and snarky dialogue, I would go into a cave and speak with my own echo, but I am not a cave-dweller and Joss Whedon is not as clever a screenwriter as he boasts.

Fortunately, his direction is not nearly as abysmal as his writing. Whedon does stage a number of aesthetically impressive action sequences, specifically a drawn-out battle in Manhattan. Each Avenger contributes his or her own unique ability, and when Mark Ruffalo becomes The Incredible Hulk, mass destruction ensues when Whedon isn?t trying to make some sort of mockery of it. The Manhattan melee is a cornucopia of creative camera shots and stunning special effects, but even beautiful people doing the most beautifully explosive things imaginable cannot save a script that a thirteen-year-old class clown could write in his sleep.

Back in 2005, Christopher Nolan surprised audiences everywhere with Batman Begins, a film that took a ridiculous premise and made it gritty and realistic. As opposed to doing something like that, Joss Whedon has instead decided to make no effort in writing a good script, but rather write about how stupid the film is, and, to his credit, his assertion of its stupidity is fairly accurate. Is The Avengers a bad film? No. Is it a great film? No. I enjoyed it for what it was: manufactured explosions and high-grade effects. It?s a sadly disappointing film, and perhaps with better writing, it could really have achieved greatness, but as it stands, The Avengers is a serviceable popcorn flick that works as a decent kick-start to the summer movie season.

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