Marvel Cinematic Universe: THE AVENGERS

In eager anticipation of Marvel Studios' AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON, I'm re-watching every entry in the "Marvel Cinematic Universe" (MCU) thus far, from IRON MAN to GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, and then sharing my views on each one as a film and within the context of the MCU and movie landscape.  At the end of each essay is a list of "Easter eggs" that connect the pertinent film to other films in the wider MCU, and a "Top 5" of the best five parts (a scene, concept, actor, character, etc.) in each movie.  The first five movies of the MCU were in the service of setting up a world to be paid off in spectacular fashion, and spectacular it was, in Marvel Studios' best independently-produced movie to date, MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS.  [Please note, this review contains spoilers for MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS, and some speculation involving connections to future Marvel releases].

MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS  (aka AVENGERS ASSEMBLE)
Released 4 May 2012
Directed by Joss Whedon
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, Clark Gregg, Cobie Smulders, Stellan Skarsgard, Gwyneth Paltrow, Alexis Denisof
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action throughout, and a mild drug reference.
143 minutes
Merit: 4/4
When Nick Fury, the Director of an international peacekeeping agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D., encounters an unexpected enemy that threatens global safety and security, he finds himself in need of a team to pull the world back from the brink of disaster.  Spanning the globe, a daring recruitment effort begins for Earth's mightiest heroes.  Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, The Incredible Hulk, and two of the world's greatest assassins, Black Widow and Hawkeye, must assemble to defeat Loki, the darkest villain the Earth has ever known.  [Synopsis from "Marvel Cinematic Universe - Phase One: Avengers Assembled" Blu-ray box set]

The last time that I left a movie theater feeling really exhilarated after seeing a brand new movie for the first time was at about 2:45 AM on May 4, 2012.  It was in the wee hours of the morning, but I felt like the previous two hours and twenty-three minutes had been the most entertaining superhero movie I had ever seen and my adrenaline was still soaring.  I watched it again about 18 hours later after completing a work shift, and my opinion was not changed.  In anticipation of the 2012 summer movie season, I was more excited for THE DARK KNIGHT RISES than any other movie, but even three years later, MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS is still the most fun, and if that is any mark of quality, the best superhero movie that I've ever seen.

MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS, differentiating itself from the inept and silly 1998 flop, but also popularly known simply as THE AVENGERS, or in the UK as AVENGERS ASSEMBLE, is a deliriously witty thrill ride from the start, as Loki (Tom Hiddleston), notably more psychotic from when we last saw him in THOR, ambushes a S.H.I.E.L.D. research facility to steal the Tesseract, a powerful energy source which he plans to use to open a portal and unleash an alien army called the Chitauri, and conquer Earth.  From there, we're reunited with the heroes we know from the previous Marvel films, far flung across the globe; Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), code name Black Widow, in Russia, Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), aka the Hulk, in Calcutta, and Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.), aka Iron Man, and Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), aka Captain America, both in New York City.  Once they get the team together, the trick is to get them to work together, as their egos and allegiances clash and Loki plays them against each other.
Writer/director Joss Whedon, previously best known as the creator of the TV series Buffy the Vampire

Slayer and Firefly, and his only prior theatrically-released feature film being SERENITY, a commercial failure continuation of Firefly, nails the tone of each of the characters, sometimes even better than their solo films.  Flying in the face of the post-DARK KNIGHT "dark and gritty" formula, Whedon's script uses humor to emphasize each of the important characters' personalities, with a pervasive wit that injects itself into the action set-pieces as well as the character interactions.
THE AVENGERS has wall-to-wall action, but there are three showcase action set-pieces, each of which capture the landmarks in the formation of the Avengers team.  First is the confrontation in Germany, where Loki is apprehended by Captain America and Iron Man, but the arrest soon descends into a showdown between Cap, Iron Man and Loki's brother Thor (Chris Hemsworth).  When they're first put together, they end up fighting each other.  Second is the battle on the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, where Loki makes his escape while manipulating the Avengers to turn on each other, but they're gradually learning to cooperate for the greater good.  Finally, there's the grand 40-minute climax, the "Battle of New York", where all six Avengers finally come together to work as a unit to fight an army of hundreds of Chitauri warriors.
On the one hand, the Battle of New York sequence can be criticized as typical CGI bombast and destruction, and producer Kevin Feige may have chosen a poor example for what he wanted to emulate in TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON, but my goodness, it's so awesome.  Of course, there's the "nerdgasm"-inducing "hero shot" as the Avengers circle up, but my favorite is the extended tracking shot that goes from Avenger to Avenger as they take down Chitauri across the cityscape.  The Chitauri are a generic, "faceless" army that basically serve as fodder for the Avengers, but the generic villain serves the intended purpose of providing a context in which the heroes overcome their main obstacle in the movie- their lack of cooperation and personal shortcomings, such as when Stark makes a sacrifice that calls back to Captain America's accusation that he wasn't the type to "lay down on the wire".  Loki is a spectacular villain who gets some really great moments, but the point isn't so much the heroes vs. villains aspect as it is the heroes getting over their own personal hang ups.  Stark is selfish, Banner is ashamed, Romanoff and Barton have guilt complexes, and so on.  THE AVENGERS is about its eponymous characters coming to terms with each other and themselves.  Romanoff is my personal favorite, vastly improved from her introduction in IRON MAN 2, a sexy, feminist character with a lot of substance, complemented by Johansson's performance.

Loki, the primary antagonist, may be only a secondary obstacle to the Avengers, but he's nonetheless a marvelous comic book villain, vicious and indignant, with plenty of opportunities for flowery speeches while watching on amused at the chaos that he creates.  As a special bonus, he proves that you can get away with using an archaic form of the so-called "c-word" in a family adventure film distributed by Disney, you "mewling quim".  It is a family film; if Marvel Studios have proved anything, it's that we've come back around from the PG-rated family fare of the '70s and '80s that would be rated PG-13 today, to actually having PG-13-rated family films.  Slightly older families, sure, but THE AVENGERS really does have something for everyone, men and women, young and old.
It's mass appeal showed at the box office, where THE AVENGERS was a gargantuan success.  2012 was a stellar year for film, with four movies that crossed the $1 billion barrier internationally, including THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY and SKYFALL, not to mention a little movie called THE HUNGER GAMES that tore up the month of March with $408 million domestically.  It was an insanely successful year for big Hollywood movies, plus a lot of them were successful as entertainment besides.  Nothing could touch the success of THE AVENGERS though.  Four pre-established superhero series tying in together, it was practically money in the bank from the word 'go', but it far outplayed expectations.  Previously, the record for opening weekend gross was 2011's HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 2 $169.1 million, more than $10 million over the next runner-up, 2008's THE DARK KNIGHT.  Box office analysts began the weekend predicting a record-breaking $172 million for THE AVENGERS, and by the time reports for opening day, May 4, came in, with a second-highest opening day ever of $80.5 million, opening up the possibility of an outrageous $200 million weekend.  What's more, stellar reviews and audience word-of-mouth was through the roof, making it a truly must-see movie, and by the time the weekend was over, THE AVENGERS had shattered not only records but expectations with $207.4 million, which currently stands $33 million ahead of the next runner-up.  In its first weekend, THE AVENGERS had nearly grossed its enormous $220 million budget.  It was only getting started.

The movie had real legs, being the only movie to ever gross a whole $100 million in its second weekend alone, then reaching $1 billion worldwide by May 12.  By the end of its theatrical run in October 2012, THE AVENGERS ranked as the third highest-grossing movie of all-time, both domestically and internationally.  Domestically, THE AVENGERS stands behind AVATAR ($760.5 million) and TITANIC ($658.6 million), with a total of $623.3 million, ahead of fourth place-holder THE DARK KNIGHT ($534.8 million).  Internationally, THE AVENGERS stands behind AVATAR ($2.788 billion) and TITANIC ($2.186 billion), with an international total of $1.518 billion, ahead of HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 2 ($1.341 billion).
Interestingly, heading into the summer, THE AVENGERS was not the most anticipated movie of the season, going up against THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, the long-awaited follow-up to 2008's THE DARK KNIGHT.  THE DARK KNIGHT is a brilliant movie, an important movie, a movie that brought artistic legitimacy for superhero movies to all but the most stubborn and snootiest art house champions.  THE DARK KNIGHT RISES doesn't live up to its predecessor, not by a long shot, and after so much denial and so many attempts to justify the bloatedness, the improbable plotting, the b-grade supporting cast and overall depressing qualities, one just has to accept that THE DARK KNIGHT RISES is ultimately a failure.  In many otherwise positive reviews of THE AVENGERS, critics qualified that THE AVENGERS was merely a "popcorn movie", a fun bit of summer entertainment, but the real show was yet to come, THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, and would remind us all that superhero movies can be "art" too.  THE AVENGERS, certainly as far as I'm concerned, is the best superhero movie to date.  It's technically not "perfect"; it has a few contrivances in service of the plot and much of the climactic action is almost entirely computer animated, but it's such a joyous piece of wish-fulfillment, the ideal (if not perfect) summer movie.  Four years after the crushingly dark and cynical THE DARK KNIGHT, released in the midst of the Great Recession, where only a glimmer of hope shines through, THE AVENGERS revealed a world that THE DARK KNIGHT only hints at; a world of ideals and optimism, where the true challenge and ultimate victory is in working together.  THE AVENGERS is the ultimate feel-good fantasy, one full of old-fashioned ideals and optimism worth real-world striving, and that is pretty important too.

Easter Eggs to Look for:

•  Foreshadowing to AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR: In a mid-credits stinger, Loki's contact to the Chitauri, The Other (Alexis Denisof) speaks to his master: "Humans...they are not the cowering wretches we were promised. They are unruly, and therefore cannot be ruled.  To challenge them is to court death."   The large-jawed purple face that turns and grins is Thanos, an Avengers villain noted for his "love affair" with death, and has already appeared in a cameo in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, played by Josh Brolin, and will be the primary antagonist in AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR PART 1 coming in 2018 and PART 2 in 2019.

Top Five Moments of MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS 
1. Extended Tracking Shot Over the Battle of New York (Tie-In Shot)- An astoundingly complex and lengthy, uncut shot that follows Black Widow up into the air, piggybacking a ride on an alien vehicle, passing Iron Man, who the camera follows as he passes to take down a few Chitauri with Captain America on the street, then flying up past Hawkeye, stopping to show him taking down aliens with his unique arrow arsenal, then catching up with Hulk and Thor atop a passing Leviathan, taking down and wrapping up with a hilarious non sequitur comic beat as Hulk punches Thor out of frame.
2. Natasha Interrogates Loki- Natasha gets Loki, imprisoned in a huge, practically impenetrable glass cell, talking with her own unique interrogation technique, and getting him to expose his most sinister side: "This is the basest sentimentality. This is a child at prayer...pathetic! You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers. You pretend to be separate, to have your own code, something that makes up for the horrors. But they are a part of you, and they will never go away!  I won't touch Barton. Not until I make him kill you, slowly, intimately, in every way he knows you fear! And then he'll wake just long enough to see his good work, and when he screams, I'll split his skull! This is my bargain, you mewling quim!"  Reaching a chilling boiling point, Natasha gets what she wants from him though.
3. String Quartet No. 13 in A Minor (Rosamunde) by Franz Schubert- I adore action scenes scored with Romantic-Classical compositions, and Rosamunde is a beautiful, sentimental piece to play over a possessed Clint Barton shooting down security guards and Loki using a horrific device to carve out a high society man's eye.  It emphasizes the brutality by adding a disturbing elegance to the violence.
4. "Make your move, Reindeer Games."- Iron Man has already shown up earlier in the film, but this is his real entrance into THE AVENGERS, showing up in Berlin as Captain America is sparring with Loki, taking over S.H.I.E.L.D.'s quinjet PA system with AC/DC's "Shoot to Thrill", knocking Loki to the ground and gives him an offer: "Make your move, Reindeer Games."  That, ladies and gentlemen, is Iron Man.
5. Shawarma- Filmed less than a month before the film's wide release and added after the film's world premiere, the brief post-credits scene of the Avengers sitting around a table in a heavily damaged cafe eating shawarma in the battle aftermath provided a huge boost sales for vendors of the Middle Eastern dish in the wake of the film's release.  Shawarma, kind of like a Middle Eastern version of a submarine sandwich, as one of those who became interested after seeing THE AVENGERS, is really, really tasty, but the scene is just such a perfect coda to all the non-stop action that came before.  Everything has been said and done, they've just fought a huge intergalactic battle, and they just sit there in silence, battle-worn, eating shawarma.

Images via Marvel Studios