I’ve got to hand it to Marvel Studios, they make better comic book popcorn than anyone.
Warner Brothers has had complete access to the DC pantheon for years and they can seemingly only find gold with Batman(and even then they’re 3 for 6). Green Lantern was some of the most God Awful Shit I’ve ever seen anyone spend millions on. And I’ve met some lottery winning crackheads. Although, I did like Superman Returns. But that fanbase is too, well base to accept a subtle Superman story. Superman fans are by and large boring idiots who like to read boring idiot bullshit. But with those 4(?) exceptions Warner Brothers really sucks (I suppose they distributed 300, but they didn’t have shit to do with its production). League of Extraordinary Gentleman was almost as large of a failure as GL because of the pure gold standard storytelling in its source material. (William Hurt – “How do you fuck that up?”)
And its not like other studios are any better. Fox (and George Lucas) are simply not aware of why people liked their original Star Wars and Indiana Jones films because they just keep destroying the memories of their apparently accidental appeal. And Fox whiffed on what might have been the single easiest comic book character to make a good movie about (Wolverine). Disney (who owns Marvel Studios) did a similarly competent job of assfuckery on John Carter. I forget who made the new Conan, but that’s another fine example.
So what am I saying here: basically that making good popcorn is not near as easy as it is to watch. Starting with Iron Man, Marvel Studios has been able to launch several new film franchises by understanding their own properties. They understand Tony Stark’s appeal. The character is so well realized that Guy Ritche slapped a british accent on him and called him Sherlock Holmes. Likewise, the recruitment of Kenneth Branaugh to direct Thor was inspired. Thor isn’t the most accessible character in Marvel. Who better to make Norse gods accessible characters than the man who made a 4 hour Hamlet film, not only watchable but pretty fucking awesome. Capt America could also easily have been another GL. Cap can be the cheesiest character ever written. But he has bouts of awesome. They come when he channels the “Fuck you, I’ve killed Nazis” attitude of the “greatest generation”. And Marvel Studios actually understands all this.
So you’re going to make a movie where all your newly minted franchisees join together to save the world. Who better to direct the world’s most expensive ensemble than Firefly‘s Joss Whedon? The dude knows his way around insecure rivalries and witty banter.
Avengersworks very well. It is easily the best take on The Hulk so far. Mark Ruffalo and his Green Screen alter ego are the best parts of the film. And readers of Hulk will appreciate finally seeing the monster’s unique brand of humor on a movie screen.
Loki (who apparently survived falling through the universe a the end of Thor) returns to earth via a mysterious alien patron to conquer it. He brought with him a spear that is equal parts grenade launcher, mind control device, and Tolkein’s One Ring. Oh, and a bunch of giant aliens. Sam Jackson’s Nick Fury is apparently one of those guys the government wishes they could fire, but knows too much. And after deducing that the army can’t go toe to toe with the magic aliens; he assembles his supergroup. Well I guess Thor technically crashes the party uninvited, but the rest are asked to help. But Loki is a decent bad guy. Kind of a Hannible Lecter meets Freddy Mercury.
ScarJo and J Renner are just normal badasses who round out the team. (you really shouldn’t go anywhere without an interrogation expert and a sniper when aliens attack)
Downey Jr. is still working his Iron Man character at the level we’ve come to expect.
Capt America is my only complaint from the main team. In his movie, they gave him a functional look. In this movie he looks more like his stage costume from before they actually let him fight. In short, Capt America’s look is stupid. And he doesn’t carry a gun like he did in WW2. I guess he only shoots Nazis?
In closing, this is good popcorn. It’s not quite to the level of Chris Nolan (The Dark Knight) popcorn. That’s because when Nolan makes popcorn he pretends he’s not and its awesome. But Avengers is good, solid, enjoyable popcorn nonetheless. And apparently that’s really hard to come by so we should all enjoy it.
*Spoiler – Those of you who thought they spotted the infinity gauntlet in Odin’s vault in Thor are spot on. Check out the 1st of 2 post credit scenes.