Thursday, May 17, 2012

Avengers Disassembled

I have yet to see The Avengers.  I have read the reviews and I know that the film is going to be pretty spectacular.  Before I view what some people are claiming is the best comic book film ever made, I want to take a look at the six films that brought us to this point.  The first two Hulk films (while some might not consider Ang Lee's film part of the canon, I have an obligation to give my insight on this film), the two Iron Man flicks, Captain America and Thor.

Edit: As I am currently writing, I have seen the Avengers I will give my review/idea on that later.

Hulk - While this does not relate to the Avengers canon, I figured it was time for me to give my humble opinion on the film. We are nine years removed from what was supposed to be the end all be all of Hulk films.  Ang Lee was attached to direct and everyone had such high hopes for this film.  While I will concede that they a great job developing an original story, the film strayed far from the comics and more importantly far from the fans expectations.  This film came straight out of left field.  As a Hulk fanatic I was severely disappointed.  While it has been proven that you do not have to literally translate it from the comic book to an original screen play, it is nice to see a little direct adaptation.  The most successful comic book films have a direct link to the comic book source.  What makes a good comic book film to me? A combination of an original idea, homage to the source material and a cast of characters that bridge the two.  In my opinion, Hulk had neither.  I could spend all day on this but it is safer if I just move on. Let's just say that a D in my opinion is still being pretty generous.

Iron Man - Fast forward to 2008 and we have the first film in the Avengers timeline and they did a great job with this film.  They really set the bar high.  While it wasn't as spectacular as some of Marvel's previous films it was a great first film.  They really did the character justice and I honestly do not believe that anyone else could have portrayed Tony Stark.  Robert Downey Jr. nailed the character and honestly I don't believe that any other actor has genuinely embodied the persona of a comic book character like Mr. Downey Jr. has.  There were some flaws with the film honestly but Jeff Bridges wound up being a great villain as Obadiah Stane and I think that kind of makes up for some of that.  I wasn't fond of Terrence Howard as Rhodie but that doesn't mean Don Cheadle did a better job.  I'll get to that one later.  Overall it was a solid B effort.  A few flaws here and there *cough Gwyneth Paltrow cough*, but it was a great way to get the ball rolling.  Not to mention if this film hadn't done well I wouldn't even be writing this blog.

The Incredible Hulk - This film was also released in 2008.  I will try to be as objective as I possibly can but honestly this film was the god damn bee's knees!  Aside from a few hiccups with Tim Roth I think this had one of the best one-shot casts.  To date I do not believe there is any other Hulk that can compare with the one in this film.  This adaptation completely obliterated Ang Lee's Hulk.  I will admit that Mark Ruffalo wound up doing a better job as Bruce Banner but the Hulk in this film was picture perfect.  It might not have been the box-office smash that Marvel want it to be but its hard to argue the quality of the film.  There are those who believe Hulk was better but I'll take Edward Norton over Eric Bana any day of the week.  I thought Liv Tyler did a better job as Betty Ross than Jennifer Connely did.  Not saying she is a better actress, just saying I think she portrayed the character closer to who she is supposed to be.  By the way, all of my opinions hinge on how well I think the films are adapted from the comic books.  As I stressed with Hulk, it did have a good original story, but I do not believe it was a good enough adaptation.  The best films need to be symbiotic to both an original story and the comic book, that the whole idea is derived from.  Without the comic books, these stories and characters wouldn't exist.  Let's not act like someone is coming up with all new characters.  They are taking existing characters and trying to make someting new and unique.  That is why you have to bridge the gap between something original and something true to the comics.  That being said between the two, I think Incredible Hulk has a stronger cast of characters and is altogether a better adapted film.  I personally prefer it to Iron Man I wouldn't go as far to say its a better film.  Still it gets a B- in my book.

Iron Man 2 - 2010 and we are right back to Iron Man.  There was some controversy regarding the Cheadle/Howard debacle but honestly it wasn't a factor for me.  While I do understand that this changed some of the dynamic of the relationship between Tony and Rhodie and how Rhodie was portray it didn't affect the overall outcome of the film for me.  I don't think Cheadle or Howard really took the character to a new level but Rhodie isn't exactly a character I put much stock in.  While he can kick ass as War Machine, he isn't nearly as electric as Tony Stark is out of the suit.  Take away the suit and Rhodie is just another military guy.  He might be Tony's best friend but neither film really dove into that. With that said, Gwyneth Paltrow either stepped her game up or was written ten times better in this sequel.  She didn't bother me one bit in this one.  While I could have done without their romance, I understand it wasn't written for me personally.  People might have an issue with how Whiplash was depicted but I thought they did great.  It would be tough for them to do a complete version of Crimson Dynamo given that they just had Obadiah Stane in a suit of armor, so they did the next best thing.  Take a character with Dynamo's background and give him Stark technology.  Some deem this film to be a let down but I personally think it is on the same level as the first.  While you obviously want your sequel to be a bigger hit, I think they did a good job at least not taking a few steps backwards.  Overall I thought it was a B as well.

Thor - 2011 brought us the final two films leading to the Avengers.  The first was Thor which finally brought the Marvel Universe outside of Earth for the first time.  I'm honestly torn on this one. On one hand everything they did outside of Midgard was absolutely phenomenal! The battle on Jotunheim was absolutely fantastic and one of the major loves and gripes I had with Asgard was Heimdall. Such a fantastic character who had about three lines in all.  I understand that it was an introductory movie and the primary focus had to be on Earth but I would have loved to see a little more from him and have gotten more of a back-story for some of the Asgardian characters.  So while the other worldly aspects were great I just kind of sighed at all of the things that happen on Midgard.  The tongue-in-cheek comedy wasn't exactly my cup of tea.  I understand that you had to have Thor relate to humans and form some sort of connection but honestly it just dragged on for me.  While I honestly don't believe that any comic book movie has done real justice to a love story, I didn't have a problem with Thor and Jane Foster.  Other than Thor (kudos to Chris Hemsworth) the two characters I loved were Loki and Heimdall.  Anthony Hopkins was fine as Odin but I didn't expect much from him.  By that I mean I didn't expect a blow away performance and I also knew he wouldn't drop the ball.  There wasn't really much to the story for me so I give it a C.  Most of the main characters, a chunk of the secondary characters and the non-Midgard parts were beautiful but just about everything on Earth was dull in my opinion. It should be noted that the post credit scene in this film introduces the tesseract/cosmic cube that appears in both Captain America and The Avengers.  Oh and I hate the fact that Hawkeye made his debut (sort of) in this film.  It was completely unnecessary.

Captain America - I was very curious how this film was going to turn out.  I didn't know if they could have an entertaining film after the build up and application of the Super Soldier serum.  Tommy Lee Jones was underutilized but such is life.  Honestly I thought they did a bang up job with this one.  It was great seeing him go from being a side show attraction to a hero on the battlefield.  I love Hugo Weaving and I think he was perfect for Red Skull. The man can do no wrong in my book.  I do feel like he was not as imposing as he could have been.  Obviously going in you know that Captain America is going to win.  Well he's going to defeat Red Skull/Hydra/Nazi Germany but he'll wind up getting frozen saving a bunch of people, but he's going to "win".  I never once felt that Red Skull had a chance to win.  And normally with comic book movies they do a good job of stacking the deck in the villains favor.  Or making the two characters as even as possible.  I knew ahead of time that Red Skull couldn't go toe-to-toe with Captain America.  Regardless I thought the film was solid and it accomplished what it needed to.  Introduce Steve Rogers, make him Captain America, have him whoop some Nazis/Hydra Agents and then gets frozen saving the day.  Thaw him out and introduce him to the 21st Century.  Honestly I prefer Thor to this film but that is a personal preference.  Captain America is the better film.  It receives a B- in my book.  Once again the tesseract/cosmic cube makes an appearance tying into the Avengers film.

The Avengers - After 4 years of film tie-ins it was finally time to see what Marvel could do.  The Avengers debuted in 1963.  Anyone who says they have been waiting for a film since then is being a bit illogical.  Honestly it wasn't until the success of Iron Man that the concept of The Avengers became a reality.  That was in 2008.  Let me first say that Joss Whedon is the mother fucking man.  I had my reservations about whether or not he would be able to direct an epic like this.  Whedon is known for his ability to write ensemble casts very well (see Buffy, Angel and Firefly if you need examples).  He has worked on comics before but I knew this would be a make or break for him.  I was very impressed with his work.  The dialogue between the characters was as good as everyone knew it would be.  What was most impressive was the fact that he was able to land those huge action scenes.  He really really did a great job with this film.  There is no need to give props to the actors because given their previous work with these films, I knew they would all rise to the occasion.  But I will still say, all of them did great.  Even Hawkeye who I don't think is nearly as bad ass as he was depicted.  I know that they had to make him seem like he could hold his own, but I didn't know that he was as pin-point accurate as both Deadshot and Green Arrow.  That's neither here nor there.  Tom Hiddleston once again brought the fucking house down as Loki.  I loved his new sense of purpose and the drastic change his character made.  In Thor he was merely seeking love from both Thor and Odin.  Now he just wants to watch the world burn.  Mark Ruffalo did a splendid job as Bruce Banner.  I think he has done the most accurate portrayal of the character to date.  He did a better job as Bruce Banner than Edward Norton did.  I still don't think it's the best incarnation of the Hulk but that's a different topic.  There are those who say that The Avengers is the greatest comic book movie of all time.  While I won't go that far, I will say that not putting it in the top ten would be doing a huge disservice to what they accomplished.  Avengers gets an B+ in my book. I wanted to give it an A but the only comic book film with an A to date is Dark Knight and it wasn't as good as that masterpiece.

So as it stands The Avengers in my opinion was the best of the films.  There have a been a few bumps and bruises along the way but I'm glad the journey lead them to where it did.  If the Avengers failed the five previous films would have in my opinion been in vain. But they stepped their game up and knocked it out of the park.  I'm very interested in seeing how the next couple of films turn out.  If these are any indication, I anxiously await what's on the horizon.

Let me just reiterate that in my opinion the best comic book films are the films that are inspired by the comics.  I don't expect them to be page-for-page but since all of these are based off of comics, I think it is necessary to pay homage and bridge the gap between the source material and an original idea.

And that's all folks....



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