Why Marvel's The Avengers Is NOT The Greatest Comic Book Movie Ever

Like I promised yesterday, I'm gonna outline why The Avengers isn't the greatest comic book movie of all time. That isn't to say that I don't like and enjoy the movie, it just isn't as flawless as the world makes it out to be. I'm sure this discussion will piss some people off, but honestly I don't really care. I concede that as with most things, what is the "best" is a purely subjective thing that can never be proven. That doesn't mean that it can't be categorically proven to NOT be the best.


I need to preface the rest of this by saying I will be comparing it often to another movie that is often brought up as a retort: The Dark Knight. I'm using this movie for a few reasons: 1) it is a fantastic example of the reasons The Avengers fails, 2) I've always liked DC comics more than Marvel (I will admit bias), 3) it is the best comic book movie ever. Ha.

The Major Plot Hole

I'll start with the weakest argument, but probably the one that bothers me the most every time I watch The Avengers. There's one huge, glaring plot hole in the movie that most viewers just accept and move on. Thor already knows about the Chitauri coming when he shows up. Everyone just accepts this fact and moves on with no further explanation. How does he know? What more does he know about them? Where do they come from? Why are they following Loki? If he knew all of this, why has he only come to confront Loki when Loki comes to Earth and not before? Instead we get a casual reference to "he has an army" and quickly they move on and the rest of the team (and subsequently the viewer) are whisked off to something else. This is yet another movie that caters to the ADHD viewer. 

Wait, There Is No Plot

Speaking of ADHD, the "plot" just moves from one thing to another rather quickly to mostly just set up another action sequence. Yes, I get this is an action flick, but there's not much else here. Just think about it, any time they start to develop anything other than the all-these-disparate-entities-need-to-band-together-to-fight-this-sorta-vague-threat it is cut really short and moves on. There's a point in the middle of the movie that the motives of S.H.I.E.L.D. begin to be questioned and it devolves into a bitch-fest that ends up serving that very basic plot and nothing else. It even gets revisited and actually becomes the whole central plot of The Winter Soldier.
Comic books have always had something to say. On the face they have always been just really well drawn (and longer) comic strips, but there has always been something deeper. Nationalism, racism, political unrest, and sociology have all been thoroughly explored in the pages of comics. They are a place for the writers and artists to vent frustrations or safely have conversations about the most controversial subjects of our time without (at least most of the time) doing it overtly. The Dark Knight explored several of these types of issues both overtly and subtly; like overreaching of government surveillance (the echo-locator), socioeconomic disparity (the Joker's many sociological experiments), and political climate change. Winter Soldier tackled some of these same issues and that's why it is more successful than The Avengers in my book.

All that The Avengers did was barely touch on distrust of the government and then swiftly swept it under the rug to focus on rag-tag-group-needs-a-reason-to-band-together-to-save-the-world. Like THAT hasn't been done 100s of times before.

Action, Action, Action

My last point is more of a summation of the previous two. This movie was made by a petulant child playing with blocks. He sets them up, knocks them down, rinse, repeat. The action sequences are beautiful and really well executed, but nothing really happens between them other than the set up for another action sequence. I get that this is an action movie, but I'm left wanting more. I will say that I just don't care for non-stop action movies and this one at least let you breathe a little between, but it just has very little meat for me. The Dark Knight has short bursts of action that use up all the drama prior to them to allow the action to punctuate rather than dictate. The opposite happens in The Avengers. The action dictates the plot and pacing not the other way around. Again, much of this point is just personal preference, but that's the nature of a blog.

In conclusion, I hope I've brought up some points that will make you rethink your position on The Avengers. Notice that I never said The Avengers was a bad movie because it isn't. I really enjoy the movie for what it is: a fun popcorn movie. Just don't try and make it what it isn't: the greatest comic book movie ever.

Review-Captain America: The Winter Soldier

I know, I know. Been a year since I posted last. I've been thinking of starting it up again for a while, but really didn't have something I really wanted to talk about. I thought overall it was a weak year for movies last year, so I wouldn't have had very many reviews (not enough movies drew me to the Theater, good or bad). This year looks to be much better and I have some nagging thoughts I want to vent here. I'll pop a few reviews in from last year here and there that people need to see.

To the topic at hand, I want to start by saying I really loved this one. I have a hard time deciding if this one or the first "Captain America" was better, but I certainly can say that after much reflection, both are decidedly better than "The Avengers". I don't want to get into it here, but I'm starting to really despise "The Avengers" for being called the greatest comic book movie ever (Next post will be more on that).

Summary from IMDB:

"Steve Rogers struggles to embrace his role in the modern world and battles a new threat from old history: the Soviet agent known as the Winter Soldier."

(I will say that that very last line is not clearly defined in the movie)

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1843866/?ref_=hm_cht_t1

Technical (5) - Almost flawless. Especially considering the pedigree of the directors (Community and You, Me, and Dupree?!?), this is a phenomenal feat. I only had a small quibble with editing in one small scene that stuck in my head, but otherwise everything here works like gangbusters. The CGI is top-notch, the action sequences are well staged and edited, and the pacing (which somewhat has to do with scripting, too) is great. They know where to speed up and when to slow down. This isn't a non-stop action movie; there's room to breathe and get to know these characters and their motivations a little more. What's most interesting is the shift in tone and style from the first movie. It is really amazing that it works as well as it does. You go from a retro, sepia-tone, weekly serial style movie to a modern stylish action movie with a darker, more sinister tone and deliberate nods to the past movie that don't feel forced. It works very well and adds to the idea that Steve is a man out of time. I was slightly bothered by Cap's new uniform as the movie opened (star, but no red and white stripes like some of the comics), but there was a deliberate reason for it (you'll have to see it to know why I say that). So if you haven't seen the movie, give details like that a little time and it will make sense in the end.

One other little quibble that I can't fault the movie for because it has become so commonplace is product placement. There were several instances of blatant product placement (at least they were all American companies in a Captain America movie!) to the point where it made my eye twitch, but it didn't kill the movie. Mebbe I will post about that at a future date.



Script/Dialogue (5) - This is a really tight script from start to finish. I've heard some issues raised about the titular Winter Soldier missing for chunks of the movie, but I disagree. I think he's used sparingly in the beginning very deliberately as he is described as a "ghost". I was a bit disappointed that they didn't hold his identity secret in the lead-up (even though I'd figured it out from the first trailer) so the impact is not the same for the big reveal, but there are a couple of other surprises and twists that make up for that. The dialogue is not frivolous and some things that you think are come up later in the story. The conversations make sense and are not forced or silly. What works best is that there are honest and frank discussions of how war and peace is conducted in modern times, but it really doesn't ever get preachy and what is being said makes perfect sense for each character involved. I will say that feel quite a few echos from The Dark Knight in the script which may or may not be a bad thing.

Acting (5) - All these actors are good in their roles. Probably the weakest link here is actually Scarlett Johansson. Someone mentioned to me that they are surprised that they don't have Black Widow with a Russian accent. You can easily say that it is all part of her spy craft, but I wonder if she just can't pull one off worth a damn. I've never thought she was an exceptionally good actress. The real winner here is actually Chris Evans. He embodies Steve Rogers so completely, he gives RDJ a real run for his money as the star of this whole enterprise. I feel like if Cap didn't work, "Phase 2", as Marvel calls it, wouldn't work. You've got an awesome pedigree here of the older and newer generation of actors and they work terribly well together.

Tilt (5) - Great movie. I don't really have much else to say than that. Really wild ride. I never looked at my watch and LOADS of stuff happened. Pacing really helped with that.

Total Score -5