A common ailment of the modern motion picture industry is the "shaky camera", originally used as a gimmick to keep costs low or create a sense of authenticity in a movie, but nowadays unfortunately a feature of every second movie. It had no place in The Avengers, yet it is still there to blur action scenes and cover up lackluster combat choreographies. The strange thing is that it seemed as though a lot of effort was put into the action scenes, so why attempt to conceal them?
The Avengers was littered with somewhat quality humour, but the jokes were always way out of place. This was something that I certainly did not anticipate when entering the theatre. They started off harmless, but as the situation for the characters became more dire and the puns only became more frequent, it really broke the immersion. As the movie reached its exciting climax and I leaned forward in my seat clenching my 3D glasses, the experience was cut short by an awful series of humourous lines. Let us hope The Avengers 2 employs a more serious tone.
The story could have been more intricate, as well as the dénouement, which was rushed and predictable. Also, the scriptwriter could have studied his Norse mythology slightly better. There were still plenty of perks that made it worthwhile, so let me tell you about those next.
The main element of The Avengers that I was looking forward to was the internal drama and struggles of the Avengers Initiative and how the very different natured characters learn to work together as a team. This requirement was definitely saturated. There was some character development, most notably in Iron Man, who turned out to be my surprise favourite character of the movie. The distinct personality traits, as well as the various superpowers the characters possessed were well represented and utilized in the movie. Even more importantly than the strengths, the weaknesses of each character came into play to allow an other member of the team to cover it (the Hulk seemed invincible in the third act, but upon further inspection he could not have done any of the more mentally demanding work and he was occasionally a threat to his own allegiance.) Fans of Marvel's universe will probably find all the clever action sequences, jargon and background great, but it is still not present enough to hinder those with no prior exposure to the superheroes.
The 3D effect, although post-production, was quite enjoyable. The action scenes, despite the horrible camera, were alright. I admit that I did not pay much attention to the score, but it fit well into the movie as far as I heard it.
The Verdict
Dear readers, let me introduce my grading scale (0 - 10):
0 - Almost unwatchable
1 - Abysmal
2 - Atrocious
3 - Awful
4 - Poor
5 - Middling
6 - Decent
7 - Good
8 - Majestic
9 - Culturally meaningful
10 - Near-perfect
And The Avengers scores...
6/10
Well there you have it! Were you expecting a better score? Perhaps an eight? Complain, agree, disagree and/or fix my grammar and punctuation errors below in the comments!
- Henry Leskinen, 11IB
