I am super obsessed with The Avengers. I saw it in Turkey, and for the first two days that I was home, every other sentence I spoke to my mother was, "I want to see it agaaaaain!" Eventually I wore her down, or intrigued her enough, and on Sunday night we went to see it. Two viewings, and I WANT MORE. The world agrees with me, based on how successful The Avengers has been. But I've never been able to simply say that I like something. I have to dig in and find out why, and then share my reasonings with everyone, whether they care or not.
First of all, The Avengers is just fun. A bunch of dysfunctional superheroes forced to work together to blow stuff up and save the world? It'd be hard to make that boring. And it certainly is helped exponentially that the movie was written and directed by Joss Whedon. He has an incredible talent for writing groups of people, for writing wit, and for writing drama.
As much as I love wit, and there is loads of it in the movie, what really makes me adore The Avengers is...the Avengers. Those characters! They are so well-formed and messed up and awesome! Because I had an over-abundance of thoughts, I'm going to break this down character by character. Cut because this flail is going to get long, and beware: thar be spoilers ahead.
Hawkeye
Clint Barton was the Avenger I went in most excited to see, entirely because of Gingerhaze's obsession with him. I was initially disappointed, because of all the Avengers, I think Hawkeye got the least development. After a second viewing, I still think this, but I appreciate him more.
I wish his "my brain was hijacked!" trauma would have been dealt with more. I liked the idea of this super-spy immediately forced to side with evil, to blow up his home ship, to kill people he worked with. But then he just...gets better? I mean, we can say that he was distracted by the alien invasion. In my head-canon, he goes into therapy immediately after the credits. With Natasha by his side, reminding him of his innocence, of course.
What I liked was that even though he's the best archer in the world, he's also a strategist. He sees better from far-away, he says at the beginning of the movie, and that pays off later when he tells Iron Man that the aliens can't turn quickly, and IM subsequently makes them all crash. And yeah, he's a pretty awesome archer, too. I didn't love the cheesy "I don't even have to look" shot, but everything else was super awesome cool.
Black Widow
Natasha Romanoff was AWESOME. I'm not a fan of Scarlett Johanson, but I put that aside because I was so super excited to see a girl superhero kicking butt. Except she wasn't a superhero. She was just a spy, who could kick serious butt, and I loved it!
I am all for more awesome women in media, but I get kind of annoyed when women are made awesome by being exactly like men, or by being given enough strength to match a man. Not here! Natasha's primary skill is sneakiness, which she uses several times through the movie. She's definitely strong, but I loved how they showed that she used her legs (stronger than arms) and sometimes teeth to win fights, because yeah. A woman going up against an uber-muscley man? Isn't going to use her biceps to win.
Her backstory begs for a movie of its own, and I desperately want to see it. I love her for being raised brainwashed, for being used because she can kill people, then being forgiven and used by another group to kill other people. She's a screwed up character, is what I'm saying. I loved Loki ripping her apart, and how she totally used it against him. But I loved it even more because later we realize he did get to her. She has emotions. She has regrets. She has fears. But she doesn't let those feelings get in the way of getting her job done.
Black Widow and Hawkeye
Their relationship is one of the best in the movie, mostly because it's the only relationship that existed before the movie begins, so we jump in while they're already BFFs. I love their intimacy, and the way they can get each other to open up. I love the way they trust each other. I love that even though the shipper part of me desperately wants them to be in love, they are so awesome as friends and partners that it isn't even necessary. A male/female relationship that isn't about whether or not they will sleep together? I am for it!
Iron Man
Tony Stark is easily the most charismatic of the group (ehhhh, okay, no, we'll get to my real opinion later), and I love him for his snark and growth into self-sacrifice. He has some of the best lines in the movie, and every time he tries to take over or claim undue authority, I love him more.
He has the fullest character arc of the movie, and his nudgings and scoldings are basically what set the other characters into motion. The easy-going love he has with Pepper is maybe one of the best romances I've seen in movies lately. But what I love the most about the two of them is that he didn't get to talk to her before flying to his (almost) death.
Everything about that scene is flawless. The forced casual way he lets JARVIS suggest he call Pepper. How she doesn't notice her phone ringing because she's too busy watching him on TV. The fact that it doesn't matter whether they got to talk or not--they both love each other, they don't doubt their relationship because she didn't pick up. And most of all, because by not talking to Pepper, Iron Man can't make his sacrifice about her. He's doing this for the team, doing it to save the world. If he'd talked to his girlfriend before flying through a wormhole, it would have been all about their love. And I dunno, but I think sacrifice for a faceless humanity is more impressive than sacrifice for a loved one.
Anyway, loved it.
Hulk
Bruce Banner has walked away with the movie, according to most reviews. And yeah, this is the Hulk done right, though he wasn't my favorite of the characters. What I loved the most was how ominous he was throughout the first half of the movie. The way people walked on pins and needles around him made me actually fearful of what he could do. And oh my gosh, Banner admitting that he had tried to kill himself, but couldn't even find escape through suicide? Best.
Then he Hulks out, and terrorizes his friends. He falls from the sky, and as the Hulk, makes sure he lands in an abandoned building. When the old guy tells him that important piece of news, everything changes. There is humanity in the beast. And if that is true, then....is there a beast in the human? Yup. Like all great dual-nature stories, the key is to integrate! Banner learns to stop separating himself from the Hulk and comes to terms with the fact that he is always the same, whether Caucasian or green. He is always brilliant, he is always angry.
Iron Man and Hulk
I did not expect to love this pairing so much. They are science buddies! They can talk about gamma rays and blah blah and have the best time. They immediately know something shady is going on with SHIELD. They both have physical deformities that have to be accepted and controlled.
Tony saves Bruce by believing in him, by telling him he was given such awesome power for a reason, and then by expecting him to show up to save the day. Bruce rose Tony's expectations. And then Bruce saved Tony, first by catching him before he hit the ground, then by roaring him awake.
Of course they drive off together at the end, doubtlessly off to plan some great science experiment that will make them giggle and become insufferably proud. Or at least Tony will do those things.
Captain America
Steve Rogers is likeable, and is maybe the most important member of the Avengers. But because he fulfills the role of "solid leader man," I don't find him very interesting. That feels like a disservice, because I really do like how he satisfies the desire for a good "old-fashioned" hero. He jumps into fights he cannot win because he should. His language is antiquated, and his frustration at not understanding modern culture is adorable.
But mostly he's just a hero. And...I like my characters a lot more messed up than that.
Thor
Pretty much all of my love for Thor comes from his relationship with Loki. So even though I love his classic superpower self (oh man, that entrance with the lightning and then posing on top of the plane? epic) I'm mostly going to talk about how much I love him being the big brother.
He now knows that Loki is a frost giant, but he doesn't care! I love that so much! He knows that parentage doesn't matter--the memories of childhood and playing together and fighting together are most important. His whole reason for being in the Avengers is to take his brother back home. He tries to pretend that his main reason is to fulfill his promise to take care of planet Earth, but Loki calls him on that pretty quick. Where is Thor when people kill each other in their human wars? It takes Loki interferring to get Thor to jump in.
And oh my gosh, how much do I love that? Loki could probably invade any world. I'll get into his relationship with the Chitauri under his section, but regarding Thor, you just know he looked at all the worlds to invade and said, "Hm, Thor loves Earth. I'm so going to take it over! Na na na na na na!"
Even though Thor knows his little brother is crazy and evil, he still loves him. He constantly tries to get Loki to join his side, and doesn't seem all that perturbed when Loki responds by stabbing him or sending him hurtling to his death in a hamster ball. Familial love that conquers crazy? Is kind of my favorite.
Loki
LOKI IS MY FAVORITE this should not surprise anyone. I don't want to marry him, although Tom Hiddleston's face should be sculpted in marble. My love for him is all because of how interesting he is--every time he is on screen, he demands to be watched. A fully-formed villain who runs on insecurities with a huge dose of charisma? I have a type.
Here's what I think happened. Loki fell into the void, which deposited him in the alien world of the Chitauri. He hatched a plan with them to destroy Earth, which satisfied his desire to be good at something, and also to rub Thor's face in the destruction of his favorite planet. Because everything Loki does is basically a big, "Don't look at me, Thor! Go away! WHY AREN'T YOU LOOKING AT ME, THOR?"
But the Chitauri abuse him, based on that one scene where his head is shoved. I read that as meaning even when Loki is heading up an alien invasion, even those aliens aren't taking him seriously. He has one bout of success when he steals the Tesseract. But he can't accumulate his own following--he has to force people onto his side through brainwashing. Just as he has a crowd of people bowing before him, he gets beat up by some superheroes.
And when he finally ends up in a cage, it's not even a cage for him. It's built for the Hulk, who is bigger and scarier than Loki could ever hope to be. The symbolism is obvious, and makes me sad. Phil Coulson shoves Loki's face in his insecurities, telling him that he's going to lose because that's who he is. And all Loki wants to do is win. Just one time.
But no. His plans aren't all that great. He can't fight against the Avengers for very long before either having to run away or getting beat to a pulp. His one great skill--vicious rhetoric--is so super impressive, and I'm never more in love with him than when he's calling Black Widow a "mewling quim" or yelling at the Hulk "enough!" But even then, every time he gets his manipulation on, something happens to cut him off. He's manipulated by Black Widow, Phil Coulson shoots him, the Hulk turns him into a rag doll.
The poor guy is just not cut out to be a villain. But he tries so hard. And that is why I love him.
No comments:
Post a Comment