Avengers is all that and a bag of popcorn

Paul Peterson

Finally they got it right.
What was been about five years in the making (although really it spans several decades,) rolled into theaters this weekend like the money making juggernaut that it is and took no prisoners.
The Avengers is all of that and a bag of popcorn.
OK, of course I have to declare a conflict of interest. I couldn’t see if it was good bad or indifferent because of the dollar signs in my eyes but as it turns out, it’s pretty good.
Let me define pretty good before pasty nation and the nerd herd put some kind of magic dice game spell on me. I’ve got kids, so I’ve had a date this century which means that the machinations of how Thor gets to earth and the subsequent battle between him and his half brother Loki are totally irrelevant to me. That’s a regular show on the who gives a crap channel but I just can’t pretend to care.
I mean I did pretend to care Saturday night when I was accosted by a representative of pasty nation who had braved going out of his mom’s basement to see this movie, but it was a half-hearted effort at best. I just like putting all the superheroes together and watching them beat up the bad guys.
Our story so far.
Earth is under attack.
It doesn’t matter by whom. They’re ugly and nasty and it’s all the fault of Loki and that professor dude from Thor.
Samuel Jackson is Nick Fury. He puts together S.H.I.E.L.D. the rag tag collection of The Hulk, HawkEye, IronMan, Thor, Captain America and the Black Widow. Fury is given the credit for putting together this mutant dream team but director Joss Whedon is the real superstar here. He manages to balance all of the actors, their alter egos and their super egos without diluting the story. You’ve got some dynamos here: Scarlett Johansson, Robert Downey Jr., Jeremy Renner, Chris Hemsworth to name but a few.
It works.
I think part of why it works is because they stay fairly true to the comic books. The story lines are already there, they just need to color in the edges and fill in the blanks a bit. No need to reinvent the wheel.
They also play it fairly straight without the obligatory incessant tag lines. Save that for Die Hard 17.
I’m the first to criticize a film when it’s over two hours but there are some times when it’s necessary and this is it. In order to establish the characters, new and old, and to give time to build the chaos, it does take that long.
I liked the pace and while the special effects are something out of an artist’s imagination, they never trade plot for explosions.
It’s flat out fun and the little cheater scene at the end of the credits is the perfect tone and summary for the film.
I liked it, and not just my cut of the box office. It’s been suggested that I’m getting soft because I’ve been so positive lately, and that may be true, but this film is the perfect kick off to the summer movie season, even if it forgot to bring the sun with it.
Avengers will be a regular fixture for the next decade if they leave the cast intact with additions, and don’t mess with the original story lines too much. It’s fun, and that’s a pretty good deal for your dollar.
As always, other opinions are welcome, but wrong. That’s it for this week. The cheque’s in the mail and I’m outta here. Paul