The Avengers
Composite Score: 81.94
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Clark Gregg, Cobie Smulders, Stellan Skarsgård, and Samuel L. Jackson
Director: Joss Whedon
Writers: Joss Whedon and Zak Penn
Genres: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Superhero,
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action throughout, and a mild drug reference
Box Office: $1.52 billion worldwide
Why should you Watch This Film?
The Avengers is the first team-up film in the highly successful Marvel Cinematic Universe, arriving in 2012 as the culmination of their “Phase One” films (Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, and Captain America: The First Avenger), bringing the title characters of those films together with a few others that had been floating around the periphery to take on the first global threat in the Universe, Loki and his army of Chitauri. This first Avengers film was a great box office success and thrilled audiences to the tune of high scores and decent enough critic ratings as well. Compared with the third and fourth Avengers films, the scope of The Avengers is relatively small, but it continues to prove its place and age well to this day. A great villain, solid action sequences, and a team-up that successfully gives each character a bit of a story and enough screen time are the pillars that hold The Avengers in its prestigious position ten years later.
Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?
Like many action films, and especially those in the early stages of the MCU, The Avengers has little to offer in terms of substance beyond its adherence to the idea that when people work together, they can overcome what they couldn’t when they were at odds. Aside from that encouragement to get past one another’s differences to save the world, most of the rest of the film’s messaging plays like a heavy-handed American propaganda piece, complete with a villain who has come to “free [the world] … from freedom.” Chris Evans’s Captain America gets opportunities to compare Loki to Hitler (implicitly) and to affirm his belief in “one God” who does not look like Thor, Loki, or Iron Man. A lot of these pieces are what made the film so loveable on its initial release – creative quips, good facing off against evil, uniquely motivated heroes – but their content just hasn’t aged super well in a post-2020 world, at least not in my mind. A lot of it feels more empty and less genuine given the world we live in today and the development of the character of Captain America’s and the other Avengers’ characters over the last ten years. At its heart, The Avengers is a film for the early 2010s and has little beyond nostalgia and good vibes to offer audiences in 2022.
So wait, why should you Watch This Film?
Thematic issues aside, The Avengers remains a highly entertaining film with plenty of redeeming factors. For starters, Tom Hiddleston’s Loki elevated himself into the echelon of iconic villains with his portrayal in this film. After watching Thor the first time, I was thoroughly unconvinced that this dark-headed guy could do much as a world-threatening villain; however, from his first appearance coming through the portal at the beginning of the film, Loki exudes menace, theatricality, and guile to match with the likes of Vader, Joker, and Thanos – it makes sense how he became so popular among the Tumblr users of that time period. Hiddleston’s performance utilizes his background in stage and Shakespearean acting to great benefit, delivering monologues and insults that, respectfully, put the rest of the cast to shame. Egomania might be a simple motivation for a villain, but when it plays out as connivingly and bombastically as Loki does here, it works phenomenally.
On top of quality villain work, The Avengers gives us great action pieces that serve a purpose from start to finish. Loki’s assault on SHIELD headquarters followed by the chase with Cobie Smulders and Samuel L. Jackson and the eventual destruction of the headquarters works great as the hook to get the audience bought in to what’s about to go down. The capture of Loki in Germany and subsequent fight between the “big three” (Chris Hemsworth’s Thor, Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man, and Chris Evans’s Captain America) in the woods firmly establishes the capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses of the film’s major characters. The Helicarrier assault works to highlight the team’s need to come together and gives us a teaser of the Thor vs. Hulk matchup (which doesn’t actually pay off until 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok). Finally, the showdown in New York gives us great team-up moments, featuring each hero’s strengths on full display, even giving Tony Stark his first of many chances to sacrifice his selfish self for the betterment of the entire world – everything you want from the last half hour of a superhero team film.
Great team-up action that consistently hits key story points and a high-caliber villain in Loki are what keep The Avengers worth watching and make it one of the Greatest Films of All Time. The film’s lack of lasting deeper themes keeps it below some other films in the franchise, but it remains the first majorly successful film of its kind. Marvel’s first team-up film remains a solid standby in the superhero genre, hitting the highs you want it to hit, even if they aren’t as high as some of its successors. Streaming now on Disney+, check it out if you haven’t in a while.
