First a quick anecdote about the Bracknell Odeon. My mates all had pre-booked tickets, so I had to buy one for myself. I went up separately to the counter and asked for a ticket:
Me: "Can I see Avengers please?"
Counter operator / Zombie: "It's sold out."
Me: "Oh, that's a shame"
Zombie: "Unless you only want one ticket?"
Me: (I take a quick look around me, I'm clearly alone) "Erm, that's right."
Zombie: "Well there are about 10 seats left, all by themselves."
Me: "Well I'll have one of those then."
Zombie: "Where do you want to sit?"
Me: (hangover starting to come back at this point) "I really don't care."
And so on and so forth. Then he didn't understand that the card I was trying to pay with was a gift card and that no it wont work in the chip-n-pin device. Do Odeon actually bother to train their staff? Or is it learning by osmosis?
Time to stop being grumpy and tell you about 'Avengers Assemble', which is a terrible title I can only assume they went for to avoid any confusion with the other Avengers - Emma Peel and all that. Joss Whedon wrote and directed the film. Since Joss Whedon is as close a being as I think I've ever come to believing is god, I'm very happy to see him get a break into the genuine Holywood big time and happier still to pay to see his work. Such a shame then that despite several cute touches, 'Avengers Assemble' has been diluted and washed clean of anything interesting, subversive or genuinely affecting - typical aspects of Whedon's usually exceptional work - and is instead an aneamic paint-by-numbers Holywood action no-brainer.
The film is the culmination of many years and several other Marvel films setting up the superheros who will star. We have Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man, Mark Ruffalo as The Hulk (though other actors played Hulk in other films), Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Chris Evans as Captain America, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury and a string of other more minor characters that I'm sure the Marvel fanboys will enjoy seeing on the big screen.
With this many characters something was always bound to be lost. There are simply too many big names, too many egos and too many back stories to make sure the lay-audience understands. The film could have been a total mess, and I admit that Whedon has done a pretty good job to make it work in any way at all. But there is too much to cram in and no space for any meaningful character development, emotion or real plot. What is the plot of the film? Evil guy wants the MacGuffin and also to kill / enslave all humanity, so he builds a device that makes aliens appear (in New York obviously) that the heros have to bash. This is comic book story-telling at its most painfully simplistic. Where are the lovingly crafted, painfully-tormented evil geniuses of the X-Men or Dark Knight series? It is possible to do comic book stories well, just not when you're dedicating your entire run-time to grasping at disparate plot thread from other films while setting up the next.
The problem with any criticism like this though, is that I eventually ask myself what I was really expecting? The film gave me outstanding special effects, a series of spectacular action sequences, good comic asides and helped develop this Marvel movie world that the Marvel Films is very carefully positioning as a sandbox for all its productions. I'm guessing that the comic parts of the movie - easily the best bits - were Whedon's work, and so if these films are going to exist then a writer / director of his prowess might as well be involved. Whedon's influence wasn't just in the comic department either. Scarlett Johansson spends most of the film in a body-hugging PVC outfit, but I can't remember a single shot that was even semi-leery (obviously I was watching carefully for this). I'm sure a lesser director would have bowed to unspoken Hollywood pressure to include 'something for the lads' like this, but of course Whedon has an excellent track record of respectful treatment of strong female characters in film and that came through here.
Overall then, the action is great but the talking bits are pretty boring. If it wasn't for Whedon's influence I think I would have been very disappointed by the film, but with him there he's made enough of a difference for me to enjoy the explosions and gloss over the plot-lapses. See, I told you he was a god.
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