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karenhealeyI'll warn before I start spoiling the movie. If you want to read on, go ahead. I promise. I'll let you know.
So I went to The Avengers, and I have some rambling thoughts.
Yeah, that's right, North American Internets! New Zealand is a small country, but occasionally we get movies before you. In fact, had it not been Anzac Day today, we'd probably have got midnight premieres - instead the theatre in my small hometown opened at 1:45 pm, which pleased me tolerably well.
I watched Iron Man a couple of days ago, and the scene at the end reminded me of the first time I saw this movie. I was told to stay through the credits, so I dutifully did.
And then Samuel L. Jackson was there in a leather coat, looking like the best parts of the Ultimates Universe* Nick Fury (based explicitly on Jackson), and he said to Iron Man, "You think you're the only superhero in the world? Mr Stark, you've become part of a bigger universe. … I'm here to talk to you about the Avenger Initiative."
I lost my freaking mind.
A crossover movie? They were going to do this? FOR REALS?
And today, I got to go! For reals.
The thing about the Avengers is that they've always been a really stupid idea for a team. The first incarnation was Giant Man and the Wasp, (neither of whom are in this adaptation [JAAAAAAAAAAAN!]), Thor, Iron Man, and the Hulk. Like. Who thought that was a good idea? The scientist who grows really tall, the socialite who shrinks really small, the playboy capitalist, the aristocratic god/alien, and a guy who turns big and green and hits things, including his team mates? They all had a ton of things going on in their own books, but somehow they managed to get together to fight crimes too big for any one of them to handle.
How?
Hard to say, Internets. But it worked. That's what makes it superhero comics. That is the thing I love most about them, that they're just so big. There's always more story, more character history, more stuff going on. You can spend weeks reading comics - I have, and I got paid to do it, thank you Australian government - and you're still just barely getting into these enormous narratives about huge personalities with outrageous powers. And the more you read, the more knowledge you gather, the more you commit, the more you get out of it.
The way these stories are structured rewards you for being a fan, and that's awesome.
I'd better stop before I end up doing my entire dissertation for you.
Anyway, soon the Avengers added Captain America as their strategic head, and it all - somehow - gelled. About a trillion gazillion heroes joined, left, betrayed, rebelled against, and rejoined the Avengers, including a former Soviet spy and the carnie/minor criminal she'd been manipulating to get to Iron Man.
Things changed for the original team (plus two). Iron Man became an alcoholic, homeless vagrant. Black Widow went solo. The Hulk was sent to another planet. Thor became King of Asgard, took over the world, and had to turn back time to undo it. Hawkeye died. Captain America died.
But it's superhero comics. They came back.
And now they're on our screens, and despite this being - without spoilers - kind of a messy movie, with too many pieces shoved together too fast - I really don't care. My stupid superhero team are uniting. They're learning respect and trust for each other. They're putting together these massive personality and power differences - a guy who can punch tanks with a guy who can shoot arrows pretty quickly? - and they're forging a team.
Moreover, they're working against one of the threats the Avengers have always been best at facing, that being the belligerent outsider to Earth. Every time the Avengers play internal world politics it's kind of cringeworthy. But give them some invading aliens bent on world domination and civilian devastation, and I'm happy for some avenging to go down.
I don't know (most of) you. I don't know what you like. Do you like The Avengers comics or the Marvel Movieverse? Then you're going already, and what I say won't make any difference. Do you like action movies with beautifully choreographed fight scenes, some pacing problems, and very little character development, but interesting development in character relationships? Then you'll probably like it. Do you only go to movies that pass the Bechdel test? Then, sorry - this movie has three great female characters, but I don't think they exchange a word.
Do you like explosions? There are lots of explosions! Things just blow up all over everywhere!
But if you go, stay through the credits. If you know anything about anything, you'll lose your freaking mind.
And now I'm going to get to the spoilers!
I'M NOT KIDDING SPOILERS AHEAD.
SERIOUSLY I'M GOING TO TALK ABOUT WHO DIES LOOK AWAY NOW.
The focus of the story is "these separate heroes unite, despite their apparently irreconcilable differences, to defeat a foe bigger than any one of them". And that is very wise, because that is the central thing of the Avengers; the idea of there being a bigger enemy, so we all have to get along, we have to make this work in order to survive.
In real life, what generally happens with the outside enemy is that anyone already vaguely considered an outsider gets further excluded. They might not be entirely with us! So they must be against us! But the idea of being truly united in a common cause against a common enemy is a potent one.
(This is, for example, what I want feminism to actually be, the real union of women against patriarchy, instead of being a movement historically dismissive of everyone who isn't a white, straight, middle-class, cisgendered, mentally and physically able woman. As it is, there are very good reasons for women not in those groups to distrust the mainstream feminist movement. Why should they join up when they're just going to get screwed over again, when the interests of patriarchy are actually going to be served by their screwing over? That's not an alliance against a common enemy; it's "join us, do, we'll totally betray you to the common enemy".)
The dream of uniting against a common enemy is strong. It's just hard to actually realise when people get involved, especially people with big personalities and competing priorities. Damaged, lost creatures, as Loki so casually sneers. Being a damaged lost creature himself, he imagines he understands. He doesn't want to work with anyone. He doesn't want to try to get along. So why would they?
What gets them in the same place is Loki as the common enemy. He turns up and steals both the Tesseract and Clint Barton/Hawkeye. Nick Fury wants them back, so he orders the collection of Banner/Hulk, Stark/Iron Man, Romanova**/Black Widow, and Rogers/Captain America. Thor crashes the party to plead with his captured brother to repent and gets hauled into the mess.
But they all want different things! Fury wants the Tesseract back. Tony wants to find out SHIELD's secrets. Natasha wants to get Hawkeye back and clear her ledger of her various bad deeds. Hawkeye, once rescued, wants to shoot Loki in the eye. Thor wants both Loki and the Tesseract returned to Asgard. Banner wants to find the Tesseract for them, then get out. Cap… it's hard to tell. But my reading is that he wants to belong, to the least belonging group of all time, and wants to resist wanting to belong.
The common enemy gets them in one place.
But what unites them is Phil Coulson.
This is where I think the movie takes its biggest, gutsiest step. Coulson is the quintessential SHIELD agent, the most G of G-men - he's white, middle aged, calm, competent, and relentless. Coulson has been there since Iron Man, where the Avengers Initiative was first floated. He turned up again in Iron Man 2, where the tag scene revealed him looking at Thor's hammer. He was in Thor, shooting at the Destroyer. He watched Captain America be cut out of the ice. He's Tony's SHIELD liaison, he's Natasha and Clint's colleague, he's Thor's ally, he's Captain America's biggest fan. He even, in a short film called The Consultant, interacted very briefly with the Hulk's story.
In the middle of the fight on the helicarrier, Loki stabs him in the back. Coulson has time to fight back. He has time for last words and a reassuring smile for his boss, and those last words are - as far as I can remember through my growing disbelief that they were actually going to do this, that this was actually going to happen - "they were never going to come together unless they had something to-"
And then he dies***.
The missing word is, probably, "avenge". I mean, I wish the end of that sentence was "fight for" or "believe in" or some better, prettier motivation, but really, Coulson's right. These are some messed up people. They believe in revenge. And because Nick Fury is really not a nice man, but in fact a magnificent bastard, he twists the knife just a little more, and actively promotes the death of Phil Coulson as the uniting event of the Avengers.
It works for those characters (mostly. The Hulk is gone before Coulson's death, and I think may not even be informed of it, which makes sense, because why would he care?). But does the audience get it? Does it work for them?
I hope so. This is a crossover movie. Plot elements cross over - arc reactor energy, vibranium shield, tesseract, hydra weaponry - and that's fine. Characterisations definitely cross over, though Thor seems to have gone a little backwards into asshole arrogant Asgardian, and I nearly fell off my chair when I saw Pepper Potts in shorts and flats. (I was very pleased! I was just surprised.)
The thing is, you could handle all of the plot and character stuff as a newbie to the franchise. You might be a bit confused, but hey, the bad guy wants stuff, the good guys want to stop him, now there are explosions, it's not that complicated. And, true, it might even be sad that Captain America's biggest fan died. What was his name? Cool Son? Yeah, that sucked.
Making Coulson the emotional turning point is gutsy, because it makes the Avengers a crossover movie on an emotional level. It's a big narrative risk to say, "OH MY GOD THAT GUY FROM THE OTHER MOVIES IS DEAD", because what if the majority response is "… okay?" instead of "OH HOLY SHIT THOSE BASTARDS". I, being invested in the character, was horrified. I grieved, and I, too, wanted to punch some aliens in revenge. The production team took that risk, and the result provides emotional depth across the Marvel Movies thus far (even retroactively! I'm going to be so sad when I re-watch Thor).
They committed to the Avengers being part of a bigger universe. They reminded you that the story is really big, that there's always more.
And I love it.
That's what makes it superhero comics.
Spoilers are fine in comments, so if you're avoiding, AVOID THEM TOO.
* I really hate the Ultimates Universe. Samuel L. Fury is the one thing I like in it.
** The movie persists in calling her "Romanov" BUT WHATEVER five minutes on wikipedia with Russian naming conventions sorts that one out for you.
*** Probably. Almost certainly. Well, maybe? It's comics!
So I went to The Avengers, and I have some rambling thoughts.
Yeah, that's right, North American Internets! New Zealand is a small country, but occasionally we get movies before you. In fact, had it not been Anzac Day today, we'd probably have got midnight premieres - instead the theatre in my small hometown opened at 1:45 pm, which pleased me tolerably well.
I watched Iron Man a couple of days ago, and the scene at the end reminded me of the first time I saw this movie. I was told to stay through the credits, so I dutifully did.
And then Samuel L. Jackson was there in a leather coat, looking like the best parts of the Ultimates Universe* Nick Fury (based explicitly on Jackson), and he said to Iron Man, "You think you're the only superhero in the world? Mr Stark, you've become part of a bigger universe. … I'm here to talk to you about the Avenger Initiative."
I lost my freaking mind.
A crossover movie? They were going to do this? FOR REALS?
And today, I got to go! For reals.
The thing about the Avengers is that they've always been a really stupid idea for a team. The first incarnation was Giant Man and the Wasp, (neither of whom are in this adaptation [JAAAAAAAAAAAN!]), Thor, Iron Man, and the Hulk. Like. Who thought that was a good idea? The scientist who grows really tall, the socialite who shrinks really small, the playboy capitalist, the aristocratic god/alien, and a guy who turns big and green and hits things, including his team mates? They all had a ton of things going on in their own books, but somehow they managed to get together to fight crimes too big for any one of them to handle.
How?
Hard to say, Internets. But it worked. That's what makes it superhero comics. That is the thing I love most about them, that they're just so big. There's always more story, more character history, more stuff going on. You can spend weeks reading comics - I have, and I got paid to do it, thank you Australian government - and you're still just barely getting into these enormous narratives about huge personalities with outrageous powers. And the more you read, the more knowledge you gather, the more you commit, the more you get out of it.
The way these stories are structured rewards you for being a fan, and that's awesome.
I'd better stop before I end up doing my entire dissertation for you.
Anyway, soon the Avengers added Captain America as their strategic head, and it all - somehow - gelled. About a trillion gazillion heroes joined, left, betrayed, rebelled against, and rejoined the Avengers, including a former Soviet spy and the carnie/minor criminal she'd been manipulating to get to Iron Man.
Things changed for the original team (plus two). Iron Man became an alcoholic, homeless vagrant. Black Widow went solo. The Hulk was sent to another planet. Thor became King of Asgard, took over the world, and had to turn back time to undo it. Hawkeye died. Captain America died.
But it's superhero comics. They came back.
And now they're on our screens, and despite this being - without spoilers - kind of a messy movie, with too many pieces shoved together too fast - I really don't care. My stupid superhero team are uniting. They're learning respect and trust for each other. They're putting together these massive personality and power differences - a guy who can punch tanks with a guy who can shoot arrows pretty quickly? - and they're forging a team.
Moreover, they're working against one of the threats the Avengers have always been best at facing, that being the belligerent outsider to Earth. Every time the Avengers play internal world politics it's kind of cringeworthy. But give them some invading aliens bent on world domination and civilian devastation, and I'm happy for some avenging to go down.
I don't know (most of) you. I don't know what you like. Do you like The Avengers comics or the Marvel Movieverse? Then you're going already, and what I say won't make any difference. Do you like action movies with beautifully choreographed fight scenes, some pacing problems, and very little character development, but interesting development in character relationships? Then you'll probably like it. Do you only go to movies that pass the Bechdel test? Then, sorry - this movie has three great female characters, but I don't think they exchange a word.
Do you like explosions? There are lots of explosions! Things just blow up all over everywhere!
But if you go, stay through the credits. If you know anything about anything, you'll lose your freaking mind.
And now I'm going to get to the spoilers!
I'M NOT KIDDING SPOILERS AHEAD.
SERIOUSLY I'M GOING TO TALK ABOUT WHO DIES LOOK AWAY NOW.
The focus of the story is "these separate heroes unite, despite their apparently irreconcilable differences, to defeat a foe bigger than any one of them". And that is very wise, because that is the central thing of the Avengers; the idea of there being a bigger enemy, so we all have to get along, we have to make this work in order to survive.
In real life, what generally happens with the outside enemy is that anyone already vaguely considered an outsider gets further excluded. They might not be entirely with us! So they must be against us! But the idea of being truly united in a common cause against a common enemy is a potent one.
(This is, for example, what I want feminism to actually be, the real union of women against patriarchy, instead of being a movement historically dismissive of everyone who isn't a white, straight, middle-class, cisgendered, mentally and physically able woman. As it is, there are very good reasons for women not in those groups to distrust the mainstream feminist movement. Why should they join up when they're just going to get screwed over again, when the interests of patriarchy are actually going to be served by their screwing over? That's not an alliance against a common enemy; it's "join us, do, we'll totally betray you to the common enemy".)
The dream of uniting against a common enemy is strong. It's just hard to actually realise when people get involved, especially people with big personalities and competing priorities. Damaged, lost creatures, as Loki so casually sneers. Being a damaged lost creature himself, he imagines he understands. He doesn't want to work with anyone. He doesn't want to try to get along. So why would they?
What gets them in the same place is Loki as the common enemy. He turns up and steals both the Tesseract and Clint Barton/Hawkeye. Nick Fury wants them back, so he orders the collection of Banner/Hulk, Stark/Iron Man, Romanova**/Black Widow, and Rogers/Captain America. Thor crashes the party to plead with his captured brother to repent and gets hauled into the mess.
But they all want different things! Fury wants the Tesseract back. Tony wants to find out SHIELD's secrets. Natasha wants to get Hawkeye back and clear her ledger of her various bad deeds. Hawkeye, once rescued, wants to shoot Loki in the eye. Thor wants both Loki and the Tesseract returned to Asgard. Banner wants to find the Tesseract for them, then get out. Cap… it's hard to tell. But my reading is that he wants to belong, to the least belonging group of all time, and wants to resist wanting to belong.
The common enemy gets them in one place.
But what unites them is Phil Coulson.
This is where I think the movie takes its biggest, gutsiest step. Coulson is the quintessential SHIELD agent, the most G of G-men - he's white, middle aged, calm, competent, and relentless. Coulson has been there since Iron Man, where the Avengers Initiative was first floated. He turned up again in Iron Man 2, where the tag scene revealed him looking at Thor's hammer. He was in Thor, shooting at the Destroyer. He watched Captain America be cut out of the ice. He's Tony's SHIELD liaison, he's Natasha and Clint's colleague, he's Thor's ally, he's Captain America's biggest fan. He even, in a short film called The Consultant, interacted very briefly with the Hulk's story.
In the middle of the fight on the helicarrier, Loki stabs him in the back. Coulson has time to fight back. He has time for last words and a reassuring smile for his boss, and those last words are - as far as I can remember through my growing disbelief that they were actually going to do this, that this was actually going to happen - "they were never going to come together unless they had something to-"
And then he dies***.
The missing word is, probably, "avenge". I mean, I wish the end of that sentence was "fight for" or "believe in" or some better, prettier motivation, but really, Coulson's right. These are some messed up people. They believe in revenge. And because Nick Fury is really not a nice man, but in fact a magnificent bastard, he twists the knife just a little more, and actively promotes the death of Phil Coulson as the uniting event of the Avengers.
It works for those characters (mostly. The Hulk is gone before Coulson's death, and I think may not even be informed of it, which makes sense, because why would he care?). But does the audience get it? Does it work for them?
I hope so. This is a crossover movie. Plot elements cross over - arc reactor energy, vibranium shield, tesseract, hydra weaponry - and that's fine. Characterisations definitely cross over, though Thor seems to have gone a little backwards into asshole arrogant Asgardian, and I nearly fell off my chair when I saw Pepper Potts in shorts and flats. (I was very pleased! I was just surprised.)
The thing is, you could handle all of the plot and character stuff as a newbie to the franchise. You might be a bit confused, but hey, the bad guy wants stuff, the good guys want to stop him, now there are explosions, it's not that complicated. And, true, it might even be sad that Captain America's biggest fan died. What was his name? Cool Son? Yeah, that sucked.
Making Coulson the emotional turning point is gutsy, because it makes the Avengers a crossover movie on an emotional level. It's a big narrative risk to say, "OH MY GOD THAT GUY FROM THE OTHER MOVIES IS DEAD", because what if the majority response is "… okay?" instead of "OH HOLY SHIT THOSE BASTARDS". I, being invested in the character, was horrified. I grieved, and I, too, wanted to punch some aliens in revenge. The production team took that risk, and the result provides emotional depth across the Marvel Movies thus far (even retroactively! I'm going to be so sad when I re-watch Thor).
They committed to the Avengers being part of a bigger universe. They reminded you that the story is really big, that there's always more.
And I love it.
That's what makes it superhero comics.
Spoilers are fine in comments, so if you're avoiding, AVOID THEM TOO.
* I really hate the Ultimates Universe. Samuel L. Fury is the one thing I like in it.
** The movie persists in calling her "Romanov" BUT WHATEVER five minutes on wikipedia with Russian naming conventions sorts that one out for you.
*** Probably. Almost certainly. Well, maybe? It's comics!
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no subject
Date: 2012-04-26 07:48 am (UTC)Anyway but I went to The Avengers with my sisters and enjoyed it and could even keep track of who people were most of the time. Coulson's death didn't have the emotional impact for me, but that's okay because I always enjoy watching a Magnificent Bastard emotionally manipulate a bunch of people with someone else's death.
(Also I confess to spending part of the obligatory Sh!t Blows Up in Manhattan sequence trying to work out how this would affect the next season of White Collar.)
Anyway but what I loved best was Romanov(a). I would watch a movie where she spent the whole movie interrogating people. Is there a movie like that? Because I'd watch the hell out of it.
no subject
Date: 2012-04-26 09:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-08 03:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-11 03:08 pm (UTC)I read most of Marvel's titles about a billion years ago ('70s as a kid) and gave up on them in the late '80s (too many X-Men spin-offs and rising prices plus the explosion of great indies luring me away), but I remember the Avengers fondly. I always liked Scarlet Witch and the Vision's story. Iron Man and Captain America were my favorites, though (oh, my homemade Captain America Halloween costume -- so tragic and so loved).
What you said: "The common enemy gets them in one place.But what unites them is Phil Coulson." Very much so for me. There was so much bickering amongst them when drawn together, but they became a real team after Coulson was killed. (I keep wishing that Fury's toss of the bloody cards was his way of faking Coulson's death to motivate the group. I'll be reading plenty of fix-it fic.)
Anyhow, I liked your review, and yeah, I wouldn't mind reading your dissertation, too.
(BTW, found you by clicking through Avengers posts. Hi.)