Movies are a curiosity, to me, once I think about them. I
pay money to go sit down in a theater for – rarely – more than two hours of my
day. So why do I stand in line with everyone else and pay six bucks for an Icee
and eight for popcorn? Obviously there is the cultural expectation that I’ll be
fluent on the latest trends, but there’s more than that. Everyone, I suspect,
goes because they like the fantasy. Some day that could be me, some day I could
be saved by that type of hero, some day I’ll live in a world that promises the
level of intelligence from it’s citizens that is shown on the screen. All of
these things, every one, is in The Avengers and that is why this movie is not
only breaking box office records, but is the best movie that has ever come out
of Hollywood.
Okay, so that last sentence may be a little bit of
blasphemy, but I think that I stand behind that – for the most part. I like
other movies for other reasons, and some tell their stories better than The
Avengers does, but The Avengers is the best movie that I’ve ever seen in
theaters because it told the story that it wanted to uncompromisingly and it
wins for that. The Avengers, for those of you who don’t know, gathers some of
the recent movie superheros together to fight a looming foe. Quickly, I would
like to mention that I don’t plan on including spoilers in this blog. So Iron
Man, The Hulk, Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, and Hawkeye all get together
to save the world. This movie is great because Paramount did this thing right.
They released movies for all the major characters that would be in this film
and told the masses of America the story of every individual. If they had tried
to just throw this movie out with no background there is no way that it would
have done as well as it promises to continue doing. To be fair, I probably
would have gone to see this movie if just for Iron Man, but that’s besides the
point.
So this movie had character backgrounds, so what? Well
that’s what’s so great! This movie is the capstone to a series that has been in
the works for way longer than people realize. The Incredible Hulk even got two
movies so that they could do their best to tell his story, sadly both failed.
The silver lining was Mark Ruffalo. Which brings me to another point. This film
was properly casted. Just look at Robert Downey Jr. and tell me he isn’t the
perfect Tony Stark – I dare you. Casting and story don’t make this film any
better than The Princess Bride, though. What makes this great is that it
successfully took the pieces that were the other films and melded it into some
incredible katana of cutting power. This film has the flexibility to reach the
masses, but the hardcore fanboy soul that lets it cut to the heart of every
superhero fan alive. You can’t tell me that the cheesy aliens (that’s part of
the trailer material, I believe) were put in this movie to make little Sally
happy, those aliens were put in to make crazy uncle Tim happy that The Avengers
movie was faithful to the comics – something that a lot of novels turned movie
can’t even hope to claim.
Why is this my favorite, though? Because this is what Sci-Fi
is supposed to be. This isn’t about sparkly vampires in a novel that makes
women everywhere have unrealistic expectations of men everywhere. This movie is
about technology that we don’t have and heroes who possess powers that we can’t
hope to attain. And what do they do with all this immense, immeasurable power?
They protect us. Sure, they fight about who’s top dog, at first, but then they
realize that there is a bigger purpose to them, there is a weight on their
shoulders that they take up willfully. They fight for the people who admire
them in the theater and they do it with such strength of will that no one can
fault them their flaws. Come on, even Tony Stark… no spoilers. Anyways, I think
that you should go see this film, even if you only pay matinee price. Go see
this film, I know that I’ll probably go see it again and love it all over, too.
This movie is everything about humanity that everyone wants to see, everything that
everyone hopes for in ourselves. It’s too late for me to flesh that out but The
Avengers is the type of movie that makes you want to be stronger not for
yourself, but for those you love. Pay the money, see the movie, love humanity.
