A fortuitously timed EPIX Channel preview and a free ticket got me more or less up to date on my Marvel Comics movies last week (though I still haven't seen the 2008 Incredible Hulk reboot). Since the Marvel Comics cannon came under one production tent a few years ago a number of possibilities have opened up, including the production and release of one of the most teased and foreshadowed movies ever made, The Avengers. I've never seen anything like it in that here you have four different franchises converging, with each hero's own movie (or movies) providing the back story and set up for one big and impressively well done blockbuster. I thought The Avengers would be unwieldy, with just too much going on, but geek impresario Joss Whedon pulled it off marvelously. The pacing was right, everybody got their right amount of screen time, the four epic battles are three and half epic battles, Harry Dean Stanton has an audience pleasing cameo. It approaches the complexity of Watchmen, but with an aura reminiscent of Superman II, it's that kind of a seminal super hero movie.
In fact The Avengers was a lot better, for the most part, then the movies leading up to it, with the exception of the first Iron Man, which was really its own thing. It's certainly a lot better then the dismal, obligatory, Iron Man II, which served mearly as a bridge between the first one and The Avengers. That movie is on auto pilot, it just doesn't do anything interesting. Mickey Rourke was hot at the time having just come off The Wrestler, but like post Sideways Thomas Hayden Church in Spider Man III, its just like why?! Church was actually more interesting as Sand Man, Rourke's Ivan Antonovich Vanko/Whiplash had cool electro-whip weapons and that's about it, he was overshadowed by Sam Rockwell (who I usually like) mugging as Justin Hammer, an egotistical 'whinny little brother' type who just wants to surpass fellow weapons contractor Tony Stark in the public imagination. It's stuff we've seen before.
Thor however we haven't seen before. I've need paid much attention to Thor, I've never been much interested in Thor, but I was kind of impressed with Thor. Maybe this is do to my rather low expectations, but I enjoyed the movie, it certainly was different, and the mythology to me was a fresh one. Perhaps Thor's redemption arc from war happy man child to wise leader was too rushed, in fact it was, but you don't expect literary depth in a work like this. Natalie Portman's presence seemed kind of odd, she's certainly ubiquitas but as a super hero's man squeeze? Well V for Vendetta, but that wasn't the most healthy relations (see also Padme). Loki's interesting, he is a trickster, no mater what he does in these movies you can kind of see him getting away with it.
Captain America, I was kind of looking forward to it, my brother was a big fan of the now forgotten 1990 version. Heavy invocation of the WWII stars and strips aura, I thought it had a number of good scenes (the chase through New York I rather liked), and Chris Evans's Steve Rogers is a guy you can really root for (Hayley Atwell's certainly appealing as Rogers's unresolved love interest). The plots a bit confusing when it comes to the villain and his group. The story tries to stay grounded in WWII history more or less but I don't get how Red Skulls group works, are they still kind of working with the Nazi's at the end, are the Nazi's fighting them? Did Captain America always have an ethnically diverse group of comrades ala every World War Two movie, or is this new? Anyway I appreciate the corniness, and that it didn't overwhelm the film but rather added an extra period flair.
In the end I'm curious to see how things continue to develop in this new Marvelverse.
Iron Man II: Fair
Thor: Good
Captain America: Good
The Avengers: Great
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