Marvel's The Avengers (2012)

True believers, I bring glad tidings! :)

*spoilers*

I wasn't sure whether this movie would work, seeing that Robert Downey Jr's star is still cruising along the Ascension Drive, I was a bit afraid that The Avengers would revolve around him. Thankfully, the film keeps its eye on the word 'ensemble', and gives everyone their time to shine. Even Scarlett Johannson's Black Widow does her fair share as part of the team, and I'm really glad that she has purpose and is not just there to be eye candy, like in Iron Man 2.

[I always thought that making ScarJo a spy was just an excuse to get her in the movie. And into a black catsuit.]

This brings us to character development. Marvel Studios has a very good track record with this, as we can see from Iron Man, Thor, etc., and The Avengers takes the time to flesh out the possible conflicts between all these characters, from their own movies, meeting/working/coming together for the first time.

This is where the movie gets a bit draggy.

In setting up the foundation and formation of the Avengers, there's roughly an hour and a half's worth of in-fighting and quibbling, so much so that in the second half, you don't disagree when the big bad of the piece, Tom Hiddleston's Loki tells Downey, Jr.'s Tony Stark that they (the heroes) are too busy fighting each other to combat an invading alien army.

All these catfights (physical and verbal) were only alleviated by some action sequences in-between (either hero-on-hero, or hero-on-Loki), but barely. At one point, all the heroes were even put in a room to see how far and furious egos and mouths can fly. This entire bit was noticeably tedious the second time around (yes, I watched this movie twice!).

Other than inner conflict, the pacing is superb, and the movie starts with Loki arriving to Earth and causing a lot of property damage in his wake. Since we already know the cast from the previous movies (with the exception of newbie Mark Ruffalo, but then again, who doesn't know that he's playing Bruce Banner/the Hulk), little time was spared on introductions to the major characters.

Another highlight of the film is the screenplay. Iron Man has to be credited with some of the funniest dialogue and back-and-forths that even made us moviegoers forget that a comic book movie should have more action, and I'm glad this tradition (humour, not non-action) is carried onto The Avengers. There are just so many priceless quotable gems from this film that I could rave about, most of them from Robert Downey, Jr., because what would a movie be without good ol' RDJ sarcasm, eh?

I also noticed that Thor and Loki's speech pattern is a lot more... formal (still no 'verily's or 'thou's, but close) than they were in Thor, but maybe that's just me; I haven't seen Thor in a year.

[For some reason, HBO doesn't seem to want to air it :S]

One of the bright spots in the film is when they tone down the action (and the arguing!) and focus on regular one-on-one conversations/interactions between characters, may it be hero or villain. This is especially where the actors shine, and you can see how comfortable they all are in their roles, since most of them are playing the same character the second time around. Scenes to look out for are Stark/Banner, and Thor/Loki, when Thor first lands on Earth.

The second act is where the Avengers get their act (pun totally intended!) together, and where the action is kicked up a notch. The humour is also knocked out of the park from here on out, with a very, very, very unexpected character being a major source of that humour. You'll know what I mean when you watch the movie. We also get to see Chris Evan's Captain America organising the team and plan of attack, which is a fantastic nod to the comics since in canon, Cap'n is the leader of the Avengers.

CGI? Don't get me started. Huge explosions, huge set-pieces, it's all very grand and awesome. 'Nuff said.

This is one of the rare films that actually lives up to the hype generated, and unless you've... not been in touch with the world lately (is it me, or is 'living under a rock' cliched?), the hype is MASSIVE! Four years' worth of excitement building up to this moment, and it surprisingly delivers.

9/10. Three, fairly oft-used sentences, people: Best. Entertaining Movie. Ever.

[Yes, even with the in-fighting.]

P.S. Don't watch the 3D version, it really isn't much to shout about.

Thor (2011)

For a summer superhero movie, Thor rightfully addresses what the Iron Man movies lacked: Action. And a whole lot of it. The sequences and fights are top-notch, especially when Thor and his friends battle the Frost Giants, and Asgard, Jotunheim and plus the end-credits sequence are absolutely beautiful. It's very much a pleasant surprise, since director Kenneth Branagh is more noted and established for his Shakespearean adaptations and heavier, dramatic work.

Unfortunately, as lovely as they looked, the non-Earth realms are a bit too developed, and some of the time spent on that could've been allocated to Thor's exile on Earth. I mean, this is an origin movie; we're supposed to see how Thor matures from reckless and arrogant youngling over the course of the film. Instead, all it took were 45 minutes real-time (which looked like 5 days in the movie) and two hits from Natalie Portman's 4WD for Thor's hammer Mjolnir to deem him worthy enough to return to him.

Speedy life lessons aside, the plot is most interesting when it shifts back to Asgard (double standard I know, but I compliment what I'm given), where the focus is more on Loki, Thor's half-brother and villain of the movie. Watching how Loki manipulates to keep his brother on Earth and pave his own way to the throne is just awesome, and I actually found myself waiting for each Earth scene to be over just so we could see what Loki is up to next.


[At that point I was wishing that Loki spin-off was in the works, though without Thor, it probably wouldn't be very interesting.]

Though a tad hammy (on second thought) at one point towards the end, Tom Hiddleston is perfect as Loki, with all that insecurity and vulnerability coming to a boil as the movie progresses. It is his lone scenes with Anthony Hopkins, who plays his father Odin, that he comes off as a very misguided, very sympathetic and tragic figure, in that he sees throne-usurping (and basically causing a whole lot of ruckus) as a way to live up to his father's expectations and gain parental approval.

Props must also go to Chris Hemsworth, who did a bang-up job as Thor (by not making him seem ridiculous), and it's his time on Earth (however brief) that Thor is most entertaining. Hemsworth was simply adorable, and his old-fashioned ways and absolute cluelessness brought the best out of the actors around him. My favourite scene had to be the one in the pet store, where he demands for a horse.

As with every Marvel movie, there be Easter eggs. The best is the you'll-miss-it-if-you-didn't-know-it Hawkeye cameo, because the scene where he chooses his bow over a regular, the shot pans back to the action so fast I thought he went for some state-of-the-art high-end firearm instead. It wasn't till he cocked his bow did I see it was Jeremy Renner. And realised that I was the only person in the theatre who realised that that was Hawkeye.

7.5/10. Thor is highly entertaining, and definitely exceeded expectations (because action makes me happy), and even a week after watching it, I still feel like going back to the theatres for a second round. But Thor's 180˚ was much, much too quick, and in terms of development, the focus should've been on Earth, not Asgard, no matter how awesome the end-result looked.


[Actually, Thor could've traded action for character development with Iron Man. Just sayin'.]