Should super-heroes work alone or should they be part of a team?
I ask because the biggest movie of the last few months has been Marvel’s big-budget Avengers blockbuster.
Despite early skepticism, Marvel has managed to make the team-up of Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye, Nick Fury, the Hulk and the Black Widow work.
Nobody disputes that the Avengers movie is much better than we had a right to expect. What’s more, it is better than many of the movies Marvel has made with these heroes as individual stars. Two different directors have taken passes at the Hulk and failed. I was not wild about Ken Branagh’s pretentious Thor movie either. And the Iron Man movies work only because of Robert Downey Jr.’s wise-cracking style and personal charisma. Take Downey out of the franchise and there’s not much left. (Contrast this with Batman where the character’s own personality is so strong that it submerged stars of the magnitude of George Clooney and Michael Keaton).
But how good is The Avengers, judged as a movie in its own right?
Okay, I have to declare my prejudices first. I am a DC guy and never really got into Marvel comics with their reliance on gamma rays, mutants and radioactive spiders. So, I have not been a fan of the Avengers comic.
Second, I get irritated by 3-D. On yeah, some of the effects are great. (In this movie, there’s a wonderful shot when Hawkeye fires his arrow in the general direction of the viewer). But I find it a distraction when there are no action scenes. And in too many cinemas, the 3D projection and glasses are such that everything seems a little darker than it ought to.
| "The great strength of director Joss Whedon’s (a slightly-off-the-wall choice for such a big movie) approach is that it is unapologetically comic-book." |
So, I didn’t exactly walk into Delhi’s marvelous Director’s Cut cinema expecting to see a great movie. And my guess was right: It isn’t a great movie. It begins too slowly. It is overlong. The many interior shots were too dark (at least in this cinema; perhaps they are better elsewhere). And I’m not a fan of Nick Fury or SHIELD.
Certainly, I didn’t feel the excitement I felt when I saw Batman Begins or the first Richard Donner Superman (surely, the best super-hero movie of all time). But then, this could just be a DC versus Marvel thing.
On the plus side, I thought the film had many strengths. Loki makes for an excellent villain. The trouble with super-heroes is that it you never find villains who seem sufficiently powerful to threaten people with super-powers. But by using a Norse god, Marvel has got around that problem nicely.
Then, there’s Scarlett Johansson. Let’s face it. She’s too good for a super-hero picture. You don’t really expect to find the Sexiest Girl Alive prancing around with Hulks and iron-suited jokers. But when she does….. Wow!
But the real plus is that the movie answers the question I posed at the beginning of this piece. Yes, super-heroes can work together. At least if they have the right script and a director who understands the comic book ethos.
The great strength of director Joss Whedon’s (a slightly-off-the-wall choice for such a big movie) approach is that it is unapologetically comic-book. When Ang Lee tackled the Hulk, he just didn’t get it. Similarly Ken Branagh tried to turn Thor into an epic, which was just crazy.
In the Avengers, the characters finally get the script and direction they deserve. The Hulk has never before been captured properly on screen. This Bruce Banner rings true. (Is “Banner” short for “Bannerjee”? Look at the facts. He is a genius-nerd. He lives in Calcutta. And he can’t control his temper!)
So it is with Thor. The movie shows us the comic book Thor not the self-important guy from Branagh’s movie. Whedon also handles Captain America’s transition from World War II to the present day (largely left alone in Cap’s own movie) brilliantly. And he tames Downey. Yes, Tony Stark is still the same smug guy from his own movies, but he is not allowed to run away with this one.
What’s next? A Justice League movie from DC? I hope not. The reason the Batman movies work is because the hero works alone. The new Superman movie is going to take a similarly adult approach (or so we hear). Let’s not ruin it all by putting these guys together with Green Lantern, the Martian Manhunter, Wonder Woman, the Flash and everyone else.
On the other hand, I think DC missed a trick.
Scarlett as Wonder Woman?
Why didn’t DC think of it first? Now, it’s too late. She is the Black Widow.
Alas.
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