Marvel's Avengers Assemble. This is a successful film. I don't think there is anyone who could deny it. In fact, it has become one of the biggest grossing films ever (third in actual fact), with the biggest opening weekend ever. Omg, it beat HP7.2!
This is particularly interesting because it is NOT a sequel.
But why? Why did it do so well?
Spoilers ahoy.
Well, ok, it isn't a sequel in the strictest sense.
However, it is a film that has had prequels of sorts. Four members of the Avengers have had their own films before: Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Captain America and Thor. And these are all pretty recent films, all released in the last three or four years.Having these 'prequels' certainly helps set up the characters. The film doesn't need to waste time introducing who's who, and what everyone can or cannot do. It's already been done for them. Even the other Avengers, Hawkeye and Black Widow have been featured in these films. Basically, all the film needed to do was go here's who is going to be in the Avengers, let's move on.
A lot of superhero films are about the hero discovering that he is a hero or that he actually has powers or whatever. The Avengers could skip this and go straight into the
Joss Whedon wrote/directed it.
Who is Joss Whedon? Only the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, FireFly and Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog. I.e. he created some of the biggest cult classics of recent times. According to Wikipedia, he also co-wrote Toy Story! What I am getting at here, is this guy knows what fans/moviegoers want. He knows we want the big action scenes, the seemingly impossible feats, the banter, the little hilarious asides, etc...
This film, to me, had the feel of a film made for fans by fans. Granted I wasn't a fan of Marvel per se before the Avengers, I liked Iron Man 2 (the only one I saw beforehand) but I couldn't tell you much about the canon of Marvel and the Avengers. But what I'm trying to say is that all the little moments, throwaway comments from characters and general awesomeness made me feel like Whedon first and foremost wanted to make a film for fans. As a fan of many things, if a film of my favourite thing was made with these sort of things littered throughout, I'd be an extremely happy bunny.
You don't need to know much going in.
Like I said, I'd only seen Iron Man 2 going into seeing this film for the first time. But I don't think I lost much because I perhaps didn't know where Thor came from, or Captain America. It is, at the very least, an extremely entertaining film. Knowing the 'folklore' adds to it, but doesn't take away from it.
It lives up to repeat viewings.
I went to go see Avengers for the second time last night, and the jokes, the action sequences are as funny and cool as the first time I saw them. I fist pumped each time I saw Hawkeye shoot an arrow right into an alien without. Even. Looking. I just... I can't even... ahhh! So awesome!
It can appeal to different audiences.
Films are often pigeon-holed into "guy" films or "girl" films. On the surface, this is a distinctly "guy" film, what with all the action and fighting, but with that amount of eye candy on show, this can appeal to the girls too ;). I mean, look! |
| Holy hell, them arms! |
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| I wouldn't say no... |
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| Yup, definitely eye candy, alright. |
See. Eye candy. And they didn't do that for the straight guys watching...
Also, the humour is universal. I mean, it's not like all toilet humour, or sexist jokes or whatever. They are genuinely funny jokes. And judging by the kids in my theatre each time I saw it, they made all ages laugh.
Above all, it is bloody entertaining.
It just is. Closer scrutiny reveals a flimsy plotline (Loki, Thor's brother is after the Tesseract, to be exchanged with an Alien race for Earth. The Avengers are assembled to fend off the inevitable alien attack), but the style, panache and execution just makes a dodgy plot not matter. At all. You come out of this film extolling its awesomeness, retelling the jokes, sighing over the pretty... and most of all, you want to see it again.
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