Channel Awesome
It’s one of the biggest blockbusters of all time! Does it hold up after all the hype? Doug takes a look at The Avengers.
Tagged with: channel awesome disney disneycember doug walker marvel movies the avengers
About Doug Walker
Other Posts By the Author:
78 comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
It goes without saying that The Avengers is the best comic book movie that has never been done before and will never be repeated. Seriously, I could just watch these characters forever! That being said, my only concern is that Marvel’s ego has been getting a bit too big in terms of giving us what they think we want and enjoy. Don’t get me wrong, Age of Ultron was good, but it felt as if it was still relying on the fact that all the characters are on screen together now and that’s what made the 1st film great, and that novelty has worn off quite a bit. Sure, introducing new characters helped it, but the fact is everything people loved about The Avengers can’t be duplicated. In short, The Avengers was worth the wait and was the ultimate payoff for both the studio and fans, but it also ended an era of doing something with comicbook movies that has NEVER been done before. Once that’s done, it can never be done again. Don’t get me wrong, the MCU is still going strong and I’m excited for all the new character that are going to join the already established cast, I just hope Marvel isn’t getting lazy and careless thinking that we won’t dislike anything they give us.
Goes without saying ? The problem with “best comic book movie ever done” is the “movie” in the sentence.
Because a movie is supposed to have a screenplay. That little thing that is WAY better in the Dark Knight, Batman Begins, hell, even Rises ! Tim Burton shot his movies in a way more beautiful way. Music was also freaking great.
I would gladly admit this is maybe the more “comic book” of those movies. And yes its a pretty good action flick with a lot of fun. But some of us actually enjoy comic-books for another reason. For example, i like the Spider-Man arc with Ben Reilly and the return of Norman Osborn. I love the impossible situation in which Parker falls.
A good movie is also a big dramatic tension. Avengers has ZERO of this. Coulson dies at a time where no one could remember his name and the rest if punching and one-liners. It was enough to entertain me but not to be called the best comics book movie ever.
Are…are you kidding? I mean, really, I have to assume that you are kidding.
I might give you Tim Burton, but you are trying to say that the movies where you almost cannot see what is happening in most of the fight scenes are shot better than some of the most beautiful fight scenes in ANY movie? You think that greys and browns are better than wet lit action scenes where everything just looks massive and magnificent? Don’t get me wrong, a dark movie with low lighting can be good, but none of the Nolan movies are shot particularly well at all, making very poor use of the shadows, making it just sort of hard to see rather than using them to increase the dramatic look of something.
You think that “It’s not what I am inside, but what I DOOO” stated by a voice that is so silly that it wouldn’t even be worthwhile for me to make a joke about it is better than some of the best banter and some of the strongest personalities to come out of Superhero movies?
But the real reason that I have to believe you are joking is you statement that Coulson died when no one could remember his name. Coulson was so popular that they actually added him to the comic universe. Coulson competes with Fury for the most popular non-hero in the series. I heard people in the theaters CRYING when Coulson died. Ironically, I don’t care that much about Coulson (he’s cool, but in a movie with Captain America, Loki, and Iron Man, he’s not THAT cool), but he was a HUGE hit character by the time of Avengers thanks to his actions in Iron Man 2 and Thor and then how they developed his character in Avengers itself.
Coulson was the Boba Fett of comic movies. True, he didn’t do a whole lot per say, but he was just so cool and so likable while doing it that people just loved him.
And I also submit that Avengers has plenty of Dramatic Tension. What I think that you mean is that the Villain was not very threatening, and I will sort of agree with this. Loki often feels like he is barely holding things together. But when a nuke is being shot directly at New York, when you have a massive hole in the sky, when Hulk rages out and almost kills Black Widow, when you see the team start to break apart, there is definitely dramatic tension.
You know what movie had very little dramatic tension? Batman Begins. For 90% of the movie, there feels like there is nothing going on other than introducing Batman. No real villain other than vague hints that Scarecrow works for someone worse than himself. The League of Shadows is absent throughout most of the movie. Don’t get me wrong, the END scene when they finally do appear is great…except that the League ninjas are completely non-threatening to Batman (the street thugs with guns feel more threatening) and Liam Neeson doesn’t feel like a threat to Batman. It’s just the train and the fog that is making the dramatic tension.
Now, Dark Knight, yes, this movie has a TON of dramatic tension, and as far as plot and story goes, is the best Superhero movie ever made, even if there is very little Superheroing going on in the movie. But just because it is the best out there in that regards, doesn’t mean Avengers is bad in that regards.
I would call Avengers the best comic movie as well, but I don’t think that it has to remain that way or that others don’t come close. The Dark Knight is great, the original Christopher Reeves Superman is great. Some of the X-men movies are great. Winter Soldier is freaking phenomenal and competes with the Dark Knight on the elements that the Dark Knight did great. But as a comic book movie, the Avengers did what no other movie has done and that is show the things that make Comics phenomenal in a way that feels exciting and interesting, the huge personalities, the triumph of good over evil, the suspension of disbelief about unbelievable things.
That is why Avengers is the best Comic Book movie, even if it is not the best movie that is based on a comic.
Perhaps I should’ve rephrased that. I think the Avengers is the best comic book movie in terms of excitement. Plus, let’s be honest people, NONE of the comic book movies out there are considered “masterpieces”. Each one whether they are considered dark or light bring something to the table. And I think this movie brings the most! In terms of story, yeah there’s not much to this, just a bad guy wants to take over the world and the good guys come to stop him, but that wasn’t the initial reason we went to this movie. We didn’t go because we wanted to see a great story, we came cause we wanted to see our favorite heroes on screen together. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, so whether you agree or disagree is fine, just know that this movie should be seen as a “miracle” of a film in terms of that it COULD happen and it did!
Obvious Marvel Fanboy is Obvious. Avengers is FAR from the best movie based on a Super Hero/Comic Book I can easily name two dozen others most of which came out BEFORE Avengers all of which are so much better than Avengers it’s not even funny. Superman, Superman 2, Batman, Batman Returns, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Dark Knight Rises, X-men, X-2, X-Men First Class, X-men Days of Future Past(which IMO is the BEST movie based on comic books and/or super/heroes), Spiderman, Spiderman 2, Captain America, Iron Man, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The secret of the ooze, Rocketeer, The Crow, Judge Dredd, Dredd, The Punisher, V for Vendetta, Ghost Rider, Kick-Ass, Kick-Ass 2, Man of Steel, Spawn. That’s just the Live Action Movies too and I left out plenty that were better than Avengers, If I included Animated movies the list would go on much MUCH longer to easily over five dozen. Avengers is an OK movies, good to watch a few times and then you put it away and don’t watch it again until you can’t remember what it’s about otherwise is rapidly shows that it was ust slapped together to put all those heroes together, the plot and story are rushed and no effort put into them and even then the actors don’t play off of each other anywhere near as well as they should.
You call him a Marvel fanboy, and yet you listed Marvel films that are better than Avengers.
How does that work?
It’s just a person who criticizes for no good reason then to be a show off and a troll(so just ignore the trolls I learned that the way once).
Turtles 2? Judge Dredd? … Yeah, you should have trimmed your Wikipedia “films based on comic books” copy/paste a bit if you wanted to be taken seriously.
Not to mention he noted Kick Ass 2, Ghost Rider, and The Punisher. Unless he means the early 2000’s Punisher, those were all generally regarded as HORRIBLE movies, movies that past “So bad it’s good,” about 20 times before ending up with being bad again. With that list, I’m surprised he didn’t mention Superman 4 the Quest for Peace, Batman Forever, or Man-Thing.
True – Ghost Rider I can chalk up as “Nicolas Cage being OTT is fun”, but the second Turtles… the third one isn’t really any better, but they at least had fun with the movie, and Casey Jones came back, so I don’t know why someone would pick No. 2 over it.
i chocked when i read spawn. That movie was a horrible bastardisation of the comic smeared under horrible CGI and PG 13-ness.
and there is a strong argument to be made towards Man of steel.
i also like after mentioning so much crap, X-men 3 was just not good enough to make the list. i know it is bad, the screenlay is horrible. But atleast it was well directed enough to have some fun action scenes here and there and we got to see more mutants then ever before, and thats more than can be said with some of the movies on the list.
Is this guy trolling? Because that’s honestly a pretty sorry list. In fact, I’m pretty sure most of the stuff he listed is almost universally considered ‘bad’ or, at best, ‘passable’ by critics and fans alike.
Six previous films? Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America….I count only five.
I think he counted the original Ang Lee Hulk then the Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor, and Captain America.
If he counted the original Hulk (which is clearly not part of the MCU) than he would reviewed it.
The Avengers is what DC and WB would want they future Justice League movie to be but most likely won’t be. It’s that good that Age of Ultron felt like letdown compared to it. I already said that Mark Ruffalo is my favorite big screen live action Bruce Banner/Hulk and I stand by that. Only he could deliver that “Puny God”-line so well.
yea, my buiggest concern is the overly dark take they are going with in their DC Movies, and if that will be too distracting in BvS, the only time they tried to make a decent superhero movie without making it too dark, at least in THIS century, was Green lantern, and it blew. I actualy found Superman Returns a better superman movie than Man of Steel. it FELT like a superman movie, we had everything, the colors, the pacing, the characters, the plot…Man of Steel was a bucket of CLICHÉS. At least the actors did it well to continue their careers, but the plot could have used some more emotion and less drama.
While I will agree that Age of Ultron was worse than the first, the first is far from a good movie. Justice League may or may not wow, it all depends on how DC does it, so far though it looks like Superman VS. Batman is going to be the Avengers Killer though. However unlike Marvel DC doesn’t have to rip-off anyone, their characters, for the most part, are all original. Marvel on the other hand, more than half their characters are knock-off from DC. Who cares about Hawkeye when Green Arrow was not only first but is better in all ways? Who cares about Iron Man when all he ever was was Bruce Wayne minus the the detective skills and the belt and an Ego and powered Armor suit tacked on? My biggest problem with Marvel is that nobody who ever dies in Marvel stays dead, and I mean at all, and the way they are written back in is lazy and hack kneed at best. Yes DC brought back Superman, however the way they did it was that he didn’t die but rather was just knocked into a coma which makes sense because you never see them bury him. Before the New 52 reboot Bruce Wayne hadn’t been Batman for a long LONG time in fact there had been at least 3 others since him, and in Darkest Knight was the first time DC brought back a Green Lantern from death but even then it was as a Black Lantern whose corps can only be recruited from those that are dead or are willing to die and even then their time is limited.
You’re lying about the Batman part.
He was only sent back in time and Dick Grayson took over as Batman and that only lasted for a couple of months.
Also Batman was *killed* again recently but he’s okay now, he just has amnesia.
Doesn’t have to rip off anyone? Have you seen what Doomsday looks like? He looks exactly like the Abomination.
And actually, the whole Justice League movie is in fact a ripoff, since they had zero interest in doing it until the Avengers hit it big at the box office.
Sorry, but BvS is not going to “kill” anything in Marvel, if nothing else because of abysmal casting, the humorless clunky writing, and the laziness. Not to mention “Batfleck.” I’ll take Hawkeye over Green Arrow and Tony Stark over Bruce Wayne (especially a Ben Affleck one) if the movie is actually well written and has a place in a larger mythos instead of simply going, “you liked this other movie! Love this one! LOVE THIS ONE! It’s the same one except with Superman! And Batman! LOVE IT, PLEEEEEEEZ!”
And really? Nobody in Marvel stays dead? Batman, Supergirl, Joker, Ra’s Al Ghul, Oliver Queen, Martian Manhunter, Jason Todd, Barry Allen, Hal Jordan… do I need to go on?
There used to be a saying that the only characters who stay dead in comics are Uncle Ben, Jason Todd, and Bucky Barnes. That can’t be said anymore since two of the three have since returned to the land of the living.
Fail. MCU Abomination stole Doomsday’s look. Abomination in the comics looked nothing like that.
>And actually, the whole Justice League movie is in fact a ripoff, since they had zero interest in doing it until the Avengers hit it big at the box office.
Fail again.
http://io9.com/the-first-ever-look-at-george-millers-scrapped-justice-1708165083
Obvious DC fanboy is now showing his true colors. Iron Man is a rip-off of Batman because….they’re both rich?
Ironman had his own Alfred in the comics. People have been saying that Ironman was a Batman rip-off for decades.
aquaman = Namor
bumblebee = wasp
swamp thing = man thing
batman = the shadow
and the list goes on.
they have both been ripping eachother off since the start.
I agree with sonorwegianithurts. Not to mention, DC has a huge cast because it had a habit of buying out a lot of its old competition, some of which were rip-offs of its own characters! In general, Marvel and DC look at one another for inspiration and no matter how directly they borrow, it’s because people want to buy what they sell. If you’re mad about rip-offs, you have to go to one of the smaller publishers, and even there you’d be hard pressed to say none of the OLDEST characters in comic book history were an inspiration. So get over it, unless there are grounds for an actual lawsuit, which isn’t normally the case.
My favorite Avengers character has got to be Quicksilver. I mean, who wouldn’t want super speed? 😉
Favorite character: Tony, he rocks that Sabbath t-shirt.
Tony Stark/Iron Man without a doubt. I always can’t wait to see what Robert Downey Jr. Brings to the franchise
Favorite AVenger is Iron man :3 He’s acted perfectly and is the best of the bunch <3
My My favorite Avengers character has to be Thor! his character is done so well and who wouldn’t want to able to fly and summon massive thunder storms!
My Favorite was QuickSilver, he had a cool attitude and would have have been a cool avenger…. If he hadn’t died that is.
My favorite Avengers character is good old Captain America.
Cap is the hardest kind of good guy to write: the truly virtuous, pure-hearted one that is not stupid or naive.
My favorite character from the Avengers? I think I’d have to say it was Phil Coulson. There’s just something so charming and yet so kickass about him and everybody knows it. Just think about all the stuff he’s put into nowadays to see what i’m talking about. Agents of Shield, the Ultimate Spider-man cartoon (he’s probably the most enjoyable thing about that mediocre mess), he even got his own comic a while back.
He was also in Deadpool, because if there’s anyone to counteract Coulson’s dry tone and seriousness, it’s Deadpool.
My favorite charter has to be Thor! From the movie to the comic books, he’s always been the best!
Before Avengers 2 came out, Captain America was my favorite cinematic Avenger. He is the epitome of what being a hero is: a person that does their best to do what is right no matter what. However, Vision came along and has the best intro out of any Marvel movie character. I’m a sucker for existential philosophy, and the moment that he has with Ultron is just breathtaking.
In terms of the comics, though? Squirrel Girl. I mean, she beat Doctor Doom and Thanos. With Squirrels. And that’s canon.
My favorite has always been Captain America. I really like how Chris Evans portrays the character.
My favorite avenger has to be black panther because he gives the team racial diversity. Just kidding, its because he’s a bad ass.
My favorite avenger would have to be quicksilver… Oh wait
My favorite avenger is Iron Man. Definitely the funniest
My Favorite Marvel Character is Nick Fury because..well he’s played by Samuel L. Mother-Fucking Jackson! Who could argue with that! XD
*spoiler-ish alert*
Nick Fury’s grave has Ezekiel 25:17 on it. Because fuck yes.
My favourite Avenger is Thor.
My favorite will always be Captain America. He’s brave and smart, but also not too rough, polite, kind, and honestly cares about the people he is around. Great character!
The Avengers: the only movie that ever made Chester A. Bum break character.
Now THAT is an accomplishment.
My favorite Avengers from this film but taking into account all the development they got later on in from bottom to top
6. Hawkeye
5. Thor
4. Black Widow
3. Hulk
1.5. Iron Man
1. Captain America
And if Nick Fury counts, he’s in-between Hawkeye and Thor
(note: none of them are bad characters, it’s just my opinion)
Also this film was awesome, Age of Ultron was good too, but there was too much baiting for the next films and the second time round doesn’t feel nearly as special as the first one.
Avengers in my opinion is hands down the best Marvel Movie, the 2nd best superhero movie after The Dark Knight (though it cuts a little close) and one of my favourite movies period. That stuff Doug said about the story being kinda lazy might be a little true though I would hate to call something I absolutely love lazy but he also said you don’t really care and to be honest I guess I don’t either. Loki’s plan might be kinda generic, I mean it’s simply to bring in an alien army and start attacking the city and not something more important like the White House but who cares. Also getting the Avengers together so that he can make them argue with each other and that would destroy them? Confusing but again who cares? I guess the characters and their interactions with each other were so well done that you just don’t care about that other stuff and thats OK. Some of the other Marvel movies probably had better non lazier storis e.g. Iron Man, Winter Soldier and I’ll admit to that but I still consider Avengers my No. 1 Marvel movie non the less. Don’t ask me to explain why I think it’s better than some movies that have better told stories that aren’t lazy because even I don’t know. I mean I should know because nobody knows me but me but I just don’t. I have Aspergers Syndrome so maybe that’s the reason I can’t explain.
my favorite avengers character is captain america!!!
twitter @photograph_home
Again, if I had to pick favorites for Marvel, I still have to go with Tony Stark/Iron Man. As an Avenger, he seemed absolutely perfect for the team. A wisecracking, no-holds barred, fearless businessman who saves the world in his own personally-made futuristic flying suit? How can they NOT pick him for the job? Plus, his interactions (ESPECIALLY as being the wisecracker) with the rest of the team were, bar-none, some of the funniest lines that I heard throughout the entire movie, and, yet, he can still be very serious and methodical when he needs to be!
I love the avengers to put to scale my family exluding me loves the sorceress baby the grows up to an emotional world envoment collapsing wreck known as frozen so much that they watched it 13 times in one week the 6 times in a week later crazy. But I could watch avengers that many times.
This eastern time difference is weird all my post are 2 hours off.
I feel like Doug is a bit disconnected from the general audience. Comic book movies seem to be more of a niche thing – most people I know think they’re pretty boring and overloaded with CGI. And I agree – you’ve seen one of these movies and it feels like you’ve seem them all. Great for kids I’m sure (and I know Doug likes kid stuff) but I don’t think they’re as popular with people 20 and up. I’d hate to sit through this, that’s for sure.
“Great for kids I’m sure (and I know Doug likes kid stuff) but I don’t think they’re as popular with people 20 and up.”
You’re joking right? I saw this film back when I was 22 years old.
Not to mention the Avengers pretty much broke the box office and not just in America.
If they were only popular with kids and a niche audience they wouldn’t be such huge successes.
It’s cute when people desperately try to pretend that comic book movies aren’t as massively popular as they are. It screams, “I was totally cool and popular in high school! I wasn’t a nerd! I’m cool!”
The Avengers an OK movie and while it did turn some heads it mostly just ticked the Scrotums of Marvel Fan Boys, and to be honest it’s only watchable 3,e 5 times after that the whole thing stats to show as nowhere near what the hype was for it. You quickly find out that no two characters play well off of each other, there’s plenty of plot holes and stupid mistakes made throughout the whole, How it Should Have Ended actually pointed out a couple of them. Disney knew that the mas rushed that it wasn’t properly developed and none of the characters worked well with each other and that whole the scenes in the movie didn’t transition very well or were played up anywhere near what they should be. As I said it’s good for a couple of watches however it quickly begins to show that there was little effort put into it and the whole movie was rushed to finished product unfortunately Marvel Movies just spiral down from here.
Again, I haven’t seen Ant-Man but lets be honest, I doubt they put any effort into that one either.
“The Avengers an OK movie and while it did turn some heads it mostly just ticked the Scrotums of Marvel Fan Boys.”
And yet another person who undermines the movie just because they didn’t like it.
Opinions are fine, false facts are not.
“only watchable 3,e 5 times (sic)”
There are very, very few movies that are worth watching more than five times.
And watch DC come along and screw it up for everyone because they’ve forgotten they aren’t Marvel.
The sad thing is, the DC TV shows are pretty Marvelesque these days, balancing the dark stuff with the flashy (pun intended) and slightly silly, the personal with the superheroic. But they’re not interested in the TV stuff, because they want something dark and pompous and self-important.
DCTV is so screwed. On The Flash, everyone is blabbing out loud in front of the customers at CC Jitters about Barry being the Flash, and after they reduced Vandal Savage to a pile of dirt, no one thought to sweep it up and lock it away allowing what’s his name from DOCTOR WHO to scoop him up for future reconstitution. And SUPERGIRL is a weird amalgamation of UGLY BETTY and BETTY & VERONICA, with Kara as Betty Cooper who works at a magazine and almost everyone picks on her or just ignores her, and has to contend with Lucy Lane as her Veronica Lodge, competing with her for the affection of JAMES Olsen, a.k.a. Black Archie.