The Avengers The Avengers Critics Reviews Thread - Part 2

[thalidomide]

It is the best superhero film for me.

 

[K'Prime]

still holding strong at 96% with 9 straight positive top critic reviews.Can't wait to see this movie

 

[Xeno]

I haven't seen this one posted yet.


“The Avengers” review: Impressions of a Marvel masterpiece

The most important takeaway from “The Avengers,” however, seems to be the film’s triumph as a comic-book movie that defies the trend toward dark and gritty superhero stories.

Where many films adapted from comic books have kept things at street level, “The Avengers” soars through the air at every opportunity and chooses bright, witty, and unabashedly heroic over dark, grim, and conflicted. Possibly the greatest compliment that can be paid to “The Avengers,” however, is that the film comes the closest of any recent superhero movies to capturing that sense of wonder and spectacle that first turned many kids into lifelong comics fans.

Yes, on top of all the expectations the film lives up to and all of the obstacles it overcame to get to this point, “The Avengers” greatest accomplishment could be this: its ability to make an entire audience feel like children reading their favorite comic for the very first time. It’s a quality that precious few comic book movies seem to capture these days, so let’s hope it’s enough to make audiences assemble for “The Avengers.”

 

[elgaz]

I haven't seen this one posted yet.


“The Avengers” review: Impressions of a Marvel masterpiece

Bang on the money. The Avengers is bright, cheerful, colourful, and doesn't apologise for it.

In saying that - I also think there's a place for the dark gritty films. It just depends on the characters involved. It suits something like the Dark Knight, but for an ensemble flick with all the different types of characters in the Avengers (considering also the wisecracking ones amongst them like Stark), lighthearted is the way to go.

 

[Sharkboy]

Never thought I'd see the day where optimism and bright would be considered against the grain for super hero films. As much as I love TDK, i think execs missed the point in thinking dark is the way to go with superhero films. I hope spidey isn't a casualty of that kind of thinking, i was expecting it to look a bit more like Avengers.

 

[yads]

In terms of tone, I expect TASM to be somewhere in between TA and TDK - funny, light especially in the first half, but with some gritty, moody moments.

 

[J.Howlett]

In terms of tone, I expect TASM to be somewhere in between TA and TDK - funny, light especially in the first half, but with some gritty, moody moments.

Completely and utterly agree about what I see in the Amazing Spider-Man was well...

 

[elgaz]

Never thought I'd see the day where optimism and bright would be considered against the grain for super hero films. As much as I love TDK, i think execs missed the point in thinking dark is the way to go with superhero films. I hope spidey isn't a casualty of that kind of thinking, i was expecting it to look a bit more like Avengers.

I think going 'dark' with superhero films was a natural progression. Maybe not a good one, but a natural one nonetheless. Audience tastes changed an awful lot over the years - the 'Gee, golly Miss lane' honest-to-god goodness of Superman in the 1978 film simply seemed juvenile to someone who was sitting in a theater in 1989 watching Burton's Batman. Films became darker and more complex in general, and the superhero genre simply mirrored that.

And of course there were comics themselves - books which for years had been reserved solely for the enjoyment of kids, were now being read by more and more adults. They didn't have to be restricted in what they could print on paper. And thus you started get darker stories from the likes of Frank Miller, more death, more cause & effect. And that too fed into the Hollywood hunger for sombre and more serious films.

Avengers isn't without it's cause and effect - all the characters have suffered loss or pain, in one way or another. But that doesn't leave them as depressing, moody individuals - they're still fun to watch, they're optimistic, and they don't work in the shadows. I loved the film, and I'm very glad Joss Whedon has bucked the trend and shown that a comic book film can be bright, colourful, gaudy and funny - just as Superman was in 1978 - without being cheesy. It just needs a director who knows how to balance all the elements of the production perfectly so that everything works.

 

[Xeno]

In terms of tone, I expect TASM to be somewhere in between TA and TDK - funny, light especially in the first half, but with some gritty, moody moments.

The Avengers has its dark moments, too, but unlike some other films it refuses to get bogged down in them. Whedon kept things moving even when the characters were under stress or dealing with tragedy. The fast pace made the film feel light in tone despite the fact that the characters were put through the wringer.

 

[I SEE SPIDEY]

Heh, your post made me realize that I hadn't actually written a full review. I posted detailed, spoiler-y thoughts after my screening, but never a proper review. So I just did:

http://forums.superherohype.com/showpost.php?p=23099471&postcount=865

Thanks for reminding me, lol!

Great review!

 

[T"Challa]

Another rotten in..down to 95%

 

[marcvader]

Yeah, this dude generally doesn't like genre films.

 

[TheNewGirl]

I literally cant believe/am so sick of all these transformers comparisons. Seriously. Marvel was at it was before Bay had his transformers clogging screens.

 

[T"Challa]

Its actually not a badly written piece..can't get mad at him really

 

[El Payaso]

Never thought I'd see the day where optimism and bright would be considered against the grain for super hero films. As much as I love TDK, i think execs missed the point in thinking dark is the way to go with superhero films. I hope spidey isn't a casualty of that kind of thinking, i was expecting it to look a bit more like Avengers.

They did, however, hit the nail right on the head with darkness as they were dealing with Batman.

 

[Suzanne78]

The only thing I don't really dig are the Transformers comparisons, but otherwise it's a solid review. And the blurb from it isn't terribly bad LOL!

Still it's at 100% with top critics and about at 98% with the other geek site critics that I respect. So I'm still over the moon about how this movie is doing on RT and Metacritic.

 

[marcvader]

Its actually not a badly written piece..can't get mad at him really

Yeah, this is the way to write a negative review, you can take it seriously. Not the vomit inducing ones we got first.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

I'm hoping Avengers can stay above Iron Man's 94% RT rating.

But it doesn't look good. American critics seem a bit more snobby when it comes to superhero flicks.

 

[Tony Stark]

I just don't get the Transformers comparisons though. Both movies have explosions and CGI. That's about the end of it. Transformers doesn't just have bad dialogue, it has a script that was likely written in crayon by a 2nd grader. There are no characters in the film there aren't even caricatures, there's just lifeless bags of meat walking around saying stupid things. The writing is lazy, the action scenes are just noise. You can't make out much among the action with the shaky cam and constant panning and cutting away.

It's sort of like listening to death metal at 120db, after a while you can't tell what is music and what is the sound of the tinnitus ringing in your ears.

Transformers is worthless mindless drivel that makes me sad for the human race that it made so much money.

 

[thalidomide]

That's why people should just ignore these ratings and watch the movie then judge it for yourselves, I don't really understand how their rating system works and I don't really care. The moment the movie got a negative review the percentage dropped 5% and when a couple of positive reviews came nothing happened and I was like wtf?

 

[Oruku Saki]

Yeah, they need to get over themselves really...these kinds of movies are gonna be around for a while; at least if cinema wants to stay alive anyway.

 

[Oruku Saki]

That's why people should just ignore these ratings and watch the movie then judge it for yourselves, I don't really understand how their rating system works and I don't really care. The moment the movie got a negative review the percentage dropped 5% and when a couple of positive reviews came nothing happened and I was like wtf?

basic math really...when you have a 97%, another 100% can't bring you much closer to 100 (top number) but a 0% (which is what these negatives offer) will drop your total significantly. It just looks unfair, but really it isn't.

 

[Oruku Saki]

what's more disturbing is that either a movie is 100% (fresh) or 0% (rotten)...no wonder alot of movies on RT get trashed; they are leaving people with only two options for voting. Their scale should be 1-10 or 1-5 at worst, then you would get a much closer idea statistically as to what the movie scored.

 

[thalidomide]

basic math really...when you have a 97%, another 100% can't bring you much closer to 100 (top number) but a 0% (which is what these negatives offer) will drop your total significantly. It just looks unfair, but really it isn't.

Now that you have explained it, I undestand it now :P thanks

But still, us fans should judge it for ourselves, we've been waiting for this movie for a long time and thankfully someone made it happen

 

[Incredible Hans]

I'll see it for the second time in about an hour.