Marvel (Disney) has the formula down pat right now and I don’t see them letting up ever. The movies with individual members of the Avengers squad has been a set-up for this film which we come to learn is just a set-up for the sequel.
Disney is treating the comic nerds like crackheads because they know we are down to get beamed up. The Avengers movie ends with a teaser for the sequel which elicited a “Holy Shit!” from everyone gathered in the preview screening I went to the other night.
That was after two and a half hours of ass-kicking, explosions and comicbook style mayhem on the big screen. This is Marvel’s mightiest superhero film to date. While I enjoyed the character arcs from X-Men 1st Class more than the non-development treatment of the heroes in the Avengers I still like my explosions.
There are explosions aplenty too as you might imagine when an unfrozen WWII hero teams up with a Norse God, a man empowered with gamma radiation and a billionaire with the best toys on Earth, plus two of the deadliest mercenaries evar. The only thing that could give this group problems would be each other or maybe some evil aliens from another dimension?
Now if that sounds like something too fantastic to put into a movie then you haven’t read an Avengers comicbook yet. Their forte is all about handling the villains which would be too evil and numerous for one single superhero. The whole of these heroes assembled being far greater than the sum of their parts.
The key to Marvel’s movie making magic is in writing screenplays which allow easy access for the people who weren’t comicbook fans coming up, while still giving details to the fanboy nerds who need to see elements of the classic canon to be fully satisfied.
But as awesome as this movie is it was still a set-up for the super villain Thanos who will appear in the sequel. I’m already copping myself some Infinity Gauntlets. MAKE MINE MARVEL! Fanboys unite!
