100 Days of Marvel: Road to Infinity War - Day 11: The Avengers

Unfortunately, I was not alive when the first "Star Wars" film was released in 1977. I was not able to have the same excitement that surrounded that film's success, and never really got into the other movies that had theatrical releases until I was well out of high school. So, when I say that never before have I been so excited to see a movie in theaters, you can believe it with your whole heart.

I spent most of the early MCU casually seeing the movies, and I didn't have the exact same hype as many other people. Like, I KNEW OF Captain America, Hulk, Iron Man, and Thor, and I definitely saw those movies when they came out, but growing up I was all about them X-Men. I didn't need any other ensemble heroic teams. I was a ride or die. Spider-Man filled my solo hero spot, and for team ups I had The Ninja Turtles, The Power Rangers, and the X-Men.

After seeing the Phase One solo films, I was hooked, so my energy was ready "The Avengers," - MY BODY was ready for "The Avengers" [pause].

Where to start? Well, how about Shield Director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). We FINALLY get to see him do something, other than his recruitment missions in the previous films. The intro scene is really dope, and we get a great scene where Fury rustles it out with Loki, and puts up a mediocre fight, but hey, man vs god-like doesn't usually go as well as it does here for Fury.

Switching gears to Natasha "Black Widow" Romanov (Scarlett Johansson), we get to see her continue to be a great character. I believe it is in Iron Man 2 where we see her first appearance, or at least we see her first fight scene. One cool thing is that Johansson does a great job with her emotional acting, so much so that I believe her every step of the way. When she is pretending to be a captive (well, a captive by choice would be more accurate to say) I believed she was, well, captive. And, knowing how tough she is, I believe that the Hulk is something to fear when she has to confront him. She plays being on edge very well, and the moment when he rages and she pulls her gun in response is perfectly filmed.

Later, when Banner is changing into Hulk on the ...ugh, Prydwyn (get it?) and Romanov is trying to calm him down before he transforms, he very much reminds me of Michael Jackson during the Thriller video. When Michael is changing into the werewolf and yells, "GET AWAY," at Allison, so too does the Hulk shout at Natasha during his transformation

For me, there is not a lot wrong with this movie. Even watching it back today, about 90 days before the completion of its cinematic trilogy hits trailers. I am waiting on the 3rd movie like Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) waiting on Romanov to free herself from her captors

Then we get to Tony Stark, Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), in the film. All of his scenes are well acted, well written, and well filmed. I wish we were able to get more Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) in this film, but what we get is really welcomed. I love that by the time we get to Avengers the two are officially an item because their on camera chemistry / banter is so enjoyable to watch. The scene keeps a great pace with their chemistry even when Coulson comes in and becomes third wheel. "Phil? His first name is Agent," Stark says, keeping up the wit, the timing, and the scene. "I was having 12%," was a great retort on Potts' part. We need a solo Pepper movie.

The only downside for Tony Stark in this film is that he is constantly getting his ass whipped in these streets. Captain America and Bucky go in on him in one of the later films (Civil War) and even in the trailer he gets curbed stomped by Thanos. In this film, he does not fair much better. He really doesn't play well with others, because he friends beats him up in "Iron Man 2," and in this one he is beat up by Thor. Though, to be fair, he put up a decent fight and I imagine Thor was not trying to kill him. But I swear, they do him almost as bad as they did Batman in the newest Justice League movie. Stark makes it up by having dope entries. How can you not call Loki "Reindeer Games" exclusively moving forward?

As a villain, Loki is definitely the main antagonist here, from the beginning to the end of the film, he is the root of all of their problems. Even their internal team struggles, which would likely have occurred even without Loki's trickery, are caused by his shenanigans. I actually like him a lot less in this film than I do in Thor. His motives were a lot more believable to me in that film, and in this one, it was hard for me to place why he was doing what he was. Was his motive really because he simply wanted to rule?

They make it so that some of the good guys are bad here, such as Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) or Selvig (Bill Skarsgard). Question, If Selvig has a baby with an Asgardian, would their baby be born Skarsgardian? But joking aside, I did not like how our real introduction to Hawkeye was him as an evil character. We do see him in Thor, but he doesn't get to do anything of importance in that film. Hawkeye was placed in a <insert second Sunken Place reference on this blog within a week's time > and his thoughts and actions were not his own.

When I saw this film for the first time, I had re-watched the original films so much. In my initial watching I never paid much attention to Coulson, but I knew who he was intimately when I saw Avengers, so much so that I did not see his death coming, nor could I take it. When I saw the bloody cards, I was torn to shreds. I loved how much I hated Loki, and that is the job a great cinematic villain. Though Coulson is resurrected in Agents of Shield, his death had weight and meaning during this film. It is his death that causes the Avengers to Pull the hell up.

In conclusion (5th grade teachers would smack my wrist for writing that) Avengers is a fun thrill that is still just as good today as it was 5 - 6 years ago. The climactic final battle between Loki, the aliens, and the Avengers was really good! This is even one of the first times in the films that we get the infamous Portal-to-the-villains-in-the-middle-of-the-crowded-city type deals. It has basically become a meme at this point, but when it was done in the Avengers, it was pretty fresh - at least for me.

Oh yea, Captain America had a ... romance... in the end? At least he had an intimate moment with a random civilian. And, to quote my best Nick Fury, "Given that it was a stupid ass decision I have chosen to ignore it."