“The Avengers” May 5, 2012

From left to right: Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, Black Widow, and Nick Fury

“The Avengers” is basically a movie of Super Heroes, where major figures of super heroes in the Marvels’ concept are playing together as a team. As usual, the theme of this movie is to save the earth from the intruders who come from the outer space. The actions, visual representation of the superheroes, and the enemies are generally not different from those are in the X-Men and the Megatron. However, the humanistic aspect, which this movie had, has made this movie has something to learn, not just collection of single superhero that can fight all enemies.    

This movie is a part of Joss Whedon’s work in the world of entertainment based on the Marvel’s concept of super heroes. Just to review back the movie a bit, the major figures of the super heroes in “The Avengers”, including their short description of heroic powers are:

·         The Iron Man (Tony Stark) performed by Robert Downey, Jr

This superhero seems to be made as a hero that is closer to the image of advanced technology, which is particularly located in New York. His power is seen as a manifestation of how technology could make a simple man, like Tony Stark, could be a superhero. The concept of Iron Man seems to be made in line with the Batman that also uses technology as the mainstream of its actions against the enemies. The costume and its well-managed system of power through the use of technology have created this superhero be seen as the “current” superhero. No wonder why in this movie, the Iron Man is the only one who could save the New York city from the nuclear missile, until he flew up above to the space in which the enemies are located. In The Avengers, the Iron Man seems to be the icon of all superheroes.     

·         Captain America (Steve Rogers) performed by Chris Evans

The unique thing about Captain America is that this superhero is basically a man with a high spirit to fight the enemies. Of course, his power seems to make him be seen as a superhero that has strong performance and high spirit to attack. What makes a strong man like Captain America to be considered as a superhero is because he knows and understands how to use his power. Monsters may have powers as well, but they destroy human. This is the thing that differentiates monsters and superheroes. Despite his charismatic appearance, Captain America has a sense of leading the team of The Avengers. I think Captain America is the icon of how Americans perceive their national military reputation.   

·         Hulk (Dr. Bruce Banner) performed by Mark Ruffallo

Everybody knows Hulk. He is the green-colored man with a very powerful force and a big size body. His inner character, which is represented by the figure of Dr. Bruce Banner, is a nice and calm man. He is actually a scientist. Due to incidental events happening with him during the times of his laboratory experiment, Dr. Bruce Banner emerged into a big-green-monster-like-man named Hulk. In some extents, this superhero is not that different from Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, who is also a scientist that has two characters. The different thing between these two is that Hulk is able to transform himself into Hulk as long as he is angry. It means that emotional condition influences Hulk to transform into the big green man with powerful energy.   

·         Thor performed by Chris Hemsworth

Thor is known as the demigod that has an axe in his hand. His power is the same with the Storm in the X-Men, an ability to use deadly thunders through his axe. He is perceived as a strong man with a soft heart in this movie. There seems to be no vivid distinction between Storm in the X-Men and Thor in The Avengers. Storm is a woman while Thor is a man, but they both seems to use thunder as the weapon. Storm could influence the weather, but Thor could use his axe to make thunders. In this movie, the battle between Loki and Thor brought the viewers into the scene of two brothers who are raised up by the same parents, but it turned out that Loki’s jealousy toward the perfectness of Thor has made him so desperate. Thor is the brother of Loki. They have different ways of looking at the same problem.

·         Black Widow (Natasha Romanoff) performed by Scarlett Johansson

This superhero is playing as the image of woman superhero in this movie. Her ability to fight makes her to be perceived as the image of how women fight within their life. Usually, the icon for this black widow is a spider. It means that she is a spy-woman who is working for the agent. An interesting side of this black widow is her ability to play with the mind and with the psychological dimension of the enemies. It can be seen at the scene after Hawkeye was influenced by the magical spears of Loki. She has a sense of controlling herself and the surrounding. In spite of that, black widow is not really different from Lara Croft – Tomb Rider, but the different thing is that black widow is fictional superhero while Tomb Rider is more in the form of real-life situation in the movie.   

·         Hawkeye (Clint Barton) performed by Jeremy Renner

At the beginning of the movie, Hawkeye was acting as a casual man who is working in a lab with other scientists. He was working for maintaining and checking the stability of a blue lighting cube, which is going to be misused by Loki as a key for him to enter the time dimension on earth. This cube is then used by Loki as a means to open the gate between the intruders of the outer space, or simply considered as the aliens, and human on earth. Loki has a great ability to use the arrow. His credibility in killing enemies from a far distance has made him considered as a not-that-powerful superhero but a superhero with an arrow. Overall, his performance in The Avengers could be accepted.    

·         Loki performed by Tom Hiddleston

Loki is the antagonist in this movie, although he is the brother of Thor. Loki has a connection with the influential characters existing in the outer space. Because he dreams for power, he has misused his willingness and desires to rule the earth. As a result, he was psychologically influenced by the enemies. The only obvious power that Loki has is the spear in his hand. Without it, Loki seems to be the same with Thor, even though they are different to some extents, especially in terms of how they fight.  

·         Nick Fury performed by Samuel. L. Jackson

This character is a leading figure in The Avengers. He made contact with people who are considered as the “decision makers” in the United States. The Avengers is actually working under Nick Fury’s orders and regulations, despite the form of the coöperation is mutual. His ability to control the SHIELD and to use weapons have made him seen as one of the superheroes. He could view things as a leader in the SHIELD.  

·         Maria Hill performed by Cobie Smulders

This figure is not really obvious in the movie. If the viewers do not know this character, they may end up understanding this character as a common one. In fact, Maria Hill is also a superhero. She is working together with Nick Fury in organizing the SHIELD. Her performances in The Avengers are not really bad, even though her actions and roles in The Avengers are not viewable.  

Plot of “The Avengers”

From the beginning until the end, this movie has flash-move plot. It means that this movie does not have turning back scene. As far as I could remember, the scene where there is a flash-back is when black widow met Loki. However, this is only a trick played by black widow to understand his intention. Since the coming of Loki to the earth until his influences toward the opening scene of the time dimension gate on the sky with blue cube, everything seems to move and put forward from one scene into another. At the end of the movie, Iron Man played a crucial character in The Avengers. As always, the enemies are never off after that.     

Feedback after watching “The Avengers”

Watching this movie reminds me of the times when I was a kid. I love superheroes. They are fictional characters that are influentially drowned into the image of the children’s mind. I like all the superheroes, especially for remembering how joyful the past times as a kid. The Avengers presents the ideas of superheroes could work as a team. The idea of single man can fight or single superhero is officially made into pieces by the meaningful feedback given by this movie. All characters of superhero are playing together as a team in this movie. What I could learn is that having an ability to understand the strength and weaknesses of each member in a team will empower how a team could meet its goals. Through the images of the superhero, I could understand how leadership skills is crucial in managing a team without having personal interests are conflicting one another.

Meanwhile, children can watch this movie because there is no sexual scene in it. The only pornography that could be seen is the scene when Dr. Bruce (Hulk) re-transformed from Hulk into Dr. Bruce in which he was almost naked, but the camera did not really show this. Therefore, it does not a problem for children to watch this movie. The other scene which is considered to be “adult” is the scene of kiss between Tony Stark with his wife. Other than these, there should be no problem.

Indeed, I enjoyed watching this movie. Good job! 😀

This movie is watched in Edwardsville, Illinois, the United States, Friday, May 5, 2012, 11:00 pm – 02:15 am, AMC – IMAX


2 thoughts on ““The Avengers” May 5, 2012

Leave a Reply to Hero with a bit of super « Ben Williams' World Cancel reply


WordPress.com Logo


Google photo


Twitter picture


Facebook photo


Connecting to %s