Well here we are guys, we made it to the end of phase 1. It’s nostalgic and quite amazing to be at this point in the MCU. With Infinity War just over a week away it makes this movie feel so small in scale. However at the time the idea of having Iron Man, Thor and Captain America on screen together was very hype. When the first teaser was shown for Avengers, people were screaming at the idea. No matter what your enjoyment is of the final product, you can’t deny the idea and execution was incredible for the time.
Avengers very quickly became the 3rd highest selling movie behind Avatar and Titanic. While it has been pushed down a little bit after Star Wars came back into everyone’s lives, it’s still near the top. Looking back at it, it was mainly the whole cinematic universe that made it so popular. No one had really attempted a movie like this before that spanned over 4 years of storytelling. Avatar was also up there for it’s technology even if it isn’t a great movie. In fact looking over the top 10 all time box office reveals a lot about what we love to see. Star Wars, Marvel and Franchises like Harry Potter carry with them a dedicated fanbase that spans generations.
Marvel is something that’s been around longer than my dad, people his age will know the characters. While kids like me will have grown up on the cinematic versions of them. I’m 19 years old now and I was 13 when Avengers came out. It literally took my entire teenage lifespan for us to get from Avengers to Infinity War. Before that new fans had been learning about these characters over the course of 4 years. To see Avengers then would have been something of a waiting game in itself. Modern Marvel releases around 3 movies a year focusing on different characters or events. Back then there was years in between them all, just to set up their origin.
Watching this movie the other night felt more like a nostalgic trip of joy than a movie watching experience. To this day I feel that while Avengers isn’t one of the strongest movies, the feelings it gives off makes it more enjoyable than some. It helps that they have a familiar villain in the form of Loki to help us just kick straight off without introducing a new antagonist. However this also causes a lot of issues, and begins the identity crisis of Thor.
When we watched Thor we saw him as this super wholesome guy who was more intrigued and had a lot of love to give. The second you see him in Avengers he is pissed and demands to take Loki back to Asgard. Hang on wait a minute wasn’t Loki dead? That seemed to happen really quickly. At the end of Thor we saw an emotional moment where he was more happy to die than live under his brothers shadow. Then Avengers kicks off like he was just napping away from home and the movie doesn’t try to make it exciting. Thor coming off serious isn’t the problem here but it’s how he treats everyone else.
In one scene he describes the rest of the team as petty humans. There’s something weird to me in this scene as he’s looking down on them as a god. I mean he is a God but the last time we saw him he was interesting in everything about them and ready to be one. His friction with the rest of the team then seems to pop in and out. However one huge positive is that they fixed his god damn eyebrows and he looks a lot cooler for it now.
The rest of the Avengers play pretty similar to the way you expect them too. Tony Stark is still very much Tony Stark in this movie and he gets to be the hero. Cap plays his role to take on the mission and lead this team and the civilians of Earth to victory. Watching this back also made me appreciate Black Widow more, she really kicks ass in this. Oh and how could I not mention the precious Mark Ruffalo who has face swapped with Edward Norton to become Hulk. Ruffalo plays Bruce Banner really well, the way he speaks comes across as someone who is desperately trying to stay calm.
The end of this movie also brings on Thanos. I mean it took him 6 more years for him to actually get up and see us. This for me is where the MCU really kicks off in entertainment. Phase 1 was very much the groundwork and showing the formula could work. Phase 2 would bring on some really excellent movies but also stumble along the way with others. But at the end of the day Phase 1 was entertaining and quite historic more than anything. None of these movies are going to win Oscars, but for fans of the genre these really set the tone of what was yet to come.
This is also the point where my memories start to kick up a bit as I went to go see MCU movies in the cinema more regularly. I’ll be kick starting that spree with my favourite boy as always. I’ll see you tomorrow for Iron Man 3!