Marvel’s The
Avengers
I went with my
husband and two sons to see Captain
America, Civil War, the latest in a long line of movies starring characters
of Marvel comic books. We are all fans of the Avengers—a group of Marvel heroes
who generally work together to protect the planet—of this movie, however, not
so much. Joss Whedon, a writer and director whose work I’ve admired since his
TV show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer,
directed and helped write the first two Avenger movies but not this one. Technically,
this is a Captain America movie, but many of the Avengers took part in it. I
missed Mr. Whedon’s witty dialogue. Even the action scenes seemed long on
smashing and blowing up property and short on real excitement.
Have to admit,
the scene that included Spider Man had more humor and special-effects interest,
though bringing in the character at such a young age and changing his aunt to a
middle-aged, sexy Marissa Tomei instead of an elderly woman jolted credibility
for anyone who has seen the Spider Man movies.
Story Continuity
I didn’t see the
last film of the Captain America character, so was lost when the secondary
character, Bucky the winter soldier, came into this movie with references to things
that happened in the last film and no other explanation. His relationship to
Captain America eventually became clear but feeling at sea for quite some time
did not help me become invested in this story. The characters and plots of
books in a series need to stand alone, and I feel that movie scripts should do
the same when part of a franchise.
Robert Downey,
Jr.
I have admired
Robert Downey, Jr.’s work for many years. I liked the Iron Man movies, especially
the first one, though I prefer the ensemble cast of the Avenger movies. I think
the character, Tony Stark’s, struggles to balance power, responsibility, and
morality add a lot to the human-interest aspect of the story. The fact that
he’s closer to my age than most of the other characters and cute doesn’t hurt.
The movie ended
with the conflict between the Avengers ongoing, something to continue in the
next movie, which I hope has a better story.
No comments:
Post a Comment