Movie: The Avengers
If you’ve seen any of the prequel movies (setting up the backstories of the various characters) – Iron Man, Iron Man 2, The Hulk, Thor, Captain America, then you’ve probably heard the long-running plan to create an “Avengers” movie – an ensemble piece with a large number of Marvel superheroes.
I was pleasantly surprised at how well it worked. There’s enough character back-story to make sense of the different heroes for the people who haven’t seen the other movies. The balance between witty one-liners, the team of heroes not getting along, CGI battle scenes worked: the emotional pacing was good, and the Hulk was the best one I’ve seen on the big screen.
Where the movie worked best was in displaying an emotional life (of sorts) for the characters – their vulnerability makes them more watchable – this has been the main development in superhero movies in the last decade.
The downside with the movie was its treatment of women: yes, there are some stronger characters than we’ve seen in other superhero movies, but it’s still more about eye candy than substantive roles (anyone disagree?)
Overall, it’s an unusually good popcorn movie that comic book fans will enjoy.
I wouldn't disagree with your review at all! Unfortunately Ms Johansson is very good looking 😛 Agent Hill didn't seem to have that much to do either.. And Joss Whedon is known for his 'strong women' but it was a bit of a guy's movie. But I think there was less room for deep character development in an epic ensemble piece, and I think the eye candy (let's not be sexist and leave the males out of this category!) is just a side effect of that.