Still a top 3 MCU movie
With all the the residual hype around Endgame, Infinity War, NWH, GOTG: Vol. 3 and other MCU movies, I feel like the original is not getting the credit it deserves. It laid the foundation of the entire universe in such a fantastically executed manner and IMO is clearly the best Avengers movie. Endgame and Infinity War aren't particularly close.
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No baggage, no nothing actually, just sit back and enjoy the ride kind of movie. It's a pleasant watch throughout and I appreciate this quality of it.
Back when the world & MCU both were simple, good times huh.
Avengers is kind of astounding on every front other than spectacle, and it actually DID succeed on spectacle *at the time* but was outclassed by later entries.
The writing is where I'm going to start because I feel it's the most overlooked aspect of this movie. It's job is to reintroduce six main characters (plus Loki and Fury), summarize for new audiences who they are and what they stand for, and then find a reason to mush them together. The first hour of this film is Joss Whedon putting on an absolute barn burning, no-hitter shutout clinic in terms of efficient writing. Each scene is perfectly balanced between advancing the plot and introducing the characters in an earnest but memorable way that delivers the core of who they are. Almost no fat to trim. It's a masterclass.
That same writing is also so fucking smart, not even glazing. The dialogue is electric with character, almost every line informing who a person is while also getting out the exposition and, most importantly, it's FUN to hear. This was "quippy MCU dialogue" before it became a meme of itself, back when the quips were quality and woven well into the scenes. We jump from exciting scene to exciting scene and every interaction between characters is just dripping with personality and character. Avengers has some of THE BEST character moments and character dialogue in the MCU, bar none. I still don't think Black Widow has been written better in any other film (her performance in Winter Soldier was better though IMO).
This movie introduced character arcs that carried some of these characters through the entire Infinity Saga. Tony's anxiety over threats he isn't prepared for is born here, and his near-death sacrifice is the other bookend to his death in Endgame. Steve's mistrust of SHIELD and the government is born in this movie, as well as the idea that he's nothing without a war to fight; both concepts that carry through his entire development for the rest of the movies. Black Widow's characterization as a repentant assassin who wants to clear her conscience starts in this movie. Hulk is completely recontextualized as a Banner who is in control of his monster, yet he still feels more dangerous than ever. Neither Banner or Hulk are so self-serious, and the new tone makes them both more entertaining than Norton's entry. Thor takes a few more baby steps towards being more charismatic and comedic, and his interactions with Loki pave the way for their arcs together in The Dark World and Ragnarok. Hawkeye is in this movie.
Overall I think Avengers gets the credit it deserves for being a massive milestone and foundation for the MCU, but I'm not sure it consistently gets the credit it deserves for being insanely well written and one of the best examples of a team up film ever. Whedon summoned everything he was good at and infused his best effort into this movie, and IMO it stands head and shoulders over MCU movies that are flashier with bigger spectacle because of it.
You might enjoy this series of blog posts that Todd Alcott wrote back in 2012, breaking down the nuts and bolts of its screenplay:
http://www.toddalcott.com/articles/avengers
My MCU top three is The Winter Soldier, Endgame and Black Panther - with Civil War, Ragnarok and GOTG Vol. 3 also in the conversation.
A lot of racist people call the movie "mid".
Its an awesome movie.
Chadwick Boseman and Michael B. Jordan are fantastic as BP and Killmonger. Soundtrack and costumes are also top notch.
And through the roof cool points for being basically the first blockbuster to ever show Africa in a positive or optimistic light.
9/10 quality, 10/10 cool, 7/10 VFX
The controversies that followed surrounding Joss Whedon have not helped in terms of celebrating the greatness of the movie.
Interestingly enough, I don't recall any of The Avengers (or its sequel) cast coming out against him.
Most of the controversy comes from Justice League and his earlier TV shows like Buffy.
But it gave us Sam Rockwell chewing scenic rocks incredibly well, how very dare you!
The first two Thor movies are just kind of boring except Dark World has some amazing performances tucked away in it, especially Tom Hiddleston.
The first set of MCU films felt very generic, almost by intention. They were fun, but disposable for the most part, which I'm certain Ike P was responsible for. Things started waking up after Winter Soldier.
It has Cap's best line! Well, ok, thinking a few seconds longer there's lots of candidates for that accolade, but his "There's only one god ma'am, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that" response to Widow is *incredible* and *so* a thing he'd believe and say.
Every Guardians movie is better than any Avengers film, to me.
One of my issues with Infinite War and Endgame, by the way, was the way they depicted the Guardians. Especially Star Lord.
I’d say it’s the weakest among the Avengers movies (yes I do think age of Ultron is better)
Ultron is easily better than the first. Pure nostalgia to think otherwise. It was the best when it came out but MCU kept one-upping itself.
Probably my top 15ish right there
Infinity War.
Civil War.
5 - Iron Man
4 - Avengers
3 - Winter Soldier
2 - Endgame
1 - Infinity War
With Civil War as a close 6th right behind Iron Man.
Infinity War
The Avengers
Civil War
Mines is Winter Solider, Infinity War, & End Game
it’s hard to explain, but it’s just so tonally different than all of the other MCU movies that came before it. and I don’t mean that in like a Guardians of the Galaxy type way where our main character has a walkman and does funny dances to 70’s music, I mean that in the sense that it is the closest thing to a pre-MCU comic book movie inside the actual MCU.
the aspect ratio is off, it’s got an original song for the soundtrack (Live to Rise by Soundgarden), there’s a bit more cheese going on in the script than the other movies, the green screen in this movie is obvious as hell, etc.
Still a good movie, still a ground breaking movie, but I much prefer the darker Avengers movies that came after it. Hell, even Age of Ultron fixed a lot of these issues (outside of the notorious Black Widow groping scene and “BEEP BEEP!”) and that was also a Whedon film.
- IW
- GOTG v1
- Winter Soldier
Edit: i mean obviously everyone is photoshopped in. But it's clearly just his head not him in a suit.
“Can” being the operative word. He doesn’t always. Also considering everything you might not want him to cook. But there’s no doubt that he *can* cook.
Infinity War
Avengers 1
Endgame, winter soldier and iron man
Best 3 superhero films: Endgame, Infinity War, Civil War
Runners-Up: Gotg 3, Civil War (film), Age of Ultron, Deadpool & Wolverine (superhero)
It’s the biggest single film step change in comic book film history, and one of the biggest ever, across any genre.
Dr Strange, Civil war, Guardians 2 beating it for the top 3 spots.
The worst 3 things being Agents of shield, Blade the tv seres, and inhumans in that order.
But A1 is top5.
It felt very TV looking because it was shot in a ratio closer to that of TV and had very bland lighting and cinematography. Apart from that, this movie is definitely easily top 10
Infinity War
Ragnarok
Guardians 1
Captain America 2 and Guardians of the Galaxy
Joint 2nd place:
Cap 3, Avengers 3, Avengers 4
Joint 3rd place:
Guardians 3, Avengers 1, Thor 3
Joint 4th place:
Guardians 2, Doctor Strange 1, Cap 1
Joint 5th place:
Deadpool 3, Spider-Man 3, Iron Man
This movie was amazing tho, was the first time to really see a build up to a movie where the whole team came together like this.
Also loved that we didn’t just see them fight bad guys, but got to see almost all of them fight each other! Was nonstop greatness!
Back then the biggest question was if the movie would pull everything together. You had 6 characters that never shared the screen together all at once and then they’re all essentially supposed to be this major team. It was essentially unthinkable thing to pull off, especially for a comic book movie.
Marvel had box office successes before this film but the last movie before this First Avenger and that made 370 million worldwide. I still remember seeing the avengers trailer as the post credit scene and that was such a cool thing to witness but like at the time Marvel was making good money but not like crazy fucking amounts you know. Avengers blew that out of the fucking waters by making over 1.5 billion. It was a damn cultural phenomenon and the movie again was just perfect.
Winter Soldier always there and for me, Civil War
Civil war
Avengers
1. End game
2. Infinity war
3. Civil war
4. Ragnorak
5. Vol 3
6. Winter soldier
7. Gotg
8. Iron man
9. F4
10. Nwh
What can I say, I find origin stories to be really interesting. I'm actually kind of sad we haven't had a good origin story in a bit, my favorite scenes are always heroes trying out their powers and learning how to use them. Easily the most relatable part of these movies (besides Thor but I just really like the dialogue in Thor)