Vengeance fatigue

Avengers Assemble is an action spectacular that would grace any summer weekend.  Nor is this purely lunkhead entertainment.  Directed by Joss Whedon, for who I’ve got a lot of time, the film possesses the wit and intelligence he brought to the first three series of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (thereafter, the show was a mixed bag) – for examples, an oblique reference to Loki as a monkey harks back to the trickster god’s Nordic origins.  Loki gets a bad write-up from Hollywood – in The Return of the Mask, Thor and here.  Naturally, Christopher Hiddleston’s portrayal deploys an English accent.

And that’s the big problem with the flick – it is not startingly original.  We have had such a glut of superhero movies in recent times that Whedon’s omnivorous comic book appetite partially backfires – we’ve seen it or something like it before.  The admittedly excellent opening as what would be billions of dollars of infrastructure are swallowed into a forbidding, exponentially growing hole is a reprise of the final act of the last episode of Buffy.  The flying aircraft carrier has been seen as the Nautilus in Doctor Who.  Transporting a nuclear weapon into another dimension occurred previously in Stargate.  The righteous vengeance when a likeable minor character is murdered is a James Bond trope (Samuel L. Jackosn’s Nick Fury even cranks up the passion for the fissiparous superheroic set).  The battle with monsters in New York is reminiscent of Cloverfield but without a wider metaphor behind it bar a habitual trashing of the city (Hollywood regards The Big Apple as necropolis now).  Also, a beam of mystical light projecting from a skyscraper (or down on it) has been in countless sci-fi imaginings.  Whedon may be faithful to the comic book sources but they have already been covered elsewhere ad infinitum.

Don’t get me wrong – Avengers Assemble is a fine movie for its running time but doesn’t inspire a repeat viewing.  The narrative is linked of scenes where things get smashed up, then more things get pulverised, followed by further things being destroyed.  It becomes a little wearing.  With each of the Avengers (bar Black Widow and the Hawk, so far) having the privilege of their own origin movies, the backstory there has fed into a lack of characterisation here (though had that been added it could have Lord of the Rings-long).  As always, catering for the male nerd fanbase, the female protagonists are kitted out in figure-hugging outfits and wedge-heeled long boots – they have to look good as they do their thing; fighting ability seems unimpaired.  Moreover, it appears that S.H.I.E.L.D. does not hire ugly people.

A further question that entered my mind, as New York is pummelled, is ‘where are Spiderman and the Fantastic Four?’  Do they so happen to be out of their home city and incommunicado all at the same time?  Or, maybe it’s because, despite relatively recent theatrical releases, their storylines are being retconned, plus Chris Evans, who played Johnny Storm AKA The Human Torch, is now Steve Richards AKA Captain America.

Now they have saved the world, what can they do in future except do it all over again.  There was a welcome mid-end credits scene revealing Red Skull, the Capt’s nemesis, as the ultimate mastermind behind the latest nefarious scheme.  The jokes do keep the action from flagging and Robert Downey Jnr reaffirms his excellent casting, oozing charm as Tony Stark/Iron Man.  If this is the Avengers getting together, I’ll be happier when they are in full swing.

Three out of five.