u/AlteredComix

Luigi Mangione is an American Hero of the highest order and we need more people like him on the streets!

I recently rewatched THE AVENGERS (2012) and had very complicated feelings.

This is not a good movie and it is jarring to watch because at one time, I loved this movie. I saw The Avengers three times in the theater during its original run, and then again at home before Age of Ultron came out. So it has been 11 years. I need this movie to stay in the 2010s. Getting through it was rough. 

Having recently watched X-Men Origins: Wolverine, a notoriously reviled film, and then immediately following it up with Marvel's 2012 smash success The Avengers, I was struck by how much better the cinematography was in X-Men Origins! What if you shot an epic sci-fi superhero extravaganza like it was a sitcom? The Avengers looks like shit. Flat and boring in nearly every frame. Joss Whedon was/is NOT a good director. He is a better writer, but even the clever quips throughout this just read as cringe to me. His unmotivated camera movements are excruciating because none of them support the story at hand, the camera moves to give it more energy for no reason. Awful directing. 

I don’t know if it’s because the “battle for New York” from this movie has been referenced  and mined from so incessantly since 2012, with Avengers Endgame even returning to the battle to give it a different angle. Or if it’s because the superhero genre has evolved so much since, but this movie felt incredibly STALE. Most of the characters are extremely flat, and now, having seen them develop in later films, watching them in this version is not fun or charming. It is dull. 

The Avengers isn’t about anything relevant to the human experience, beyond the simple and reductive theme of “teamwork”. I hate to keep returning to it, because it’s also not a good movie, but X-Men Origins Wolverine has more to say about the human condition than this movie. The Avengers is all plot. And the one aspect of humanity they give us with Agent Coulson’s death, is revealed to be a cynical manipulation on Nick Fury’s part, The Avengers government Daddy. 

What actually disturbed me on a real level was how pro-military this movie is. The entire MCU is! But doing some digging I discovered the DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE aided and provided assets to all of the early MCU entries. Which means The Pentagon approved the scripts. What the hell world is this? The Pentagon approved the scripts for all the movies up until The Avengers, and the only reason they didn’t fund this movie was because they refused to allow S.H.I.E.L.D. to exist in the Marvel universe if it’s an entity larger than the U.S. Military. 

We cannot have superhero propaganda funded by the U.S. Military. This film is a relic.

I will not be watching this movie again, at least I hope not.

Am I alone in these thoughts?

I’m curious what people’s favorites are.

Mine are STEAL AWAY THE NIGHT
and
PARANOID by Sabbath. It’s probably the greatest riff ever.

🤘🦇🤘🏻🤘🏼🤘🏽🤘🏾🤘🏿

What’s your favorite?