EDITORIAL: Kristina’s Thoughts On The Upcoming AVENGERS Film
Last time, we had a chat about The Dark Knight‘s chances at scoring some little gold men. Right now, the upcoming Marvel film The Avengers is in my crosshairs. Everyone I know seems to be very excited about this film, especially my cousin Ryan, who is a big fan of the comic series. I have to say, the idea of a team film involving a bunch of high profile characters does intrigue me a great deal, but a comment from Robert Downey Jr that is floating around has me highly concerned. Iron Man himself had this to say about the upcoming film:
“The danger you run with colliding all these worlds is [director] Jon [Favreau] was very certain that ‘Iron Man’ should be set in a very realistic world. Nothing that happened in ‘Iron Man’ is really outside the realm of possibility. Once you start talking about Valhalla and supersized super soldiers and jolly green giants it warrants much further discussion.”
Okay. He just stated what is going to be the insurmountable hurdle that this film most likely will not be able to get over. Each individual hero brings their own baggage because, while they are all from the Marvel Universe, they each form their own planet in that universe. Iron Man is set in a different world than Thor, who is in a different world than Captain America, and so on and so forth. This isn’t a situation like the X-Men films, where although we had a lot of mutants running around, they are all in one enclosed world, so it didn’t feel weird to have them all onscreen. It didn’t feel like a clash to see Wolverine and Magneto onscreen together. Here, I fear that the vast differences in tone and character are going to make for more of a clash than a cohesion.
As Downey said himself, the Iron Man film is set in a more realistic time. The character is a superhero, yet his film begins with him being kidnapped by terrorists, a timely issue right now. He lives in California and built his suit, his source of power, from scratch. Could you imagine how laughable it would have been if Thor, the friggin’ Thunder God, came riding in from Valhalla waving his hammer around to help Stark defeat Iron Monger? Or how about if Thor was fighting some creature and Captain America waltzed in, shield and all? If those situations are absurd, how is the audience going to take an entire film seriously? Yes, it sounds like a great idea on paper, but how are you going to strike a balance between a more tangible character like Iron Man and a fantastical character like Thor, whose storylines include gods and mystical shit? I’ll tell you how: you CAN’T. There is a reason why there has never been a successful crossover team film of this nature. It is easier to pull off something in a comic because comics in and of themselves are fantastical, but in a film, bringing together a bunch of characters who each carry their own very distinct tones could prove to be disastrous. I ate manicotti, caesar salad and a bowl of peaches for lunch today. Separately, these dishes are delicious, but if I put them into a blender and mixed them up, the result would be disgusting. I’m not going so far as to say that The Avengers film will be disgusting, but I’m not fully convinced that this film can work.
The problems with this film remind me a lot of that Justice League film that won’t quite go away. You have a ton of characters in that lineup that everyone is at least familiar with, from Batty and Supes to Wonder Woman and Flash. Now, how would you like to blend the gritty realism of Batman with an Amazonian woman who cruises around in an invisible ship with a truth lasso? Better yet, how do you strike a balance in terms of screen-time between the more popular characters that people are paying to see and the lesser known characters that people may not care about? No matter what you do, people are going to be upset. You put your bigger characters on the back burner and you piss off the general audience. You put your smaller characters in the back and you’ll upset the core fanbase (comic fans) who want to see their guys and gals get their due.
No team film that I’ve seen has ever doled out equal screentime. There is always a focal point, while the others seem to revolve around the focal point. X-Men might as well be Wolverine and Friends. The Ocean’s films belong to Clooney, while name stars like Damon and Roberts play second banana. The reason why I bring this up is because the stars of these individual superhero movies are going to want at least equal time, and they aren’t going to get it. Iron Man is going to be the big dog, while the others are left to pick up the scraps. We don’t know yet who will be Cap or Thor, but if they are name stars, then I can smell a behind-the-scenes bitchfest coming from actors who are unsatisfied because they are getting the shaft.
I haven’t even touched on the big green elephant in the room: Hulk. His first film was an abomination (get it?), and his second wasn’t much better. The market has spoken, and it has cried out in a unanimous voice, “We don’t like Hulk!” Hulk as a character is pretty limited on his own in terms of character development. This is only going to be expedited if he is thrown into a team movie where he will presumably receive little screentime, partly because it is expensive to render the Hulk effects and partly because the public has rejected the character twice. I can see it now. I’m walking through my theater, checking out the posters, and I see a crowd around the new Avengers poster. They’re admiring how cool it looks, and then they see that green turd sitting there. Excitement…gone. Personally, I would be more excited to see this film if Hulk wasn’t in it, because I find the character to be boring. I am interested in seeing who they are going to get to be Hulk this time, since it looks like Norton doesn’t want to come back.
Is there a way to solve the tonal problems that will come with an Avengers movie? I can think of one thing that would certainly help, but it will not be a popular idea and will garner me much hate mail: you have to exclude Mr. Thunder God. I’m sorry guys, but Thor is just too wacky to stand side by side with Iron Man without people bursting into giggles. Just looking at the costume makes me chuckle. I just can’t see a scenario in which Thor would work within this film where the rest of the characters are somewhat grounded in reality. He is going to stand out in a bad way, and possibly throw off the tone of the entire film.
I can’t pass final judgment on a film that has not even begun filming yet, but right now, I’m more wary about The Avengers than I am excited. It’s a lucrative deal for the studios and it will make a ton of money, but I’m not concerned about cash. I’m concerned about quality.
5 Responses to “EDITORIAL: Kristina’s Thoughts On The Upcoming AVENGERS Film”
okay…people didnt “regect” the hulk twice..and hes not boring, and i dont think that when they see the poster theyll hate it. i mean he used a cop car as boxing gloves, he will be extremely exiting to see on screen…and theyre making a sequel anywho so i dont think the hulk will be the problem
but heres the good thing, the thor movie hasnt even started getting made yet. so they can do everything they need to do now to make him look realistic. i am sure the suit wont look wack, i mean they certaintly changed wolverines costume and i have no doubt that the thor costume will be AWSOME.
they have all the time in the world now to make up a movie with thor that wont look completelt wack, and they can, i mean if they gibe him the same “feel” they gave to the silver surfer from f4..thats ENOUGH and it still will be cool to have realistic heroes…
i dont think peopel have realy thought about the real problem, then unintroduced characters. what the hell are they going to do about hawkeye and hercules? (NO ant man! just hercules!) and wasp!? i mean how will THAT work out? i have absolutely no worries on thor or hulk, hence their agresive level of awsomeness…but wasp and antman leave me doubts. i just dont see how theyre going to introduce those 2 weak ass characters (i love hawkeye so im not worried about him that much…i mean he was CAPTAIN AMERICA once)
I’m glad somebody read this
People HAVE read it. Just people haven’t found reason to comment.
Isn’t that what usually gets told to me when I fret about my stuff being ignored? Lol
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