Before I was ever a movie nerd, I was a comic book
nerd. In fact, you can say that I was destined to be one. When I was in utero,
my parents believed that I was going to be a girl. My brother, Arik, how was
seven at the time, held on to the hope that I would be a boy. An active comic
book reader, himself, he struck up a deal with my dad to name me if I was a
boy. At the time, Arik’s favorite comic book character was
The Atom, a
super-hero that had the power to shrink to the size of an atom. The compromise
was that if I was born a boy, I would be named Adam rather than The Atom. As I
grew up, I learned how to read with comic books. By the time that I started school, I was
already familiar with Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, The Fantastic Four, and
my favorite, the X-Men. As a pre-teen, I remember saving my allowance until I
had enough money for a year-long subscription to two different comic books. I
was afraid that if I asked my mom to write a check for me, that she would tell
me to spend my money on something more practical. So I wrapped my subscription
paper around a wad of cash and sealed it in an envelope. Then I walked several
blocks away from my house and dropped the envelope in a mailbox. I saw neither a magazine nor my money again.
In 2000, the first X-Men movie was made and it
changed the world of movies forever. With its success, the movie was able to
please comic book fans while changing enough to keep the non-fan equally happy.
It showed that just because the story came from a comic book, didn’t mean that
the movie had to be like a live-action cartoon. The problem with the X-Men
movies was that it wasn’t focused on a single hero and it took time to develop
the back story of an entire group. Marvel learned from this and bought back the
rights to Black Widow from Lions Gate Entertainment in 2004, Iron Man from New
Line Cinema in 2005, the Hulk from Universal Studios and Thor from Sony in
2006. They then developed movies as individual franchises all leading up to an
eventual super-movie, The Avengers. During this process, Disney acknowledged
the potential in these properties and bought the company, Marvel for $4.24
Billion.
This purchase left many fans afraid that Disney
would convert these properties back into cartoons aimed at children. Others
were excited at the fact that Disney also owned Pixar. This is an animation
studio that has grown a reputation for making movies that make money hand over
fist not only in the box office, but also with their toys and licensing. But
one thing that Disney has always done well is protect their licensure. In 2010,
Disney bought the distribution rights for The Avengers and Iron Man 3 from
Paramount.
So, how did the movie work out? I was one of the
people that helped The Avengers gross over a billion dollars worldwide in just
19 days. This was the first movie that I went to go see in the theaters since
Avatar came out in 2009. It was also the perfect movie to take my 5-year-old
son, Tate. Tate loves movies and superheroes,
Iron Man in particular and leading up to The Avengers, we watched all of the
individual movies together. There were
several points during the movie that I smiled to myself and couldn’t help but
think that movies like this are the reason why people love going to the
theater. At one point, I put my hand on Tate’s leg and he was vibrating. He
wasn’t cold or bouncing his foot, but excited and completely absorbed in the
movie.
The thing that worked so well about this movie was
the fact that it the characters had already been established in other movies,
allowing us to jump right into the action. Through Joss Whedon’s writing and
directing, the characters were able to establish themselves in the world of the
movie and also to create believable relationships with one another. The heroes
didn’t immediately like each other because they were all good guys. Robert
Downey Jr.’s Iron Man/Tony Stark was great a great portrayal of well-liked
character that’s biggest fan is himself. He seemed like an older brother that
is always poking and prodding others to do better. Chris Evan’s Captain America
walks a fine line between character and caricature. Captain America is a good
man that feels obligated to do whatever he can for his country, but he isn’t
beyond asking why. Or willing to come to fisticuffs with Tony Stark without his
Iron Man suit on. Thor is a torn between
the pride of being an Asguardian and the brother of Loki, the man set on ruling
Earth. Whedon gives a lot of love to the second-tier heroes of Black Widow and
Hawkeye, too. But the character that I
liked the most was the Hulk. While Mark Ruffalo did a great job as a subdued
scientist always trying to bury his anger and prevent the immersion of the
personification of pure anger. But when
the Hulk comes out and starts smashing, that’s what people want to see. That’s
also why his movies never work. The best parts when he’s destroying everything
around him. While the 3-D for the movie didn’t rely on gimmicks and people
throwing things directly at the audience, I found it distracting. To me, a guy
with a film degree, I found the special effect shots disruptive in 3-D. That’s
because it was during these shots that Whedon showed his hand. It became
obvious to me that this is the type of movie that uses a lot of green screen
effects. And I just spend $4 extra to
have that pointed out to me. A couple hundred times.
As we were walking out of the theater, I asked
Tate if he liked this movie better than the Iron Man movies. After thinking
about it for a few seconds, he told me that he liked The Avengers better. Then he said that he needed to tell me
something. He grabbed his crotch and told me that had an accident.
“Why?” I asked him.
“The movie was so good,” he told me, “I didn’t
want to miss anything.” And that was that. I couldn’t be mad at him. It seemed
to me that The Avengers had live up to all of its hype. It also seemed to me
that I had created a bigger movie fan than myself.
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