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Although Marvel Pictures have always made curious appointments in regards to their feature film directors the results have been mostly solid, if not spectacular thus far. I certainly didn't expect Jon Faverau to deliver one of the best comic-book movies ever – Iron Man. If it wasn't for DC's own Billionaire playboy superhero would've champion Iron Man as the best flick in the genre. Yes I do rate Iron Man that highly. Spider-Man 1 & 2 were good but didn't exactly capture the essence of Peter Parker while Spider-Man 3 was a huge mess, not Mark Steven Johnson mess, but a mess nonetheless. Last year's motion picture debuts of Marvel staples Thor and Captain America were also very good, very faithful to their respective source material. Joe Johnston redeemed himself after a misguided attempt at bringing the Wolfman back to the silver screen, whereas Kenneth Branaghs Shakespeare sensitive's proved a stroke of genius in fitting Thor into Marvel's motion picture universe. To be honest I even enjoyed 2008's The Incredible Hulk after Ang Lee damn near killed the franchise.
Even though Marvel Pictures has proved time and again to make the right decisions when producing a movie on its own, the hiring of Joss Whedon seemed like an odd choice. Of course Joss Whedon is the genius behind TV-cult hits like Buffy, Angel and Firefly but his only foray into directing was 2005's Serenity. Managing all those superstar egos, handling multiple character arcs, dealing with several multimillion dollar franchises and making everyone happy from top brass executive down to the hardcore fanboys – to be honest, I wouldn't have entrusted him with a fraction of the $200-million-plus budget for The Avengers. Thus far only two directors have managed to pull off the impossible and accomodated several superheroes in a single movie – Bryan Singer (X-Men & X2) and Matthew Vaughn (X-Men First Class) while Brett Ratner ruined X-Men 3 with his unfocused direction. At first I thought Joss Whedon would do an even more terrible job than the latter, considering that Ratner had more filmmaking experience than Whedon at the time of filming X3. But nothing could be further from the truth. Joss Whedon is the MASTER, with a captial M.
Let me say it out loud:
JOSS WHEDON IS A COMIC BOOK MOVIE GOD.
Unlike Ratner he actually cares about the characters and their development throughout the movie. You think Tony Stark would just waltz through the movie and roll over every other character? You are wrong. Though Robert Downey Jr. is in top form as he always is when he dons the Iron Man suit, the other characters are far from underdeveloped and don't crumble under the pressure of his larger-than-life persona. If anything it's the Hulk that absolutely steals the show. That said, I think we have found the definitive Bruce Banner, Mark Ruffalo, he absolutely owns the role. He is the Hulk and we finally got the Hulk we deserved. Everybody brings their A-game and every character gets a fair amount of screen time. I can't find any flaw in this movie. Of course the special effects are spectacular but it's the dialogue that won me over. Really. Each character in this movie has at least one or two memorable lines – not just Tony Stark. When you watch the Avengers make sure you listen to the dialogue carefully – I've never heard dialogue this witty in any comic movie, and I've watched my fair share. Joss Whedon you are the freaking man. They said it was impossible to accommodate this many characters in a single movie – they were wrong. From now on everyone will reference this movie whenever multiple larger-than-life figures are thrown into one supersized extravaganza – Yeah I'm slamming the last two Transformers flicks. I guarantee Joss Whedon would've done justice to the franchise. After watching the Avengers everything that bears the name of Joss Whedon is a must-see for me now.
Final verdict: 9 out of 10. This movie is Iron Man on steroids. Go watch that movie!!!
9/10
