Marvel Cinematic Universe: Ranking all 18 movies after Black Panther
By Mike McNulty
Credit: Marvel Studios/Walt Disney Studios; poster for The Avengers (2012)
3. The Avengers (2012)
Way back with the first Iron Man, Marvel Studios producer, Kevin Feige, had this crazy vision of bringing together different Marvel superheroes together on the big screen. This was a dream of many a comic book fan, yet many didn’t think it was possible. After all, Warner Brothers, and the time, still struggled with getting Batman V. Superman and Justice League the green light, and those were better known characters.
Yet in the summer of 2012, The Avengers arrived in theaters, and audiences and critics loved it, so much so it became the third highest grossing film of all time. Like the original Star Wars, it isn’t just a movie, but a watershed moment in popular culture. The success of this one movie completely upended Hollywood’s business model when it came to film franchises. None of this would’ve been possible, of course, if The Avengers wasn’t also a terrific movie.
Thanks to a talented cast and writer-director Joss Whedon’s ear for witty, sharp dialogue, there is perfect chemistry throughout. In some cases, they give even better performances that the movies they first appeared in. Clark Gregg as Agent Phil Coulson is particularly good, but so is Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/The Hulk, especially during his scenes with Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark. What’s more, while The Avengers logically builds upon the previous movie, yet one can easily jump into this one without having to have seen them.
The last forty minutes where the Avengers finally assemble to fight Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Chituari forces in downtown New York is still one of expertly crafted superhero battles ever put on-screen. And of course, Alan Silvestri’s score rivals that of John Williams’ Superman and Danny Elfman’s Batman.
Why then isn’t this movie ranked higher? Well, until the battle for New York, the movie does meander a bit. Also, it does devote quite a bit of time towards character building which, while necessary, does slow the pacing. Also Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton, a.k.a. Hawkeye does spend most of the film under Loki’s spell. Yet Marvel’s The Avengers not only is a great superhero movie, it deserves its place in the annals of cinema history.