7 most overrated Marvel movies of all time
By Bryce Olin
The Avengers
- Release Date: May 4, 2012
- Director: Joss Whedon
- Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgård, Samuel L. Jackson, and more
The Avengers is the Marvel movie that proved what was possible for all these heroes to co-exist on-screen. It was a massive undertaking to make this movie, and there's a lot of The Avengers that works. The launch of the Avengers Initiative brings Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Hulk together for the first time to stop Loki, who has launched an assault on Earth. He tries to conquer the planet, while the Avengers try to stop him.
My main qualm of The Avengers is that it feels like a half-baked story. Loki's motivations and the threats they pose aren't fully understood. It's not exactly necessary, but the stakes feel artificially elevated at times. I'm all for the heroes getting together, too, but the team's friction also feels unnatural sometimes in the film. I think the ramp-up to The Avengers could have been a little longer, as well. Things happen quite quickly, which works because it's exciting. It gets the adrenaline going for viewers, but I think the story skips a few steps going from Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Captain America: The First Avenger, and Thor right into The Avengers.
While this is one of the most important movies of the MCU, there's a lot of The Avengers that doesn't really work, and it doesn't totally make sense to me why this movie has such a high score on Rotten Tomatoes. Again, it's a good movie. It's better than half of the MCU movies for sure, but it's not a Top 10 MCU movie. I think it gets the love that it does because of what it means to the MCU rather than what the movie is about.