Strong, Sexy Men and Women Beating Up Aliens in Tight Outfits, What More Do Ya Need?



In the last decade, Marvel Studios (now owned by the Walt Disney Company) has completely revitalized action movies, specifically revolving around superheroes. Since the beginning of time, mankind has been interested in the abnormal. Even today, new conspiracies come out every week depicting the latest alien abduction in suspiciously vivid detail or how a grainy photo shows the Loch Ness monster and Bigfoot having tea on the lakeside. As humans we tend to want to know more about our world and strive to obtain this knowledge. During World War II Stan Lee created Captain America, Marvel’s first superhero featured in the daily paper, and readers were given an inside look into the daily life of these heroes for the first time. We’ve seen the lives of billionaires, secret agents, and even gods, but the one thing Marvel has always excelled at was making believable characters even though they’re in unbelievable situations.

Intriguing characters are what sets The Avengers apart from many modern action movies. I have seen many films where the sole purpose is to see how many cars they can blow up (That’s right, I’m looking at you Blues Brothers) or how many shirtless hunks can grace our high-definition, 3-D jumbo screens (Ahem, 300). Women also seem to be stuffed into ridiculous costumes that certainly would hinder anyone’s ability to kick their daily quota of butt. Consumers have been eating this kind of stuff up and Hollywood producers eagerly rake in the dough. If we mainly focus on the blowing up cars part, or just action in general, we can see why horror movies have done so well: people want to experience and observe from behind a movie screen. Men and women who think their lives are boring and monotonous can pay fifteen dollars and watch others “live” the adrenalin rush. This is definitely as safer alternative to actually seeking out this rush, and it also doesn’t land you in the hospital with costly injuries.

The only thing better than intense action sequences is aliens right? While aliens seem to be slightly outdated by movie industry standards, certain elements of the supernatural subgenre still hold interest today. Especially that of, let’s say superpowers, or in Thor’s case magic. The supernatural, which could even be called fantasy, and superhero movies go hand in hand. Not only do they share the same first five letters, but it’s hard to have a person with special capabilities without having some supernatural aspects tied in. Unless of course you’re Tony Stark whose powers are money and above average intelligence. Super heroes are already farfetched and it’s hard to come up with a good explanation of their powers without adding in some fictitious details. Take for instance Hellboy, a character from Dark Horse Comics. He was discovered by a group of Nazis who opened up a portal to hell and was adopted by one of them. Despite this idea being so outlandish and absurd, comic book readers absolutely loved Hellboy; however, no one necessarily liked his movies.

If there has been one thing Marvel has been the best at the last ten years (besides making some of the best comics ever) it’s been creating movies based on their multitude of comics. These new films make movie-goers and nerds alike forget about some of the monstrosities the company put out before being bought by Disney, which was usually due to their lack of funding. The Avengers takes everything we have come to love about action movies and completely revamped it. Not only do we get talented actors with physiques like Grecian gods such Chris Hemsworth and Scarlett Johansson, but we also get deep characters who seem real despite their abilities.

This realness is something that writer and director Joss Whedon more or less succeeded in creating. The Avengers was everything people have come to expect from action movies while still making the characters seem human and relatable. Audiences around the world saw struggles such as coming to terms with one’s self and the relatable brawling between brothers. Pair this up with the top-of-the-line CGI and well known faces such as Robert Downey Jr. then we easily get the best movie of 2012. This movie pleased the members of comic-cults, average movie goers, and most importantly it pleased me immensely. Overall this film showed us Marvel’s true prowess by exploring not only the external conflict of an impending alien invasion led by a god who has gone off the deep end, but also the internal conflict that our main characters have to go through. Almost everything about The Avengers was on point, including the score which was written by Alan Silvestri. There were some moments where the jokes seemed a bit cringe-worthy, but those were far and few between. My recommendation is simple: go see this movie. Multiple times if you can.