The Avengers

When Thor’s mischevious brother, Loki (Tom Hiddleston), gains access to the unlimited power of the energy cube called the Tesseract, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), director of S.H.I.E.L.D., initiates a superhero recruitment effort to defeat the unprecedented threat to Earth. Joining Fury’s “dream team” are Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner). 

How Does It Stack Up: The Avengers was unprecedented and it blew the collective minds of moviegoers. Looking back at it six years later, it’s still as exciting and energizing as it was in 2012. If this movie had failed to deliver everything it did, it probably would’ve changed the course of the MCU and superhero movies in general.

Infinity Stone Roll Call: Space Stone (Tesseract, Asgard in Odin’s vault). Mind Stone (Loki’s Scepter, Earth in possession of S.H.I.E.L.D).

There is a lot going on in this movie. There are a lot of characters. There is a lot of ground to cover. It could have been a mess. Instead, it was a well-balanced look at what superhero team-ups and also managed to turn the gears toward a much bigger picture.

Rather than a seamless marriage of a bunch of conflicting personalities (which would be unrealistic, even for a superhero movie), this film takes time to carefully interweave story-lines and characters into the plot, but it doesn’t do it hastily or at all times cleanly. Banking on the common trope “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”, the Avengers begin to assemble.

There are introductions to new characters like Ruffalo’s version of Bruce Banner and there’s a reminder of all the things you like about the old ones like Johansson’s Natasha Romanov. Bonds form along some lines — we get the Science Bros, Coulson’s fangirling over Cap, an established relationship between Hawkeye and Black Widow and questions over what really happened in Budapest. Divisions form among others — Thor and the Hulk don’t get along, Tony and Steve sometimes butt heads, and S.H.E.I.L.D does some sketchy stuff.

When you take a step back and begin to dissect, you realize just how much crap they shoved into this movie. There are so many different points for character growth and development. There is so much chemistry and so much friction. There are so many subplots. But the best thing about it is that you’re not looking for every one of them to be resolved in the end. You can go into it knowing that this is a single film in a franchise, one section of a much bigger picture. And with hindsight, you can start to see how things that were established in this movie are then utilized for the next two phases.

Eventually, the clash of egos between Tony and Steve is going to lead to a lot bigger problems. At some point, eleven movies down the line Hulk and Thor are going to hash it out.  That sceptre sure seems to act a lot like the Mind Stone. What’s great about The Avengers, besides being the first of it’s kind, is the recognition that it’s the first of many more to come. It doesn’t have to take itself too seriously, it doesn’t have to give us all the answers. And with that understanding, the focus could shift to making the funniest, most bad ass, tear-jerking wild ride of a superhero team-up ever. And we all know how well it succeeded at that.

Featuring: Smash’s favourite line in any MCU film – “Ma’am there’s only one God and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t dress like that.” (Steve to Natasha regarding Thor)