Marvel’s The Avengers is a film about Marvel’s greatest superheroes, Iron Man, Captain America , the Hulk, Thor, the Black Widow, and Hawkeye teaming up to take down Thor’s evil brother, Loki. I have chosen this film because I am a big Marvel fan and superhero movies especially Marvel’s movies are my favorite genre of movies. My whole family loves Marvel movies as well, we go to the theatres to see most of them when they premiere but no movie has matched the feelings I had when I first found out about The Avengers. After each Marvel movie Marvel previews new movies they have coming out in something they call the post credit scene.
The Avengers movie didn’t release until 2012, to 2008 when Marvel released Ironman, Marvel kicked off “the Avengers initiative” by introducing the characters of Nick Fury and Agent Coulson, two agents who worked for S.H.I.E.L.D looking to create a superhero team.I think part of the reason The Avengers is one of my favorite movies is because I was excited to see it in theatres for almost four years. Besides myself, many Americans share a universal love for superheros and super hero stories no matter the age. I believe this one of the reasons the film became so popular is because of its rare story that has never been portrayed in theatres before. What this films popularity says about American popular culture is that when individuals from different backgrounds come together they will bump heads but once they work out their differences they are able to work together towards their goal.
The plot line of the film is that S.H.I.E.L.D. locates a mysterious device called The Tesseract, which is actually a powerful energy cube and a gateway to an entirely new world called Asgard. Thor’s evil brother, Loki arrives on earth and takes the Tesseract and immediately tries to rules the entire human race. Nick Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D. assembles a team of superheroes who together will become The Avengers, earth’s mightiest heroes. Nick Fury recruited Iron Man, Captain America , the Hulk, Thor, the Black Widow, and Hawkeye to join his team. Throughout the movie the Avengers are divided because they don’t know how to how to defeat Loki and they find out that S.H.I.E.L.D. plans to use the Tesseract to develop weapons to use against any potential threats that may try to take over Earth. The Avengers eventually capture Loki and are in the process of taking him back to S.H.I.E.L.D’s base but are still continuing to disagree and in the process Loki escapes and kills Agent Coulson. Nick Fury uses Agent Coulson’s death as motivation for the Avengers and they finally begin working as a team. Loki uses the Tesseract to open a wormhole on top of Stark Tower which launches his space invasion on Earth. The Avengers finally work as a team and together defeat Loki, stop the invasion, and save planet Earth.
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One of the many unique things about this movie is that there was more than one star. Since The Avengers movie is a sequel to many individual Marvel movies. As I mentioned earlier, in 2008 Marvel began incorporating the characters stories of The Avengers through their well known after-credit scenes or “post-credit scenes”, minor rolls for the characters who would be featured in The Avengers in prior Marvel movies, and online marketing for the films, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, and Captain America: The First Avenger. When Captain America: The First Avenger was released in 2011, everything was set for the 2012 release of The Avengers. A.O Scott states in his article Superheroes, Super Battles, Super Egos “So “The Avengers,” which has been foreshadowed by post-credits teasers in (deep breath), “Captain America,” “Thor,” “The Incredible Hulk” (the one with Edward Norton) and both “Iron Man” pictures, is not without its pleasures” (Scott).
The Avengers is different from other contemporary films in its genre because it became a movie with one of the largest collections of movie stars since the beginning of the contemporary Hollywood cinema era. Every main character in this film is considered an A list or B list actor. Starting with Samuel L. Jackson who plays Dr. Nick Fury, to Robert Downey Jr. who plays Iron Man, to Chris Hemsworth who plays Thor, to Scarlett Johansson who plays The Black Widow. The other main characters are Captain America who is played by Chris Evans, Loki who is played by Tom Hiddleston, The Hulk who is played by Mark Ruffalo, and Hawkeye who is played Jeremy Renner, and Agent Coulson who is played by Clark Gregg.
Besides it being a good movie, having actors with such star power in this movie, they were able to reach the fan base of each individual actor. Plus the fans who could care less about the actors and were already Marvel fans who read and followed comics and movies. Factor in all this and it makes sense why the movie set so many records when it was released in 2012. Pamela McClintock wrote in her article Box Office Report: ‘Avengers’ Even Bigger With $207.4 Million Opening “Among other records, Avengers is the first film to cross $200 million in only three days of play at the domestic box office. It also scored the biggest Saturday gross of all time, earning $69.7 million.” (McClintock).
There were many themes in The Avengers but the most obvious theme is individuals who come from different backgrounds teaming up to defeat an enemy who is to powerful for anyone of them to fight individually. This in a sense can also be tied into the theme of this movie and any other movie which is the nature of heroism. The superheroes in this movie after constant bickering were finally willing to battle their own pride, egos, and personal differences aside to save everyone. To me the film had the same theme and connotative meaning which is by the Avengers overcoming their own egos can they achieve a greater goal. A denotative or surface meaning I noticed in the film is humanity’s reverence to freedom.
In multiple scenes during the course of the movie, Loki that humans are sheep who deserve to be ruled by those superior to them. In the scene right before Loki is captured by the Avengers, he stands before a crowd in Germany and demands that they kneel before. An elderly man stands up to Loki and tells him that he will not bow to a person imposing order with then yelling ‘Never Again.’ Loki then attempts to blast him with the Tesseract but Captain America jumps right in front of it and blocks it with his shield. Captain America’s shield has a big white star on it and three circles with the colors red, white, and blue. So Captain America shield represents American and with Loki demanding that people bow down to him in Germany represents Hitler and the Nazis. I believe that serves as a parallel to American stopping Hitler and the Nazis. In that scene Captain America and the Avengers stepped in and intervened with Loki’s attempt to take away individual freedom and have superiority.
The Avengers film is truly groundbreaking because it added and expanded a different aspect of profit to its genre. Many filmmakers and production companies never put a focal point on merchandise and using the platform the movie created to produce spin off shows like Marvel did with The Avengers. The Avengers is the only major film to have various television shows, video games, toy lines, merchandise, and books related to the film and not the comic. A new comic book based off 2012 Avengers film features the same characters and gives additional insight to the movie and the events that transpired after. Hasbro and LEGO launched various toys and lego sets related to the film.
In Marvel’s Five-Year Plan For The Avengers To Rescue The Movies Larissa Faw states “Marvel is also releasing individual character merchandise in “waves” to help ensure superheroes receive their turn in the spotlight. For example, the first wave of The Avengers toys by Hasbro (which holds the toy license for the property) is heavy on Iron Man and Captain America.” (Faw). Back in 2013, ABC premiered their hit TV series S.H.I.E.L.D, which is based on the agency that Nick Fury was director of in The Avengers. In 2013, Marvel also premiered a new animated TV series, Avengers Assembled, which is also based off of the 2012 film. “Whereas this approach saw the feature film as the finish line, the upcoming campaign will “synergize” the Avengers into a “multi-platform brand that can live 365 days a year.”
To that end, Marvel is introducing digital initiatives, new print and comic book titles, and The Avengers animated TV series on the in 2013.” (Faw). The release of The Avengers film set up a vast amount of sequels for Marvel to release over the next three years that followed. Those films were Thor:The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Ant-Man, Ironman 3, Guardians of The Galaxy, and The Avengers: Age of Ultron. Aside from all the positive critics reviews the film received, the film received numerous awards and award nominations. Just some of the awards and nominations include Academy Awards, Oscars BAFTA nominations for achievements in visual effects.
References
- Marvel.com – The Avengers
- IMDb – The Avengers
- Box Office Mojo – The Avengers
- Screen Rant – The Avengers Articles
- IndieWire – The Avengers News
- Variety – The Avengers Coverage
Cite this paper
Superheroes Film “The Avengers”. (2021, Oct 30). Retrieved from https://samploon.com/superheroes-film-the-avengers/
