Ridiculously funny. It
should have added the by-line “when egos meet”.
The Avengers was
a huge treat to satisfy my craving for clashes of superpower abilities. I have
always been amazed with how mighty powers can inspire or corrupt its bearer. And
so I loved X-Men since I was a kid. But
what X-Men did not achieve in carefully
giving each superhero a time of its own to shine, The Avengers thoughtfully balanced the showcase of abilities. There
was never a scene when one character seemed to be dominant over another. There
was always a tug of war between two or more egos. And this is usually the core
of the fight scenes: a fight for one’s vested interest (not even “for the good
of everyone” until they realized it was how it was supposed to be... and we still
call them superheroes).
I found Captain America,
Iron Man and Thor very proud and egotistic. They have high regard for
themselves and are easily pissed by each other’s air of authority. The
slightest comments of one are never taken lightly by the others. Hence, ego-battles
between and amongst these three are not uncommon. Funny that I see these three representing
our biggest leaders and their egos: the government (Captain America), science (Iron
Man) and religion (Thor). There were scenes when each asserts superiority over
the other, and the film was intelligent enough not to make it appear
that one won over the other.
Meanwhile Black Widow, Hulk
and Hawkeye are equally magnificent but are not as self-absorbed as the former three.
I see them as representations of magnified human follies: cunning &
deception (Black Widow); blind obedience which is in stark contrast of his
archery precision (Hawkeye); and intelligence and rage (Hulk). Loki could
represent vengefulness which is a folly of both the humans and the leaders. Each
of these characteristics was clearly developed in the film. In fact, each superhero
character is rich in irony.
While The Avengers is far from being a psychological (or a sociological) film,
its characterization of superheroes spelled out basic psychological statements
to me. And although there were six superheroes in the film (seven, including
Loki), there were no redundancies in their characterizations. It was a bonus I
did not expect from green-screen movies, and so I enjoyed the film to a great
extent. The comic timing of Iron Man and his witty lines were undeniably the
source of many of my loud laughs in the cinema. Their magnificence and valour
vis-a-vis their impulsiveness and primal reflex made them ridiculously funny, (if
not irritatingly similar to our leaders and bosses who are self-indulgent and
self-dignified supposed-to-be-better-at-decision-making heroes). It was not
until a “fan” of these heroes was killed that they got their act together and
lived up to their group name The Avengers.
I would definitely watch
this film again in the cinema after my exam.
