Avengers Assemble!

The Super bowl is known for the millions of dollars spent on advertising, and this year was no different.  Although there was a very small minority of theatrical trailers for this year’s event, we were blessed with the trailer for one of the year’s most sought after movies: The Avengers.  I’m not going to gush too much about it, nor am I going to bother you all with a scene-by-scene recap. Instead, let’s just bask in the fact that Marvel studios has pulled off the promise of a shared cinematic universe, a feat that I think none of us thought would happen.

Way back in 2008,when Iron Man was released (it seems like so long ago), there were rumblings that the newly created Marvel Studios had a plan for ol’ shellhead, and the crew that he hangs around with at Avengers mansion.  The three major players would get their own films, which would allow viewers to get to know them.  This idea should never have worked. There was simply too much that could’ve gone wrong. But somehow, someway the stars aligned and we are now getting Avengers. Think of how differently this all would’ve gone had Thor or Captain America bombed at the box office? Hell, if BOTH of them had bombed? We may not have even gotten the chance to see this film!

Yeah guys, we're stunned too

On the topic of these movies bombing, I want to take a quick detour to talk about The Incredible Hulk. Released the same year as Iron Man, the movie was the second part of the “shared universe” leading up to this film, with the scene with Tony Stark appearing at the end filmed fairly quickly to accommodate this plan. Unfortunately no one saw Incredible Hulk, which is a real shame because it’s leaps and bounds better than Ang Lee’s snoozefest. Edward Norton does a fantastic job as Bruce Banner, and seeing Hulk fight an enemy that can actually match him physically was a great thing to see. Maybe it was too soon for this reboot/sequel, or maybe people just don’t like seeing the Hulk in his own films, but I’m still surprised at how many people haven’t seen it, because I’m fairly certain that they would like it if they gave it a shot.

If you look up "underrated" in the dictionary, you'll see this

Another reason why we should be thankful for The Avengers film is because everyone (with one glaring exception) is a part of this film. Sure Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, RDJ, and Sam L all have this film written into their contracts, but what about the eventual sequel? Has that been squared away yet? There’s no telling what could happen with any of these guy’s careers after Avengers, and some may get tired of playing the roles. Obviously this won’t be for ways down the road, but imagine the scrutiny that will come from fan boys if Marvel has to recast Thor, or god forbid, Tony Stark? I for one do not envy the people who will have to cast the part, or even play the part.

I’ve been happy to see so much positive buzz for The Avengers on the internet, which is astounding since the world wide web has become the breeding ground for trolls in the past year. It’s great to have something that we can all look forward to, and in the unlikely event that it sucks; we should all at least appreciate that Marvel started out the project the correct way. However, it’s going to rule, so we don’t have to worry about Joss Whedon and co. letting us down.