I Watch Films: Avengers Assemble (again)

Even now, several re-watches and years after it first came out I have something new to say about Avengers Assemble. And it’s this*; that each of the major characters is acting as though they’re in their own film. Thor is doing a family-drama thing. Stark is arrogantly trying to fix things in his own way. Cap is figuring out the right thing to do. Nick Fury and Natasha are mired in plots and conspiracies and plans. Banner is in his usual were-wolf horror story.**

Then the big fight third act, which is in every superhero film now, and is basically the same for all of them. And that’s where they finally all come together, because that’s where all the films are the same, where the genre meets.

(In my reviews I usually put recommendations of why you might want, or not want, to watch a film; this is not a review and in any case you’ve almost certainly made up your mind by now if you want to see this or not.)

* Probably best understood as an addendum to my Introduction/Complication/Resolution – Meet/Fight/Team-up structural post.
** Loki is of course where all these different stories meet. He’s mostly there as the Thor antagonist, but he’s also plotting within SHIELD’s plots, harming innocents to annoy Cap, making a giant splash to draw out Stark, and creating Banner’s and Barton's worst nightmares.