The Avengers premiered on April 11, 2012 and since then, it has made over a billion dollars worldwide, making it the third highest grossing movie of all time, after Avatar and Titanic.
Directed by Joss Whedon, creator, writer, and director for many other projects like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly, this movie is the culmination of several years of lead-in movies starring the superheroes from the pages of Marvel comics.
While the characters and the action portrayed in the movie play important roles to why The Avengers has made great profit thus far, in the end, Whedon is the main reason why this movie is an engaging and highly satisfying emotional and visual experience.
Throughout Whedon’s career, most of his projects had been delayed, shortened, restricted, or shot down. The success of The Avengers is an affirmation for what Whedon has been trying to do and thwarted to do, for years: bringing both quality and entertainment to a mainstream audience.
At the movie’s core, The Avengers is about people and the plot is simple: a group of people who are used to working alone learns to work together as a team, and the internal and external conflicts therein.
However, it works in such complexity because these characters are fleshed-out breathing things with character arcs. It is the emotional connection to these characters that sets it apart. Yet, the movie also has other aspects like humor, banter, and high quality action that make it entertaining.
In the end, it is this balance and median that makes The Avengers great: a good story with engaging characters that have their own genuineness and style, but with superheroes and advanced technology.
Living in the 21st century, we find all sorts of films that involve new technologies, the latest 3D, and the craziest action scenes. But the movies worth remembering and worth returning to are those with subtlety, cleverness, and an undercurrent of emotional power.
As The Avengers makes its way up to claiming its own title for the best superhero movie thus far, hopefully, it will serve as an invitation for Whedon to make productions for a much wider audience.
Hi, Lily! Great writing. It was interesting how you gave a look into the story behind the director of the film. To make readers want to watch The Avengers (if they haven’t already) would be to give a short overview of what the plot is and the characters. You mention a team that learns to work together and how there are conflicts. Right after that, you could have talked about the different superhero characters and their personalities that make it so difficult to work together at times. I think this would have really drawn in readers to go and watch the film. But once again, great writing!