Avengers, Assembled!

I'll cut right to the chase here: yes, The Avengers is worth the hype, and your money.  It is action-packed, has a nice sense of humor, and gives its audience everything it could want, and more! 

Make no mistake about it, though: it is a popcorn flick, without a doubt.  I  enjoyed the entire movie and never found my interest lagging, but afterwards, not one of the people I went to see the film with had anything to say about it.  Nothing.  Sure, my son repeated some of his favorite lines, and gushed about a few big action scenes, but when it came to the adults, it was literally a case of, "Out of sight, out of mind." 

There's not anything wrong with this - not every movie needs to be a thoughtful work of art that is going to inspire animated exchanges over dinner and drinks later that evening.  Going to the movies is a nice little escape from reality, and the fact that I was never bored and constantly entertained by The Avengers tells me that the movie was successful at doing its job, and that my money was well-spent. 

A minor point: it wasn't technically my money, as a relative picked up the tab.  Interestingly enough, I picked up the tab to see Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen in the theaters.  That was the exact opposite of money well-spent. 

Still, it does anger me a bit to think of all the great films I have seen - Gone Baby Gone, The Prestige, V for Vendetta, The Shawshank Redemption - that seem to have gone unnoticed by the majority of people while they were in the theaters.  The Avengers is on pace to become the highest-grossing film of all time, and it took great skill to make, but the thrill of the movie is gone only minutes after you have left the theater.  Nothing really stays with you once the credits have rolled.  The Shawshank Redemption, however, is one of those movies that makes you value life once you have seen it; it inspires you to, in the words spoken by Morgan Freeman's character, "Get busy living, or get busy dying."   Few movies have sparked so much thought, discussion, and debate as Gone Baby Gone and The Prestige have, and along with V for Vendetta and The Shawshank Redmeption, I will gladly re-watch those movies, because there is depth to be found, new meaning to be discovered, important lessons to be re-learned.  I'm going to buy The Avengers when it comes out on Blu-ray, but I'll be lucky if I watch it twice more in a lifetime.  This movie is poised to be the most successful film ever, yet there's really not enough substance there to watch it over and over again.  What does it say about us, that the biggest money makers are the movies that barely challenge us to even be conscious during the film's showing?

All that being said, The Avengers will thrill you, especially if you liked any (definitely all) of the origin stories that preceded it.  Grab a drink, a big tub of popcorn, and give your brain a few hours off: The Avengers has arrived!