The Avengers
2012, Walt Disney Studios
For some reason, mixing and matching superheroes like this seems awkward at best, creating the subtle feeling it's being done just to make money. But not having any interest in comics, who am I to judge? Still, I can't escape the whiff of money-grab in the air surrounding this film, and the growing number of others like it. Aside from character overload, there is such a thing as too much action and mayhem. While the CGI work is masterful, it doesn't help when I can't keep track of who is doing what. Still, it must have made the fans happy—they dropped over $1.5 billion of disposable income on it.
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The Avengers: Age of Ultron
2015, Walt Disney Studios
I'm sorry, but once we learn that Iron Man was himself responsible for spawning a mutant killer robot that caused unimaginable property damage and loss of life, his redemption seemed so implausible that I lost all respect for the writers of this beast; I had to divorce myself from the story in order to glean any possible enjoyment from the furious light-and-sound spectacle. The onslaught of special effects was practically too much to bear. But once again the fans were pleased, buying nearly as many tickets as they had for the first one.
DKS 12/17/17
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The Avengers: Infinity Wars
2018, Walt Disney Studios
With a cast of thirty actors, Infinity Wars is two hours and twenty minutes of superheroes whacking each other senseless with CGI weapons and powers. Just not my cuppa. But it sure was for loads of other people: costing $300 million, it raked in over $2 billion. Now, not to get preachy or anything, but imagine how many homeless people that would feed...
DKS 7/3/20
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The Avengers: Endgame
2019, Walt Disney Studios
Thank goodness it's over. More money spent ($350 million). Loads more made ($3 billion). The action was so frenetic at times that I gave up trying to keep track of who was clobbering who. Was I looking at good guys? Bad guys? I didn't care anymore. But I gave it an extra point for Iron Man's touching death scene.
DKS 7/3/20
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