CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE AVENGERS, 2012 (RESEARCH)

'When Thor's evil brother, Loki (Tom Hiddleston), gains access to the unlimited power of the energy cube called the Tesseract, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), director of S.H.I.E.L.D., initiates a superhero recruitment effort to defeat the unprecedented threat to Earth. Joining Fury's "dream team" are Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner).’- Avengers, 2012

EXECUTION OF STORY LINE

The execution of the story line is well planned and easy to follow for the audience, having main goals throughout the film; assembling the avengers, getting Barton back and then fighting Loki and his forces. The narrative is clear to the audience and allows the audience to know how far into the movie they are, being able to check off the goals as they follow the narrative.

One of the first goals in the film is to get control of Barton once again and to free him from Loki’s mind control, this being a main goal for Natasha and Fury with the help of the Avengers (1:17-1:58). Although for a good amount of time he is mind controlled, you can see the exceptional talent that Clint has with a bow and arrow, sending an explosive arrow towards the carrier and hitting it perfectly to take down the engine. This allows the audience to understand why they have to get Clint back on their side as he will play an important part in the battle, being one of the founding avengers with the other five. Natasha makes sure that she is in the front line to save her friend, fighting against him to do so and is the one that saves him in the end from the mind control, showing the audience their relationship and once again why this is an important mission to complete.

During getting Barton back, Fury is starting to assemble the Avengers, having gained all of them together by the time Barton is freed from Loki. The relationship between the avengers is what is difficult to make them a team, all of them being strong headed and not good at working in a team. Fury is aware that the team is full of ‘remarkable people’ and what power they can bring when they work alongside each other with the assistant guidance of S.H.I.E.L.D under Fury’s command and this is clear to the audience, the audience knowing that once the team have managed to assemble and work as a team that they will be able to defeat Loki. This is the most important mission throughout the film as they won’t be able to fight Loki separately but will be able to defeat him together, this being clear to the audience and allows them to enjoy the moment when they all stand together as a team for the first time during battle, the audience feeling the sense of achievement for the characters.

Their final goal is of course to defeat Loki and their forces, their incredible teamwork allowing them to do this and allows the audience to see how far they have come as a team. It allows the audience to appreciate the character development that fuels the narrative structure and to feel happy at how far the characters have come and developed to be able to fight alongside each other compared to how they were when they first assembled. This makes the audience, once again, feel the sense of achievement for the characters and allows them to become excited when they see the exceptional teamwork that they perform together.

Narrative structure is important as it allows the audience to understand the story and to give reason behind the story that you are trying to convey to them. It allows the audience to understand the characters and the reactions that they have to different situations, being able to link up the events throughout to make sense no matter what narrative structure you follow. It also allows the audience to understand the details that are in the film, allowing them to take the information to understand the story and meaning behind the film in better detail.

CHARACTER ARCS, IMPORTANCE AND DEVELOPMENT

IRON MAN

Iron Man, AKA Tony Stark, is the first Avenger to learn about the programme from Nick Fury, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D, in the end of Iron Man. Tony describes his self as a ‘Playboy, genius, billionaire, philanthropist’ which has been proven to be his exterior character towards the other characters. Tony Stark is a character that the audience have been able to understand the most throughout the film as the audience have seen his character for two films beforehand, the audience already understanding his past and why he plays up to the four words he describes his self as. Tony is a genius engineer who built his suit in a cave located in Afghanistan where he was held hostage to create nuclear weapons for Ten Rings and was also where he gained his arc reactor that sits in the center of his chest, being one of the few out of the six avengers to have no superpower but still is extraordinary and this makes him important to the team. Tony is the only one that understands technology in great depth and can create weapons or technology to help aid them in battle and also the only one that can analyse a battle whilst fighting to determine their chances and options.

Tony is shown to not work well with a team, being self-centered and independent, not being able to work well in a group. Tony also exclaims that ‘following isn’t his style’ and is told by Captain America that he is self-centered and would never sacrifice his self to save others. Throughout the film you see him start to take fondness of his comrades, the closest being Bruce Banner but he also grows a fondness with Hawkeye and Thor fairly quickly compared to the rest of the group. He also starts to gain a friendship with Black Widow as they have worked together in the past and have a mutual understanding as she is the only one that knows Tony’s past, her knowing Tony when he was dying back in Iron Man 2. Tony continues to develop and allows Captain America to lead the attack before guiding the nuke out of the portal, sacrificing his self to save the World, showing the other Avengers and the audience that he has a heart of gold hidden behind the description he gives his self.

CAPTAIN AMERICA

Captain America, AKA Steve Rogers, is visited by Fury in a gym where he is boxing, the flashbacks of Captain America: The First Avenger playing in his head as he is only adjusting to being alive after being frozen for 70 years and is the first avenger to be put into action against Loki. Captain America doesn’t have superhuman powers but through the super-solider serum and his ‘vita-ray treatment’, his strength, agility, speed, reflexes and healing is superhuman. The super-soldier serum is also capable of making his personality traits stronger such as his sense of right and wrong and his want to protect the World from danger. Throughout the film you can see Rogers trying to get along with all of the other Avengers but takes a back seat throughout the film until the end where he takes the lead against Loki and his forces, showing his level of importance and the natural instincts he has in this role from the army.

Rogers develops throughout the film as he tries to lead a team that doesn’t want to be lead, this showing the difficulties that he faces throughout the film as he wants them to work together and not against each other, the hardest character to deal with being Tony Stark as he is an independent worker. Apart from Stark, Rogers becomes friends with the others fairly quickly as he understands them and they can all work as part of a team. Once Tony accepts Rogers as the leader, Steve is able to perform at his best abilities of directing the team to victory. Captain America develops more in his individual films compared to this film as he focuses and struggles to take control of the team compared to the other films where the audience are able to understand the character more and his backstory.

HULK

Dr. Bruce Banner, AKA Hulk, is a known genius in nuclear physics that is recognised by Tony Stark when they first meet, having a mind so brilliant that it cannot be measured on any known intelligence test. Bruce Banner allowed himself to be subjected to a combination of a recreated version of the Super Soldier Serum and exposure to high levels of Gamma Radiation. As a result, Banner is able to transform into Hulk when his heart rate increases to high levels or he loses control of his emotions, mostly anger. (Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki, 2018). As Bruce he is mild-mannered, mysterious, shy and analytical, being a man of science similarly to Stark. Hulk is influenced by high levels of anger and is shown that Bruce isn’t in full control of when the Hulk makes his appearance, not being able to stop him from appearing and the Hulk has incredible, immeasurable strength.

Throughout the film the development that Banner has with the other avengers allows the Hulk to feel calm as Bruce gains control of when the Hulk makes his appearance. Bruce turns up to the fight late, like Tony predicted, and tells them his secret is that he is ‘always angry’, meaning that he can allow Hulk to take control whenever he needs him to. The relationships that Banner grows also is shown to work with the Hulk, an example of this being when Iron Man falls from the sky and Hulk catches him. Continuing with this example, Hulk is also seen to yell in anger and upset for the moment where he believes Stark is dead but his yell is what wakes Iron Man up. Hulk also starts listening to Natasha and Steve, taking orders from the both of them when needed.

BLACK WIDOW

Black Widow, AKA Agent Natasha Romanov, is a former agent of S.H.I.E.L.D and a trained assassin and the only female out of the six avengers, being able to bring balance between the men. Natasha joins the team as directed by Fury when she discovers that her friend, Agent Barton, has been taken by Loki via mind control. Romanov is the world’s most skilled assassin and lives up to the expectation throughout the film, easily finding her way out of a kidnapping once she hears that Clint has been compromised. Romanov is cold but snarky, speaking up where she deems necessary that her input is of importance. She has incredible skills that are needed by the team and she joins the avengers willingly to save Barton from Loki.

Romanov is shown to become kinder to the others throughout the film, having an understanding of Stark, and grows closer to Barton and Bruce Banner. She is shown to care a lot about Barton from the beginning, making sure that she is in the front line to save her friend and is the one that saves him in the end from the mind control, staying with him in the infirmary until he is back to normal. Romanov has an understanding with Stark from working with him in the past, knowing his history and his main worries which allows her to feel sympathy for him. Romanov is also shown to be able to calm down Bruce Banner and has a soft spot for the man but hasn’t been shown to its full extent, saying to the audience that their relationship will be explored further in Age of Ultron.

HAWKEYE

Hawkeye, AKA Agent Clinton “Clint” Barton, is a former agent of S.H.I.E.L.D and a trained assassin, similar to Black Widow, with impeccable aim with a recurve bow and arrows, never missing a shot and claimed as the World’s best marksman. Clint gains the nickname ‘Legolas’ from Tony Stark and ‘Archer’ from Thor, is the first avenger to run into Loki when having a discussion about the tesseract with Nick Fury and is captured by Loki from his mind control. Although for a good amount of time he is mind controlled, you can still see the exceptional talent that Clint has with a bow and arrow, sending an explosive arrow towards the carrier and hitting it perfectly to take down the engine. Once he is freed from the mind control by Black Widow, the audience discovers that he is a man with few words and is normally the silent one. Fury confirms this when he asks where Clint is and one of them respond with ‘up in his nest’, showing the audience that he prefers to be alone.

In the battle, he seems confident in his abilities and didn’t look at one of his targets and still managed to perform the attack properly. He is one of the few out of the Avengers that stated it would be a pleasure to work alongside the avengers although he prefers to be alone. Although Clint is shown to be quiet he works well with the team and quickly develops friendships with the characters, watching Stark’s back in the battle and giving him ideas to shake them off of his tail and is already very close friends with Natasha from past battles. You also get to learn that he is flexible and trained in fighting for when he is disposed of arrows, showing the amount of skill he has and how he is important to the team. Clint doesn’t develop as much as the other characters but has been set up to develop more in the next film, Avengers: Age of Ultron.

THOR

Thor Odinson, son of Odin and next heir of the throne of Asgard, is one in the group that has incredible superhuman abilities and brother to the villain, Loki. Thor is the ‘fish out of water’ in the group, not knowing how certain things work on Earth or what certain words mean. Thor has a pure heart of gold and has come to Earth to help stop his brother and wants to bring him home. Thor has his hammer, Mjolnir, which is able to control lightening and that only he, and a select few, can lift meaning even the Hulk cannot lift the hammer as he isn’t ‘worthy’. Before his banishment to Midgard, Thor was known to be arrogant, immature and stubborn and was also proven to be bloodthirsty, having an obsession with battles and combat.

Throughout the film, Thor starts to become more of a team player and becomes more responsible for his actions. The immaturity and stubbornness slowly fades as he starts to work alongside his team and grows his friendships with them, taking responsibility for Loki’s actions as they are brothers. Thor feels the need to grow and become better and worthy for the hammer since the first Thor film where he wasn’t allowed to lift the hammer anymore. Thor also wants to protect the Earth from Loki and is assigned by Fury to fight as an avenger but starts to enjoy the team that they have formed when he allows his self to work as a part of the team and follow Captain America’s orders.

LOKI

Loki Odinson is Thor’s adopted younger brother and is labelled as the God of Mischief. Loki is the most powerful sorcerer in all of Asgard, his magical abilities including shape-shifting, molecular rearrangement, flight, telepathy, teleportation and hypnosis with much more also at his expense. (Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki, 2018) Unlike the other characters, Loki doesn’t go through much of a development as a character as he plays the villain throughout the film but is shown to know how to tear the avengers apart and work against them. He knows how to execute his plan, by allowing his self to be captured, and manages to take control of Barton’s mind to use against the other avengers, showing high levels of intelligence behind his actions. Loki is also aware of his brother, Thor, who is attempting to get him to stop and go home but Loki isn’t there to learn or develop his relationship but to instead cause chaos.

NICK FURY

Nick Fury, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D (Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division), is the man that listened to Iron Man’s pitch of the Avengers and the one to put it in action at the end of Iron Man 2. Fury isn’t seen to develop much throughout the film as he is more of a support character but does eventually start to believe in the avengers being able to protect the World from threats. He is aware that the team is full of ‘remarkable people’ and what power they can bring when they work alongside each other with the assistant guidance of S.H.I.E.L.D under Fury’s command. Fury is also shown to be capable in a fight, being able to fight of the intruders in the carrier with no issues and is also shown to be intelligent to the audience, the character being able to keep control of the ship even when under attack.

Depth to individual characters is important to understand and represent to the audience as the characters can feel disconnected or misplaced, linking back to why character development is important. For individual characters you need to think about their positives, flaws, habits, motives, speech and past. Having dimension in characters allows the audience to be more drawn to getting to know the characters and listening to them to try and understand them. Depth can be implemented by the list mentioned beforehand as the audience will all have their own, unique qualities, and seeing a character who is unique is interesting to the audience.

RELATIONS BETWEEN CHARACTERS

Iron Man and Captain America are shown to have an interesting friendship, both men having the same goal to protect the Earth but with different ways of executing it. The two also don’t understand each other’s past or what they are like which causes them to butt heads often throughout the film, especially when Tony remarks that ‘following isn’t his style.’ There’s a lot of tension between the two characters as they both have different memories of Tony’s father, Howard Stark, and cannot agree on who he really was which causes the tension as Captain America expects that Tony will be similar to his father but discovers he is different than expected. Tony continues to develop as their relationship becomes stronger and allows Captain America to lead the attack before guiding the nuke out of the portal, this being where Captain America gains a lot of respect for Tony and understands that he isn’t as self-centered as the solider believed.

Bruce Banner and Iron Man also develop a strong relationship from the first time they meet, Bruce’s genius in nuclear physics recognised by Tony Stark when they shake hands for the first time. The two spend a lot of time in the lab with each other and because they are both men of science they can understand each other about their goals and what they believe in. Bruce also seems a bit more confident around Tony, not scared to question his actions or to ask the outcome of the science experiments. The relationships that Banner has with Tony also is shown to work with the Hulk, when Iron Man falls from the sky and Hulk catches him to save him. Hulk is also seen to yell in anger and upset for the moment where he believes Stark is dead but his yell is what wakes Iron Man up, showing how close the two characters have become over a short amount of time.

Hawkeye and Black Widow have a developed friendship before the avengers have been assembled, both being former agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and assassins that went on missions together after Hawkeye was originally sent to kill Black Widow. Natasha shown to care a lot about Barton from the beginning, making sure that she is in the front line to save her friend and is the one that saves him in the end from the mind control, staying with him in the infirmary until he is back to normal. Barton also shows this fondness to Natasha, once snapping out of his mind control during their battle and calling out her name, showing that he finds safety when he is around her. These two characters work almost as brother and sister towards each other which is easy to be understood by the audience and have some quirky lines towards each other about past battles, an example of this being 'You and I remember Budapest very differently', as said by Clint, which shows the audience that the two characters have already connected.

Loki and Thor have a stranger relationship throughout the movie, both of them having different goals and feelings towards each other. Thor is shown to want to get his brother back and to become close with him once again, not wanting him to be causing the chaos that he is whereas Loki is jealous of Thor as he is the adopted son and was never shown any affection by Odin. Loki feels like he has always been in the shadows of his older brother and doesn’t accept that they are brothers, always referring back to that he was adopted when Thor calls them brothers. This is the most interesting relationship to be presented to the audience as it can make them feel sorry for both characters and to understand the motives of both characters, especially if the audience watching has siblings their selves, this relationship becoming the most real to the audience.

Bruce and Natasha are also two characters that develop a strong relationship towards each other, Natasha being able to connect with Bruce and the Hulk. Romanov is also shown to be able to calm down Bruce Banner and has a soft spot for the man but hasn’t been shown to its full extent, saying to the audience that their relationship will be explored further in Age of Ultron. Natasha is a calm and collected character who rarely shows her emotions but in this scene where Bruce is turning into the Hulk you can hear the fear and worry in her voice which allows the audience to know that she cares for Bruce and is trying to stop him from turning into the Hulk. Natasha is also shown to be physically affected, having shivers of fear before she gets back onto her mission to save Barton. This scene in particular shows that she wants to help Bruce and support him, trying to calm him down and to try and help Bruce fight against the Hulk who eventually breaks through.

Their interactions with others is one factor that is played over multiple characters, creating a dynamic between them that is interesting to the audience. Whether they are kind, comedic or mean to each other, relationships between characters are some of the most important parts of character development to the audience. A characters relationship will also help the audience determine which the main character is and where the other characters stand around them, whether this being a sidekick, best friend or an enemy is important for the audience to differentiate how they will act towards each other. Impulses will also help the audience understand why a character may become nicer or meaner to a certain character throughout the film and who they have become close to throughout their journey. This allows the audience to note how much the characters have grown from what they have learnt from the different scenarios they have found their selves in. It allows the audience a reason to the sudden change in characteristics towards a certain character or them as a character overall.

APPLICATION OF ANALYSIS

Character development is important because if characters don't feel believable or realistic they won't fit into the World or story you have created, making it hard for the audience to connect with the characters that you have presented to them. If the characters seem disconnected and their personality jumps over the place they won’t be believable and will become obvious to the audience that there is little depth behind the character. This is commonly picked up on by audiences and has been shown through many reviews and discussions of other films such as the Marvel or D.C. films, most complained about recently being Suicide Squad for the exact reason of character development; story development was also an issue. This is why I wanted to analyse a Marvel produced movie to show that the audience is able to deconstruct the characters and understand them.

The importance of this analysis is to understand how a large franchise like Marvel is able to present a story line and the characters to the audience and what techniques that they use to do this. This can be applied to my production as I have researched into the character development and importance of character development, this being a good example of my understanding of that research by being able to deconstruct the characters and story line to understand how they are presented to the audience. By being a large franchise it explains that the characters and the story line are able to connect to the audience in different ways and is something that I want applicable in my own short film. I wanted the audience to understand my characters and be able to relate to some of their personality traits, wanting the audience to be able to deconstruct my own characters like I have for this film.

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CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE AVENGERS, 2012 (RESEARCH)

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