Spoilers abound!

I’ve decided to write this post as it concerns something that has always bugged me. When watching Avengers Assemble for the first time, and pretty much every time since, I have been thoroughly entertained and blown away by the spectacle that Marvel managed to pull off. Before it’s release so many people doubted how good the movie could be, and that’s mainly because never before had the main characters from four separate multi-million dollar franchises been put together in the same movie. Quite incredible. There are too many great aspects in this film to mention, however for me there is one major flaw that though doesn’t ruin the experience of the film for me, certainly aggravates me nevertheless. The problem is that Avengers Assemble is a prime example of a film in which creativity and story telling, though impressive, is deemed not as important as business, commercialism and fame. How other can Iron Man being placed front and center for the third time in a film  be explained if this is not the case? (He is literally front and center in the poster, big bad Nick Fury is crouching down under his arm just so he can fit in it, and his hand alone is about the same size of Black Widow)

I have no problems with Iron Man as a character at all, even though he is basically Marvel’s less psychology complex version of Batman, a multi-millionaire crime fighter without any powers, and I am very aware that when it comes to the comics it is Tony Stark who for the last couple of decades has been the main man in terms of summer events. I don’t have any problems with Robert Downey Jr. either, in fact he is one of my all time favourite actors. My problem is that Iron Man as a character being deemed the most important member, the main focus, and the character who has the most engaging and dramatic character arc doesn’t make any sense. What does make sense is Thor deservedly being front and center. Anyone that knows me will kinda guess that this post is massively biased as Thor is my favourite Avenger and I have quite the man crush on Chris Hemsworth, (as can be clearly seen in the follwing picture)

However I’m trying to be as unbiased as possible. Firstly in a team which includes a demi-god, a man who was basically pumped full of steroids in World War 2, and a man, who without his metallic suit, would probably loose a fist fight with a beardless Chuck Norris, is it the demi-god who is deemed the most expendable to the plot? It is fact that out of the six main Avengers, and this is even including that waste of space Hawkeye, Thor gets the second to last screen time out of the group. He is also the character that is constanltly mocked, ‘Doth mother knowest you wearest her drapes?’ This is preposterous! The fact that it is his own brother, (‘He’s adaopted’), who is the main villian should mean that it is Thor who is the main focus and leader of the group, or at the very least have the most emotional and dramamtic character arc, especially as Loki basically tries to kill him half way through the film, which if successful would have been one of the most brutal deaths ever seen in a Marvel film and is wihout doubt one of the most cold blooded acts a villian has done in a Marvel film (he basically lets his brother fall from a helicarrier hundreds of feet in the air, and Thor only manages to escape seconds before his body would’ve been smashed to bits by jagged rocks). This evil act alone should’ve made Thor and his now seemingly destroyed relationship with his brother the main dramatic piece of the film. Intead the main emotional crux of the film is how Tony Stark, who never in the two previous Iron Man films gave a flying hoot about Agent Coulson in any way, has a suddenly reformed and noble character because of his death of his sudden BFF (though I have a strong suspicion that the Coulson that died in the film was a LMD and not the real thing). In a film with so much humour, epic storytelling and phenomenal set pieces, it is a shame that this is the best reason they could think of to get RDJ the most face time. Though this rant may seem like I’m a hater on Avengers Assemble, I’m really not, it is without doubt one of my favourite films of 2012 and each time I watch it there is always something new to notice and appauld. However as a Thor fan, and as someone who has seen Marvel Studios as a company that has put storytelling over spectacle for every one of their films, I am always disappointed Iron Man is the main attration, and not even for a worthy cause, but instead to get a few more bums on seats.

By Joe.