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The Avengers (Written and Directed by Joss Whedon, music by Alan Silvestri)


Kendal_Ozzel

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The Summer blockbuster is dead.

You do have a point there. I mean, look at The Hunger Games. It performed extremely well... has a box-office gross many would-be summer blockbusters are envious of, and it came out in March. It wasn't the first March blockbuster (300 gets that nod), but it's certainly the best March performer... it's on track to close with roughly $379M-$385M in the bank.

People will go see a movie if it looks like a must-see, regardless what season or month it is.

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I don't know, it feels about right given the characters and their situation.

Seems like he's more restrained than he was in Thor. Not bad if you're aiming for the right tone.

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And what's this, he's written it as well?! And the reviews have raved over it?? Okay now it's at the top of my list. I've been patiently waiting for a summer blockbuster which delivers thrills and spills since Avatar. Must see Captain America first, though.

It'll be worth the wait!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Q-Am5AVQ_-8

Karol

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I saw the film last night. The score was pretty much buried in the loud mix of sound effects. Besides that, I really enjoyed the film, even though I'm not a big fan of Joss Whedon and I've never seen the Iron Man movies. The Avengers didn't take itself too seriously and there was plenty of action and banter to hold your attention. I have a co-worker who hated it because "it didn't take itself seriously enough" - I said "you realize this is based on funny books, right?"

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And what's this, he's written it as well?! And the reviews have raved over it?? Okay now it's at the top of my list. I've been patiently waiting for a summer blockbuster which delivers thrills and spills since Avatar. Must see Captain America first, though.

It'll be worth the wait!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Q-Am5AVQ_-8

Karol

It's got that great buddy vibe going on, like in the rest of Whedon's work.

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It's fun to the point where I stepped outside the theater and wanted to kick the shit out of people with a gigantic hammer whilst shouting 'For Asgard!'

It's a real comic book film - you can't compare this to the Nolan Batman - this is just a really well-written, well-directed, well-acted rollercoaster. It's exhilarating (The HULK especially), it's funny, the tone is right - it's serious when it needs to be but knows when to cut the tension with a joke - and just fun. The dynamic between the characters is one of distrust at first, so there are teething issues to go through while they fight the bad guys.

I thought the score worked really well - have to go back and listen to it on its own.

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Gotta find a babysitter so I can see this today. On another (UK) forum I frequent they're going absolutely crazy over it, a lot of 9s and 10s mentioned, which has just sent me into overdrive for this movie.

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What a shame that a gifted Jewish person like Joss Whedon has to grapple with rubbish source material like comic books.

All this fare is no entertainment for grown-ups. 'The Avengers" are infantile.

The only pictures the studios will boast about are 'Prometheus' and 'The Dark Knight Rising', which are fine, but they're children's movies. They're not for adults.

And they're very good children's movies, don't get me wrong, they're wonderfully written … but they are not for adults.

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Charlie is right. This is a really entertaining movie. I wouldn't say "good", because this fulfills a different type of expecttions to, say, Chris Nolan's films. Definitely better than all the other Marvel movies. All the characters get decent screentime and it brings all their storylines together in an neat way, which was perhaps the single biggest challange in this case. And yes, this is the company's first proper superhero movies, as it deals with heroes as a theme. It's all pretty blatant and obvious, even if they annihilated 2/3 of the New York's population in the process (during this very long final battle sequence at the end).

There is some cheese in it, but that was to be expected. The most important thing is that it all works and I had plenty of fun (in an adolescent kind of way). Might even see this again sometime.

Oh and Hulk looks much better CG-wise this time. Mark Rufallo own the part now.

What a shame that a gifted Jewish person like Joss Whedon has to grapple with rubbish source material like comic books.

All this fare is no entertainment for grown-ups. 'The Avengers" are infantile.

The only pictures the studios will boast about are 'Prometheus' and 'The Dark Knight Rising', which are fine, but they're children's movies. They're not for adults.

And they're very good children's movies, don't get me wrong, they're wonderfully written … but they are not for adults.

Well said, Capt Obvious!

Karol

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"04 - In order to avoid controversial off-topic debates, political and religious references are NOT ALLOWED ON ANY OF THE FORUMS."
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I liked it alot, and will be getting it from intrada, but I'm not gonna say it's marvel's best (Still Iron Man for me).

Iron Man's score is easily Marvel's worst.

Sorry for stating an opinion :l

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Really? I don't want to get into argument, but all Nolan's films, whether you enjoy them or not, have a very strong personality that you can't mistake for anything else. His use of camera, lighting, editing, sound, all of that. It is the personality that puts it above other films like that. The Avengers says nothing about its director. I heard he does some stuff with dialogue but that is not enough to establish his style. I watch Batman movies, because I like Chris Nolan, not because I want to see a superhero film. That's what I meant.

But I wasn't looking for that in The Avengers. I just wanted a big, somewhat dumb (it is dumb) film to have a good time for 2 and a half hours. And it suceeds in that. Sort of like Independence Day or Mission: Impossible 4.

Karol

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Really? I don't want to get into argument, but all Nolan's films, whether you enjoy them or not, have a very strong personality that you can't mistake for anything else. His use of camera, lighting, editing, sound, all of that. It is the personality that puts it above other films like that. The Avengers says nothing about its director. I heard he does some stuff with dialogue but that is not enough to establish his style. I watch Batman movies, because I like Chris Nolan, not because I want to see a superhero film. That's what I meant.

But I wasn't looking for that in The Avengers. I just wanted a big, somewhat dumb (it is dumb) film to have a good time for 2 and a half hours. And it suceeds in that. Sort of like Independence Day or Mission: Impossible 4.

Oooh, a style. Nolan's films are clearly his. I've seen Inception (which I loved and still do) and the Batmans (which I loved at first but in second or third views I find a lot of stuff to criticize).

The reason I want to see The Avengers is because I want to see a Joss Whedon thing (although I like superheroes). And as long as I can see it does look like something he would do. I'll elaborate on this when I see it, because Whedon is precisely one of these guys out there with a strong personality.

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Wow, that theme's weak.

I agree it's sounds like something Jablonsky or Djawadi would do, not Silvestri. It is rather disappointing for a major movie like this. I swear it seems like most movies these days have almost no theme to the scores.

Bingo!

Every single new score that comes out on iTunes sounds exactly the same as the one before it. Basically either long, sustained chords for somber moods, or frenetic synthesized string ostinatos over long sustained chords for action sequences.

The Silvestri score to Avengers is nothing special, but at least it employs a real orchestra playing real music, not some kind of sonic wallpaper, and it's sad that this is the best we can expect these days.

It really makes my heart sad for missed opportunities to think of what Williams might do with a film like Avengers, if given wide latitude and a direction to compose in his 80's-90's style.

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I checked out the soundtrack yesterday, and I found it bland and generic. A huge disappointment and wasted opportunity on Silvestri's part, nowhere as entertaining as Captain America. At least he didn't venture into RCP territory with this one.

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I'm hovering around the 3-4 stars out of 5 mark for this. Yeah, it was entertaining and pretty fun; if a bit long. 12yr old boys must be in heaven with it - it's like the greatest action figure movie ever made.

But Superman II had a better fight scene.

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The Silvestri score to Avengers is nothing special, but at least it employs a real orchestra playing real music, not some kind of sonic wallpaper, and it's sad that this is the best we can expect these days.

It really makes my heart sad for missed opportunities to think of what Williams might do with a film like Avengers, if given wide latitude and a direction to compose in his 80's-90's style.

Williams already gave us his dose of superhero/comic-book scores, so let's have someone else getting their chance at it.

I can't understand all the slack this score is receiving 'round here. Sure, it's not a earth-shattering, revolutionary score, but I think it's fine, competently written film music that does really well its job. This aren't the kind of movies where to expect lush lyricism à la Superman The Movie anymore. Having made peace with that, you can't deny that Silvestri is really good at getting well all the film's dramatic needs and amping up the excitement mainly through rhythm and pulse. I like his trademark use of manly ostinatos and bold orchestrations. Considering these movies are a constant barrage of loud sound effects, he found a good way to be heard. Yes, he pays his due to some of the current film scoring trends (orchestrations are done well, but seem a tad too much molded into the thick block of horns-strings-percussion typical of current scores), but I have to say that I was quite surprised that most of the score sounds very acoustic and natural. And it totally sounds like a Silvestri score, which is a good thing. He is one of the few composers still able to keep his voice intact in the real tough arena of today's Hollywood film music.

Too many people probably expect the next Star Wars when it comes to this kind of movies' film scores, maybe not realizing how much things have changed, especially in the last 10-15 years. Hey, at least Silvestri was able to snook in a good theme in it.

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[This aren't the kind of movies where to expect lush lyricism à la Superman The Movie anymore.

I haven't seen the film, but it looks like its begging for it. It's about a team of superheros with cheesy costumes trying to defend the world of aliens. That doesn't mean, however, that a score with more meat to it has to sound like Superman or Star Wars. I want complex, emotionally resonating scores, but I'd be happy they took an specially designed, original angle. So, as it stands, I'm in a no win-no win situation.

This said, I like the theme. It seems to represent the team as a time bomb idea well, specially how it starts.

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Too many people probably expect the next Star Wars when it comes to this kind of movies' film scores, maybe not realizing how much things have changed, especially in the last 10-15 years. Hey, at least Silvestri was able to snook in a good theme in it.

I don't think anyone's expecting the next Star Wars or don't realize how much thing have changed in film music. More like we're all too aware of how much has changed in film music and are lamenting that fact.

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[This aren't the kind of movies where to expect lush lyricism à la Superman The Movie anymore.

I haven't seen the film, but it looks like its begging for it.

It's mostly an action film (a well-made one, imho), not a Shakespearean character study. It has some nice little folds that give to the film much more dignity than the usual dumb Hollywood blockbusters of today. But it still remains a blockbuster made in 2012. The music follows this logic accordingly. Silvestri was asked to do this kind of score and he complied egregiously, imho.

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It's mostly an action film (a well-made one, imho), not a Shakespearean character study. It has some nice little folds that give to the film much more dignity than the usual dumb Hollywood blockbusters of today. But it still remains a blockbuster made in 2012. The music follows this logic accordingly. Silvestri was asked to do this kind of score and he complied egregiously, imho.

Yes, the score fits with the stylistic trends of the time. I agree. I just don't like the stylistic trends of the time much, regarding music for film. It ususally doesn't live up to the musical and filmic potential of many films.

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