EditorialMovie Review

George R.R. Martin’s THE AVENGERS (2012) Review: Comic Book vs. Movie

The Avengers Assembled Art

George R.R. Martin The Avengers Review. The Avengers (2012) George R.R. Martin movie review comes from a fan of The Avengers comic book incarnation all the way back to the superhero groups formation. George R.R. Martin, the author behind HBO’s Game of Thrones, discusses in his The Avengers movie review the original Avengers team versus the Avengers team that is first formed in the Joss Whedon directed film.

George R.R. Martin is such a fan of The Avengers that “back in the 60’s he wrote a letter to Stan Lee that was printed in the Avengers #12.”

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George R. R. Martin Letter To Stan Lee The Avengers

George R.R. Martin Letter to Stan Lee The Avengers

The Avengers Assembled Art:

The Avengers Assembled Art

The Avengers Assembled Art

The George R.R. Martin The Avengers review:

I liked THE AVENGERS a lot… but maybe “loved” is too strong. I do have quibbles.

I definitely want to see it again, this time in 2D. I did not think the 3D added much, and the process made many of the scenes too dark. I am really not in love with today’s 3D process. Yes, sometimes it works very well, as on HUGO, but mostly it doesn’t.

Lots of lots of great stuff in THE AVENGERS, which most of the world has commented on, so I won’t. The action scenes were spectacular, and overall I thought they did very well with Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor, Captain America, and Nick Fury. All great characters, all handled well, their interactions were one of the best part of the films.

However, I think they wasted the Black Widow and Hawkeye. Hawkeye is actually one of my favorite Avengers, so that saddened me. I missed the dynamic from the comics, where it’s Hawkeye who is the cynical smartass (not Iron Man), always in conflict with the super straight guy Captain America. I guess, having capitalized on the undeniable talents of Robert Downey Junior to create a terrific character in Movie Iron Man, they did not feel there was room for a second wise-cracking iconoclast. Fine, but it left Hawkeye without a personality. Or much to do.

Same’s true of the Black Widow. Scarlett Johanssen looked great in that outfit, but she seemed to be there only as eye candy. The shot in the middle of the battle where she pulls out a pistol was silly. I don’t know who this Black Widow was, and I don’t think the screenwriter did either. She wasn’t the original comic Black Widow, the Russian femme fatale who seduces Hawkeye into trying to kill Iron Man. She wasn’t the later comic book Black Widow, who dons a costume, comes over to the good guys, and teams with first Hawkeye and then Daredevil. She was just… there.

My own golden rule for these Marvel movies is simple — stay with the way Stan Lee did it, and you won’t go far wrong. THE AVENGERS should have done that. Hawkeye was not actually a founding member of the group, he came in later… around the same time Iron Man and Thor were leaving. Black Widow came in even later than that. So I would have followed Stan’s scenario, left them out of this first movie, and replaced them with… Ant-Man and the Wasp! Who WERE founding members of the Avengers. They wanted a woman in the group, sure, but the Wasp would have done just as well as Black Widow, and Ant-Man… hey, I love Hank Pym.

All that being said… these are, ultimately, just quibbles. I did really like the film. The Hugo for Best Dramatic Presentation Long Form next year in San Antonio is really going to be a fanboy bloodbath, with AVENGERS, PROMETHEUS, and THE HOBBIT all contending for the same rocket.

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‘Nuff said.

I have only seen The Avengers in 2D not 3D, so I can’t comment on which presentation is better.

George R.R. Martin thoughts on Black Widow (and the film in general) are spot on and rather kind, kinder than I was in my The Avengers (2012) Movie Review:

S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) has no powers, yet gets up (from the same blast and glass) and runs from the Hulk as if a grenade blast had not blown her though a glass wall. Adrenalin plus imminent death: a possible explanation. When Black Widow gets smacked up against a wall by the Hulk then gets up with no bruising or broken bones, it’s the moment when: a.) even human members of The Avengers‘ team are shown to have unbreakable bones and titanium outer skin, b.) no real damage will ever happen to even the human members of The Avengers team

I agree that Hawkeye was marginalized (I only mentioned him four times in my movie review) and had no personality, so much so that he was reduced to a function and a reason in Joss Whedon’s The Avengers: Function – he is Loki’s battle thrall through most of the film, Reason – he is Black Widow’s deciding factor to immediately end her “interrogation” and return to S.H.I.E.L.D..

This part of George R.R. Martin The Avengers review made me smile: “The shot in the middle of the battle where she pulls out a pistol was silly.”

I thought the same thing in my review:

Also a joke was how Hawkeye and Black Widow decided to enter an unprecedented military conflict and war zone.

Hawkeye and Black Widow walk into a New York City battlefield with no body armor, helmets, or radio communication gear. AAHHAHAHAH…sorry but I did mention that the last act of The Avengers housed many humorous scenarios. On top of this monolithic lunacy (remember, we are in the Marvel ‘verse), Black Widow only brings hand guns with her instead of an M-16 or some type of fully automatic rifle to fight with.

When George R.R. Martin reduced his thoughts in his movie review to:  “All that being said… these are, ultimately, just quibbles.”, I have to agree and did so:

If The Avengers is an exercise in escapism like most “tentpole”, “popcorn” films and how could it not be deemed as such, these quips and qualms are irrelevant.

Like George R.R. Martin, I liked The Avengers and knew going in that it would not be perfect.

Source: Geektyrant, Internapse

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Rollo Tomasi

Rollo Tomasi is a Connecticut-based film critic, TV show critic, news, and editorial writer. He will have a MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University in 2025. Rollo has written over 700 film, TV show, short film, Blu-ray, and 4K-Ultra reviews. His reviews are published in IMDb's External Reviews and in Google News. Previously you could find his work at Empire Movies, Blogcritics, and AltFilmGuide. Now you can find his work at FilmBook.
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