I thought I had reached my maximum level of interest in The Avengers, the giant new superhero movie coming in May that pretty much defines "must-see" for certain kinds of moviegoers-- a.k.a., those of us lured in by the biggest new blockbuster every single time. It's got Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, The Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye teaming up to save the world. It's got Joss Whedon directing. What more could possible come in to convince me to see it any more?
Turns out, all it took was a couple of still images to do the trick. The 11 new images that have emerged at MovieZine are photographed in a completely different way than everything we've seen before, with more interesting lighting and poses for the actors, and more of a sense of an actual director's hand behind the camera, not just someone assembling the primary characters in the frame and shouting "action!" Whedon is an experienced director, of course, but I've always thought of him as more of a writer, and these shots are the first indication that he's really stretching his visual language with The Avengers. See what I mean by checking out five of the images below; for the rest, head over to MovieZine.
The winner, of course, is the smoky shot of Captain America, clearly in the midst of the big New York City battle we've been seeing, and maybe caught in a moment of reflection or even defeat. All the footage we've seen from The Avengers in the trailers so far has been fairly straightforward and well within the usual bounds of comic book movies, but these look a little different-- a little more composed, more emotional. It may just feel that way in still moments, and the end product will look more like what we're expecting, but I'm excited for now by the change of pace.
The Avengers comes to theaters May 4, which believe it or not, is barely even a month away.
