Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Burdened With Glorious Purpose: Avengers, Conclusions


Well, here we are at the end of my lengthy Avengers review. So far I've talked about story structure, characters, humor, and theme. I could have gone longer - the action sequences, the costumes, the Joss Whedon touch, the music, what I disliked - but I've touched on everything that's especially important to me in a movie, so I think I'll leave it at that.

So what do we have left? Just a few parting thoughts about the film, and a little bit of application.

Application?

Yes, it's Christian-application-of-the-Avengers-time! You knew this was coming. Or at least you should have. Unless you're new here. (In which case, welcome!)

By the way, did you know that The Avengers has now crossed the $600 million mark? It's at third place behind Titanic and Avatar in highest-grossing films. 

This review is not as spoiler-filled as the previous ones have been, but still, don't read if you're trying to decide whether or not to watch it. My recommendation is: go ahead, watch it! You will most likely not be disappointed. And then you can come back and read this review.

You have been warned. On we go, after the jump...


One of my favorite quotes from The Avengers is actually spoken by Loki. When he first arrives to earth, through the Tesseract's wormhole, he stands up (slowly and dramatically, of course) and proclaims:

"I am Loki, of Asgard, and I am burdened with glorious purpose!"

Of course, his "glorious purpose" is to destroy and then enslave the world. Not so glorious.

But I still love the quote. Because when applied with the right reasons and the right purpose, I think it's very true of Christians. Being a postmillenial Calvinist and all I believe in the dominion mandate - that Christians are called to "take over" the world. To transform the fallen world for Christ.

Can you think of any more glorious purpose than that?


There's more to it than just glorious purpose, though. It's (obviously) a movie about teamwork.

What this film is really about is individuals who are willing to give up a little bit of themselves. To be unselfish. To stop for just a minute, stop striving for their own needs and wants. Stop caring only about themselves.

Not that they hadn't already. I mean, these guys are heroes. But they had to be willing to step down and let someone else call the shots. To accept other people's ideas. To admit their mistakes and deal with other people's mistakes. They all had to have conviction.

We all want community. But it's hard. It's hard to be unselfish. (Another obvious statement. I'm just full of them today, aren't I?)

But that's what we have to do if we want to accomplish things in this world. If we want to accomplish things for Christ. We have to put aside our differences and our own selfish ambitions to stand together against evil. To save (and change) the world.

That's a message we sorely need to hear. Stop all this individualistic thinking. Work together. You can accomplish great things together.

Is this entirely what made it such a successful movie? Well, I'm sure the characters, the humor, the special effects, the genre, and the movie stars themselves had a lot to do with it.

But people do long for community. And this movie shows us a little bit what it could be like.

Arguing? Yes. Getting hurt? Certainly. Punching out villains together? You bet.


The Avengers have gone from being loners to becoming the team that the earth will look to when it's next in trouble. ("We'll need them to.")

Which, of course, will be in Avengers 2. (Thanos?)

I'm looking forward to it.

Do you agree with my interpretation of the message and application? What was your overall impression of the film? Did you enjoy this series? Do any of the links I posted below sound intriguing? 


Joss Whedon: the real superhero
Missed the previous posts? Catch them here:


Enjoyed this (lengthy) review? Check out some more (shorter!) reviews that I enjoyed from fellow bloggers:
Also see
Most images in this post from Fandango unless otherwise noted.

3 comments:

  1. Awesome! :D I really like your applications, it's fantastic. Well done, great thoughts!

    ReplyDelete
  2. loved that film! I've seen it twice!

    ReplyDelete

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