First off, a lot of the flak this film gets is very valid.
I watched it for the same reasons a lot of people do, to see, is it really THAT bad? my answer: no. it's not. It's a lot of fun, doesn't take itself serious and seems disconnected from the real world. Which are the exact traits why i fell in love with the original avengers series. I feel a good amount of the people who watched this had never seen the original series, and that affects their view on the film and what it's trying to do, which is of course fair, but maybe those people aren't necessarily in the film's demographic.
There are plenty of kid's movies which when presented as serious cinema they wouldn't fair well, but they get a pass because kids enjoy them, and they have achieved exactly what they intended to do. This film, in my opinion, was made for a fun bit of fan service for people exactly like me, who like the original series and want to kill an hour and a half being un-grounded from reality.
Fiennes and Thurman play a good Steed and Peel respectively (although that kiss gave me the ick) and much like in the show, their exchanges are mostly very entertaining. My final verdict? its not particularly good, its not particularly bad. Its in my eyes the perfect middle ground, a nothing movie, but perhaps that is not a bad thing. If you like the original avengers, watch it, you might like it, or at least enjoy the alternate take. If you have no clue what the original is, or what it was, don't watch it, you won't like it.
There are plenty of kid's movies which when presented as serious cinema they wouldn't fair well, but they get a pass because kids enjoy them, and they have achieved exactly what they intended to do. This film, in my opinion, was made for a fun bit of fan service for people exactly like me, who like the original series and want to kill an hour and a half being un-grounded from reality.
Fiennes and Thurman play a good Steed and Peel respectively (although that kiss gave me the ick) and much like in the show, their exchanges are mostly very entertaining. My final verdict? its not particularly good, its not particularly bad. Its in my eyes the perfect middle ground, a nothing movie, but perhaps that is not a bad thing. If you like the original avengers, watch it, you might like it, or at least enjoy the alternate take. If you have no clue what the original is, or what it was, don't watch it, you won't like it.