Critical Investigation Task #1

In this scene, there are two characters present, the first being the all-powerful God of Mischief Loki, and Natasha Romanoff, also known as the seductive assassin known as Black Widow. Loki is wearing black and dark green Asgardian armour, the green connotes peace, and is associated with tranquillity; however, this links in with his title as God of Mischief and is in turn loud and destructive. Black widow is wearing a skin tight black suit which compliments her curvy and hot body, adding to the sensuality of the scene to a minor extent.

  

There is high key lighting that shows all the actors expressions and emphasises the setting of the scene, as Loki is placed in a Hulk containment unit, which is circularly shaped and has see through glass and the floor of the containment unit can be opened to drop the prisoner (or in this case Loki) out of the helicarrier and down to the ground which is hundreds of thousands of feet. Filler lights have been used, especially when the camera was zoomed in on Loki’s face to show his superiority over Black widow. Also, the filler lights were used on Black widow’s scenes where her fear was clearly shown on her face. The body language of Loki is strong as he is a God, which shows he should be superior and defined as a stronger entity compared to Black widow, demonstrating the link to gender stereotypes of how men are at the top of the hierarchy and that they look down on women as dirt beneath their shoes, which is evident as Loki’s prison is at a higher level compared to Black widow. The main prop that has been used is the Hulk containment unit, which for Marvel fans is very renowned for the utilisation in the comics as the method to keep Hulk in captivity.

The institution that supports the Avengers is Marvel based and is an all-star cast the use of stars like Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Robert Downey Jr and other stars shows that Marvel had gone all in to this production venture.   The genre of The Avengers is fantasy, Sci-fi and action. The conventions that present The Avengers as a fantasy is the inclusion of the Norse gods, Thor and Loki, who have been a part of Nordic myths and legends. The fact that the movie includes legends makes it look surreal, especially with the way they have been shown there costumes emphasise their heritage quite a lot. The Avengers is targeted at the Marvel fan base, the target demographic is made up of a majority of males that are aged between 12 years old and 35 years old, and belong to the B, C1 and C2 demographic. Marvel is a mainstream media institution so the target audience are mainstreamers, also the explorer psychographic as the Marvel cinematic universe is still a new media institution. The assumptions about the audience’s characteristics are implicit within The Avengers is that they seek adventure and action, as well as have a link to the explorer psychographic.

This scene present Black Widow as deceitful and cunning, this is exemplified by the reaction of the God of trickery when he was tricked by Black Widow in to revealing his plan to her and being tricked. This subverts the stereotypical view of women in society, in the current society we see women as the person who takes care of the house and kids rather than working. The disposition that is associated with this view is caring and loving, but this view shows her as evil and in some sense a femme fatal. Socially, this scene shows how women can be more than just passive they can be cunning and malevolent. Historically, the view of women has changed completely as they are seen as equals and in some cases superior to men. Economically, it shows how women are also helping with the economy.

   

In this scene Black widows character is put to the test as she is put against two of her fellow Avengers members. The first being the strongest and the mightiest shows that her representation as a woman is stronger as it shows women aren’t weak and don’t need to be protected, they are able to fight their own battles, until she is being chased by the Hulk where she is running down the corridor where as Hulk is demolishing everything in his path. It can be connoted that Hulk is the representation of society and there view in the world and Black widow is presented as women trying to escape the stereotype until she is hit out by the stereotype and becomes a princess, according to Propps seven character circles, and is saved by Thor.