By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
When you mention a movie named The Avengers, most people imagine the 2012 Joss Whedon film that brought together the world’s greatest heroes for the first big Marvel Cinematic Universe team-up. However, there was another film with “Avengers” in its name that came out back in the ‘90s and brought an entirely different intellectual property to the big screen. We’re talking about The Avengers, the 1998 spy classic that is now streaming on Tubi for free.
The Avengers No One Likes
The Avengers has one of the more ambitious plots you’ll find on streaming: the film teams up a secret agent and a meteorologist to investigate what happened to a special project designed to control the weather. All signs point to the sexy meteorologist, but she is given the time and space (not to mention the partner) to help clear her good name. In the best James Bond tradition of spy cinema, the film introduces us to a slew of colorful characters and memorable locations before bringing everything to a show-stopping climax.
While The Avengers has an ambitious plot, most Tubi viewers are likely to start streaming this film because of its killer cast. Our two protagonists are played by Ralph Fiennes (best known for Schindler’s List and The Grand Budapest Hotel, though Bond fans may prefer him in Skyfall) and Uma Thurman (best known for Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction). Rounding out the cast is Sean Connery (best known for the James Bond films and, later in his career, The Rock), someone who hasn’t had this much fun in a film since stealing just about every scene in Highlander in which his character appears.
Unfortunately, while The Avengers has a similar name to Joss Whedon’s masterpiece Marvel movie, it didn’t do nearly so well at the box office. Against a budget of $60 million, the movie earned a box office of only $54.7 million. That pretty much killed any possibility of a sequel, which is a shame. This movie serves as a very fun adaptation of the TV show of the same name, and an entire franchise (or, dare we say, cinematic universe) set in this world would have been very entertaining.
The Avengers didn’t do much better with critics once the official reviews began streaming in. Over on Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a critical rating of only 5 percent. In general, critics griped about the film’s casting and it not having the energy to sustain its otherwise ambitious ideas.
So, before you click away to go look at vintage pictures of Diana Rigg, it’s time to answer the big question: why should The Avengers be a movie you start streaming today when it was a critical and commercial bomb? For one thing, the critics were wrong about the casting. This movie has a killer cast, starting with Ralph Fiennes and Uma Thurman. Each of them perfectly understands the assignment and gives a thoroughly tongue-in-cheek performance, and it’s fun watching them treat the most fantastic characters and plot points as just another day at the office.
Additionally, The Avengers may not be a certified cinematic classic, but it’s genuinely better than most films available on streaming. Like, we’re fans of Tubi, Netflix, and all the rest, but the truth is you’re always one click away from landing on a film with laughable poster art, awful video quality, an incomprehensible story, and an unknown cast. Compared to that, this ‘90s spy film filled with big names and bigger ideas looks great, and we’d argue that it has aged surprisingly well and deserves to become a belated cult hit.
Finally, The Avengers is a fun time capsule of nostalgia, and it’s very nearly worth streaming as a way to experience the glory days of a decade that doesn’t get enough retro love. This big-budget blockbuster adapts a beloved ‘60s property through the lens of ‘90s sensibilities and aesthetics, all of which looks charmingly quaint decades later. Basically, this is an earnestly nostalgic film made before the internet made everything cynical and the MCU made everything whimsical, and watching it feels downright refreshing.
Will you find The Avengers as stirring as we did, or will you be shaken enough to pour this film down the streaming sink? You won’t know until you watch it for free on Tubi. Just brace yourself for the waves of nostalgia the movie induces; otherwise, you might end up ordering some vintage JNCO jeans by the time the credits roll (a complete hypothetical that most certainly did not happen to this writer).
