SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN THE DESIGN SCHOOL

FOUNDATION IN NATURAL BUILD ENVIRONMENT NAME: AMANDA CHIONG

STUDENT ID NO: 0320328

FILMS SELECTED: SCIENCE-FICTION FILMS

WORD COUNT: 1074 WORDS

ENGLISH 2 (ELG 30605)

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT 1: COMPARE – CONTRAST ESSAY

LECTURER: CASSANDRA WIJESURIA

SUBMISSION DATE: APRIL 3RD, 2015

There are a lot of popular and well-known Science Fiction films

nowadays such as Captain America, Transformers, X-Men, Divergent, and

others. Among these films, The Avengers and The Amazing Spider-Man show

their interesting common features to be compared. The storyline of Avengers

begins with Loki, Thor’s stepbrother who steals the Tesseract and decides to

use this power to rule the entire world with the help of the Chitauri Army and

how the Avengers, a superheroes team consists of Iron Man, Captain

America, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Black Widow and Hawkeye as a team to

rescue the world from Loki and the invasion of the aliens. Similarly, The

Amazing Spider-Man is also a superhero film about Peter Parker, the main

character who is accidentally bitten by a genetically altered spider and gains

amazing spider-like powers and how he use his special power to stop the plan

of the super-villain, the Lizard Man. The similarities between both of these

movies can be shown by comparison between the characteristics of main

characters, themes, moral value and super-villain.

The main characters play a responsible and brave role in these

movies. Peter Parker shows his responsible and brave characteristics in The

Amazing Spider-Man. He contributes his spider-like power to defend the city

from the plan of the Lizard Man who tries to unleash the serum all over

Manhattan using a cloud-generating device to mutate the citizens into lizards.

Other than that, he also makes his effort to assist the government officers in

reducing the occurrence of social criminals. Peter is brave and does not flinch

in the face of the Lizard Man although the super-villain is bigger than him

physically and stronger than him in body strength but Peter still contributes his

power to confront with the Lizard Man at the Oscorp Tower to stop his plan.

On the other hand, the avengers also take their responsibilities to contribute

their superpower to defend the entire world from the aggression of the

Chitauri Army that assist Loki to take control and become the ruler of the

world. The Avengers indicate their courage spiritual in the battle with the alien

army that invaded from the space. They unleash their potential to the fullest in

defending for the social safety and security even when they are facing with

the huge and massive aliens but they are still showing their professional in the

battling.

Secondly, the similarities between both of these movies also can be

shown through the theme of the movies. These movies emphasis the theme

of co-operation, which highlight the importance of teamwork. Peter Parker co-

operates with Captain Stacy, Gwen Stacy, government officers, and the

civilian that he has saved the life of his son before in the battling with the

Lizard. On the other hand, the teamwork between the superheroes in the

Avengers is the main point that leading them to success in defending the

entire world from the invasion of the alien army. It is impossible for them to

defeat Loki and the massive alien army without teamwork and co-operation

among each other because their individual power is not strong enough to

withstand and counterattack the attack from the Chitauri Army that descended

wave after wave upon Earth in a large amount of aliens through the portal that

connected to the Chitauri home world over Manhattan.

Furthermore, the moral values that show by the characters are

somehow similar in these movies. The moral value that is shown through both

of the movies is the spirit of self-sacrifice. In The Amazing Spider-Man,

Captain George Stacy shows his self-sacrifice spiritual in defeating the Lizard

Man to assist the Spider-Man by delaying the Lizard Man so Peter had

enough time to modify the machine in order to switch the lizard toxic with the

antidote from Gwen to disperse it into the air. He shows his courage to

confront with the Lizard Man and sacrifice his life in the battle due to his

obligation as the police captain of the NYPD and his responsibilities to protect

the citizens. Tony Stark, the Iron Man has shown the spirit of self-sacrifice

when he decided to direct the nuclear missile that launched at Manhattan in

purpose to end the invasion. He directs the nuke to the Chitauri base through

the portal in the status of running out of power which causes he may not

return to the Earth before the portal closed. Fortunately, he plummets back to

the Earth at the last second before the portal closed. He launches the missile

at the mothership of the Chitauri successfully and completely destroyed it

which in results all the invading aliens those left on the Earth collapse and are

rendered useless.

Last but not least, the super-villain in both movies makes their short-

sighted decision without further thinking and have a desire to take revenge in

which their behaviors results in a significantly impact to the social safety and

leads to chaos of the city. Dr. Conors plays a role of a brilliant scientist and

runs a genetic research firm called Oscorp in The Amazing Spider-Man. He

makes shortsighted decisions to injected him with the serum contains lizard

gene which this formula are still in unstable status and then mutates into a

large and reptilian monster. He started his revenge to kill Dr. Ratha at the

Williamsburg Bridge and launches a biological attack which he plans to turn

the entirely of New York into humanoid lizards with the reptilian DNA. In the

Avengers, Loki make his short-sighted to take revenge by becoming the ruler

of the Earth after deal with the Chitauri out of his pure jealousy of his step-

brother, Thor. He take control over the minds of several SHIELD personnel by

using his scepter to aid him in opening of the portal through space for

summoning of the Chitauri invasion which causes the chaotic of the city to

happen.

To summarize, the similarities are shown from the features of the main

characters, theme of the film, moral value and lastly the common features of

the super-villain. Lessons are also shown through these movies which are

don’t take the superpower for granted. The superheroes manage to use their

superpower as a contribution for social to overcome the evil forces. For

instance, Peter manages to save the fallen cars at the Williamsburg Bridge

with the biocable web. During the invasions of aliens, the Avengers have tried

their best to deter citizens and saved the civilian that trapped in the buildings.

References :

1. Science Fiction. (n.d.). Retrieved April 2, 2015, from

http://thescriptlab.com/screenplay/genre/science-fiction#

2. The Amazing Spider-Man (2012). (n.d.). Retrieved April 2, 2015, from

http://marvel-movies.wikia.com/wiki/The_Amazing_Spider-Man_(2012)

3. Gwen Stacy. (n.d.). Retrieved April 4, 2015, from

http://amazingspiderman.wikia.com/wiki/Gwen_Stacy

4. George Stacy. (n.d.). Retrieved April 4, 2015, from http://marvel-

movies.wikia.com/wiki/George_Stacy

5. Plot Summary. (n.d.). Retrieved April 4, 2015, from

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0948470/plotsummary?ref_=tt_stry_pl

6. The Avengers (film). (n.d.). Retrieved April 5, 2015, from http://marvel-

movies.wikia.com/wiki/The_Avengers_(film)

7. Loki Laufeyson. (n.d.). Retrieved April 6, 2015, from http://marvel-

movies.wikia.com/wiki/Loki