Marvel’s The Avengers – Movie Review

MARVEL’S THE AVENGERS

Who’s in it:

Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston and Samuel L. Jackson.

Who made it:

Josh Whedon  – Director

Kevin Feige – Producer

What’s it about:

Marvel Studios delivers the ultimate comic-book film, which ties together such characters as Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) for a big-screen franchise team-up like no other. Taking center stage this time is Nick Fury (played once again by the note-perfect Samuel L. Jackson), leader of the peacekeeping agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D. Fury, along with former Russian spy Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), recruits a super team to combat Thor’s ever-deceptive brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) after he brainwashes ace archer Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) while stealing a cosmic cube from an underground base. Thus the heroes must learn to work together alongside outlaw scientist Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), who can track down the artifact’s gamma signals when he’s not hulking out into a giant green monster.

9.5/10 – Action, Suspense, Comedy… Assemble!!!

There isn’t much to say about this movie other than how awesome it is. I have to admit, I had my fears about this one, I mean, comic book adaptations haven’t really filled me with the right amount of glee and some of them have been downright appalling (see The Watchmen). But this is it, the ultimate super hero movie, the movie that should surely be a blue print for anyone else looking to do a comic book adaption, be it with a single hero or a team of heroes. Everything here works, from the petty squabbles between these seemingly grown men, to Loki’s disastrous over grown ego. Even Thor reminds me of why that was one of my favourite movies. Iron Man, of course, doesn’t disappoint, its not even possible with the way Robert Downey Jr. has made the suit his.

The movie starts off easy enough, Loki has returned and he wants the “Tesseract” – a cosmic energy cube that can destroy all life – so that he can bring in an army to subdue us meager humans. The only person standing in his way is Nick Fury, and well, he’s human, so moving on. Once the cube is in Loki’s possession, Fury takes it has his que to call in the big guns, and they assemble, albeit reluctantly, very reluctantly. Tony Stark – Iron Man – is an egotistical and an annoying little brat (best comic relief in the movie), Steve Rogers – Captain America – is a loyal soldier boy with little to no sense of humor, Thor just wants to take his brother and get out so he can straighten his hair, and Dr, Bruce Banner – the Hulk – really doesn’t want to smash anything or anyone.

When they come together, it works fantastically, given a nod to the original comic book origins, where they fight each other more than they fight the bad guys. Remember this is a “family” of super heroes, and everyone knows that families have to fight to grow!

It might help if you’ve already seen the previous Marvel movies – no point watching any of the Hulk movies though as they’ve changed the character again -, for no other reason than that they allow the heroes to grow as characters out of their respective origin tales. But it’s not absolutely essential. Bring a nerd friend to fill in the gaps where necessary.

The movie is long (over 2 hours) but you won’t even notice, because its so exciting and it never slows down, one minute the heroes are bitching at each other and flexing their muscles, the next something is exploding, then Loki starts threatening and sending chills down your spine, then the hulk appears to scare those chills away.

The Avengers is the movie we’ve all been waiting for – Comic book lover or not – and I’m glad to report that it fulfills most of its promises.

**POTENTIAL SPOILERS**POTENTIAL SPOILERS**POTENTIAL SPOILERS**

I don’t know if these should count as spoilers, but I feel I should warn you nonetheless, so if you haven’t seen the movie yet, turn away, go see it and come back.

Right, I’ve finished praising the movie, but let me just point out some of the things that disappointed me and left me scratching my head Firstly, there were too many heroes for one movie, while this is its major strength, its also one of its major weaknesses To have done each character complete justice would have required way more than the 140 minutes run-time, but it’s a little disappointing that some things that could have been included had to be left out. Like we never got to see Asgard in all its glory, and it isn’t explained how Thor ends up on earth again, even though the Thor movie ends with the rainbow bridge being destroyed and we know that was his ticket to earth. Also, during all the commotion and destruction, where was War Machine? In Iron Man 2 Rhodey used it to help Iron Man and he took the suit with him when he was done. When the government sent in the army to assist won’t it have made sense to include the man that can stand toe-toe with Iron Man??? And if Banner already knew how to control the hulk – or at least make him aware of who the real bad guys are – then why did he try to kill ‘em all when he first transformed?

I don’t think including an explanation here and there would have cost them anything – like they did with Jane Foster – but oh well, we can’t have it all. Sorry for the overly long review, just really excited bout this one 😀