The short and to the point of it is this: “Marvel’s The Avengers” is AWESOME!!!
The ambitious project has two tons of potential and fulfills every ounce. The culmination of 5 successful films released over the last 4 years, this superhero action flick is a unique animal, A Mega Tent-pole Franchise Film. Everything is huge: The cast of 6 misunderstood and reluctant heroes, the epic action sequences, and Tony Stark’s ego. The genius and beauty of the film is that all these elements are juggled with ease. Everyone has their screen time and back-story but it never feels like we are trying to play catch up. It’s a marvelous feat and one that is not to be missed.
The plot could have been pulled right out the pages of a comic book and combines elements from many for the proceeding films. There is an energy source (seen in both “Thor” and “Captain America”) called the Tesseract that can be used as an unending energy source. Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and the fine folks over at S.H.E.I.L.D. have this Tesseract but do not realize that it can also act as a gate way to the other end of the universe where awaits the banished and fallen god, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and an army of baddies looking to conquer Earth.
Fury finally gets to assemble the Avengers but its not going to be that easy. Each member has deep, burning issues as is the norm in the Modern SuperHero Tale. We can thank Chris Nolan and his brooding Batman. Thor (Chris Hemsworth) must deal with the fact that Loki, the madman, is his brother, Captain America (Chris Evans) was fighting in WWII only a couple of weeks ago and is out of place in the modern world, Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) has to learn how to share a movie and etc. The film takes time to establish all these little quirks so they can be overcome. It’s a Marvel Movie so of course there’s a lot of character developing (in other words “Talking”) but where the previous movies have uniformly fallen short with the action, “The Avengers” offers up gobs of smash and crash.
There is a basic thrill that “The Avengers” delivers just putting all these familiar faces on the same screen. Much of the allure is seeing Hulk (Mark Ruffalo this time around) battle along side Thor and Iron Man. Hell, I’m a sucker for this sort of thing and got the chills just seeing Freddy and Jason in the same shot a couple of years back so I’m easy.
All the actors deliver their moments while the standout is Downey Jr. The man seems to thrive on the competition for the spotlight and his Stark has never been more biting and hilarious. Scarlet Johansson and Jeremy Renner do an admirable job fleshing out their roles that have been very minor up till now. Ruffalo, with his unassuming and pained portral of Bruce Banner is the best Banner to date. Turns out the small doses of the Hulk are the key to his success and the Green Guy has many of the films highlights all to himself. If anyone fades a little to the background its Thor but the point is minor.
Trying to find any negative is very difficult. The music is rather generic, I suppose and I would recommend seeing the film in 2D instead of the pointless 3D. It adds very little and much of the film takes place at night and in darkly lit rooms. Wearing what equates to sunglasses does not help.
Joss Whedon writes and directs here and delivers his first film for the masses. Whedon has made money creating entertainment for the geek crowd (“Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog”) but along the way he got really gifted at creating wondrous ensemble pieces. See dialogue scenes from his cult television show “Firefly” as example. Here Whedon pulls off the trick of telling multiple stories throughout the entire length of “The Avengers”. There is a near constant supply of parallel plotlines and action vignettes making for some well woven and dense storytelling. The last 30 minutes of the film is mind blowing, the ultimate summer movie entertainment.