The Avengers Review

After five years and five movies setting the stage, all four of the titular heroes come together in easily the most anticipated superhero rumble in movie history; this premise has been botched in ‘’The League of Extraordinary Gentleman’’ before it, yet somehow ‘’The Avengers’’, it’s ensemble cast and director Joss Whedon manage to balance all these characters to generate a great superhero film that sits firmly just beneath some of the best ever created.

The five movies in question have led to this; a full on invasion of Earth by Thor’s brother and nemesis Loki and his army of Chitauri warriors. To do this the Norse super villain steals the Tesseract from a SHIELD research facility, indoctrinating top operative Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) in the process. With the world hanging in the balance, Nick Fury calls upon a team of heroes consisting of Iron Man, Black Widow, Captain America, Hulk and eventually Thor to combat the threat. It’s typical superhero fare, linking to the comics but the plot of this flick in particular is taut and effective due to the many links to the previous films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe such as when Thor checks up on his scientist love interest (played by Natalie Portman in the God of Thunder’s movie debut). There are also a number of welcome homages to the comic books and their fans from the trading cards possessed by Agent Coulson to the crowds of people commenting on the great battle fought by the heroes at the end of the movie. The story introduces the major players very well with each character having their own particular introductions, from here the pace accelerates to the awesome looking SHIELD heli-carrier that’s sure to bring back memories of ‘’Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow’’ then leaps straight onto the streets of New York for the final battle. It will be a slight disappointment for some that the ending seems to fizzle out, only showing Tony Stark in his tower rather than providing acceptable conclusions for each character and if you haven’t seen at least half of the movies that have come before then you’ll likely be confused over many plot elements given that the movie jumps straight into the experiments on the Tesseract rather than giving a recap. To all others, especially fans of the Avengers series the plot of the cumulative flick will be a satisfying one.

The most important area of such an ambitious film is the cast and for the most part it delivers brilliantly. Each character brings their own specific archetypes and behaviours to the table which all play off each other very well from Tony Stark’s endlessly witty gestures to Dr Banner’s inner struggle to control the Hulk inside, Director Joss Whedon somehow manages to give every character an equal amount of screen time be it an argument between all the characters at once or the final battle which jumps between each hero seamlessly. The only major character introduced here is Hawkeye, the legendary archer played by Jeremy Renner. While his performance comes off as slightly flat during his indoctrination by Loki through one third of the film, his character is ultimately a great addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and also compliments Black Widow very well through not having much in the way of super powers. Black Widow, making her second appearance in the series truly has a noticeable presence this time around rather than being there more for sex appeal until the last twenty minutes in Iron Man 2. As for Captain America, he takes on the full leadership role, breaking up fights and rallying everyone together just as his name suggests and Thor barrels along, content on seeing justice served to his malevolent brother’s conquest. As a villain Loki certainly has his ambitions and schemes for conquering Earth though his acting execution comes off as being slightly dull, rarely raising his voice and easily being brutally smashed by the Hulk at one point; the aliens that side with him build the most intrigue with their gigantic spaceships and towering foot soldiers often being more in the spotlight, particularly in the final battle in New York.

The Avengers may not quite be the greatest superhero movie ever made, but it stands as the pinnacle of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and an impressive achievement when compared to past efforts. Anyone looking for a large scale, action packed superhero smack-down (practically everyone considering the film’s place in the box office) will thoroughly enjoy what it has to offer.

Rating: 4/5 Stars