Director: Joss Whedon
Casting: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson
Rating: 8.5/10
Review:
I love superheros and I have been waiting to see this movie for 4 years, ever since Samuel L Jackson's Nick Fury turned up at the end of Iron Man in 2008 and uttered those words "I'm here to talk about the Avengers initiative". And after 5 films I can honestly say that my incredibly high expectations were not let down, they were exceeded.
The Avengers is an incredible movie, not just a great superhero movie but a really good film. Marvel has made a big gamble with this picture and it has paid off. The movie starts off with an introduction to each of our heroes and their antagonist: Loki. It's all pretty usual stuff from here. But once the heroes come together, the movie becomes something more. There are a lot of big egos flying around and each one is more used to being the center of attention, especially Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark. It's in these heated rows and witty banter that The Avengers becomes something that I really wasn't expecting: it's really funny. All these characters are so different and come from such different backgrounds that there is a lot of fun to be had by bouncing them off each other. The fish out of water gags at Captain America's and Thor's expense are great ("Easy there Point Break") with Tony getting to roll off line after line of witty insults. And in the film's climax, Hulk gets most of the laughs as he smashes everything around him. The Hulk could easily have been the film's main weakness, Marvel had already tried bringing him to the screen twice with little success (Ang Lee's 2003 version being one of the worst superhero movies ever) but he ends up being one of the film's biggest strengths. Mark Ruffalo makes a great Bruce Banner but he actually gets to play both Banner and the Hulk through motion capture (the first time ever that an actor has played both Banner and his massive alter-ego) and it works great. There was a huge cheer and applause when Captain America tell him: "Hulk, SMASH!" and he proceeded to do so.
A few of the new characters and ones that were limited to cameos in previous films get their chance to shine here. Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow gets to do more kicking and is given a love interest in Jeremy Renner's unbelievably bad-ass Hawkeye. Samuel L Jackson finally gets to spend more than 5 minutes on screen after showing up in 4 Marvel movies prior to this one in part of his massive 9 picture deal with Marvel.
The plot is tight and clever and the screenplay brilliantly written with some cracking dialogue. Joss Whedon's directorial style translates perfectly into the blockbuster mould. The perfectly cast actors are all 100% comfortable in their roles and have great fun both bouncing off each other and uniting to fight as a team. The action sequences are breathtaking and the whole movie is terrific fun. In terms of where it stands in the pantheon of great comic book movies is strictly down to personal preference.
The Avengers is a truly magnificent film and it will be interesting to see where the Marvel movies go next as they have all been leading up to this film, hopefully there will be many more Avengers adventures in the future.
My rating: 9/10
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