At the end of the original Iron Man,
Tony Stark met the head of SHIELD, Nick Fury, who wanted to talk to
him about a little something called the 'Avenger Initative'. Four
years and four more movies later, that plan officially comes into
motion with director Joss Whedon's 'The Avengers' as all of Marvel's
heroes join together in the ultimate team-up and if I wasn't any more
blunt with what I am about to say, then this movie is very much well
worth the hype it has been given. Because really when you think about
it, there was a very slim chance that this may not have worked at
all. If Marvel did not get just one of these characters right, then
it would have all been for nothing. But Marvel did not slack off with
each superhero and their own respective movie and in 'Avengers',
Whedon raises the script, the action, and the characters to their
true potential, resulting in one of the most epic movies ever made.
Every superhero film that comes out now has a lot to live up to now,
because there will probably never be anything that will live up to
what this movie has done for the superhero film genre.
The film opens as the organization known as SHIELD, led by director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), investigates the mysterious artifact known as the Tesseract, which was recovered by Howard Stark back in the 40's. However, they are soon hit with an assault by Loki (Tom Hiddleston), the Asgardian God of Mischief, who takes the Tesseract in order to bring his enlisted army of the alien race known as the Chitauri in hopes of enslaving the human race. With nowhere else to go, Fury enlists the help of billionaire Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) AKA Iron Man, recently unfrozen supersoldier Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) AKA Captain America, Loki's brother Thor (Chris Hemsworth), the God of Thunder, and scientist Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) AKA the Hulk, who join forces with SHIELD agents Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) AKA Hawkeye and Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) AKA Black Widow to take on the god of mischief before things get out of hand.
What Marvel has done over the last few years has been nothing but extraordinary in how they got each one of their main superheroes to work within their own universes, then seamlessly blend them all together and 'The Avengers' is the end result of all it. But really when you get down to this film as a whole, you have to hand it to director Joss Whedon, who is the master of snappy dialogue, great character development, and can also work wonders with a big cast. All of this is shown throughout the movie as each character is given enough to do without overshadowing anyone else and the dialogue and humor in this film is second to none. While the film does get off to a rather slow start, it all culminates in an epic final battle in New York. That shot of the Avengers coming together ready to take on Loki as a group says it all, and the film is a joyride from beginning to end. Basically, this is Transformers 3 in terms of action but with more passion and soul than any of those movies ever had.
Whedon also does not change a single thing about each hero's personality. Iron Man is still, as the movie puts it, 'the volatile self-obsessed' billionaire who 'doesn't work well with others'. Captain America is still the noble and courageous leader trying to deal with the changed world he now lives in, and Thor is still the god who, while also noble, is burdened by the responsibility to bring his brother to justice. The film also gives more development to some of the other characters, particularly Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Loki. In this film, Loki has officially become a major threat unlike in 'Thor' where his motives were based around the jealousy he had towards his brother. Once he makes his first appearance in the film, it is obvious that the Avengers will have one hell of a problem on their hands. Black Widow and Hawkeye are given much more than their previous appearances in 'Iron Man 2' and 'Thor', respectively, with an apparent romantic chemistry between the two as Widow displays her emotions very early on when at one point, Barton is brainwashed onto Loki's team. Admittedly, this means Hawkeye isn't given as much character development as his fellow Avengers, but his relationship with Widow makes up for it in the end.
Not only did Marvel nail every one of these characters, but the actors who portrayed them also shine as them. Downey Jr, Evans, Hemsworth, Hiddleston, Renner, Jackson, and Johansson return into their roles with ease and give strong performances all the way. But there's one character, or more importantly one performance I haven't mentioned yet, and that is Mark Ruffalo, who takes over for Edward Norton in the role of Bruce Banner. When it was first announced that he was cast, I would've preferred Norton in the role but as soon as he makes his debut on screen, Ruffalo pretty much steals the show. Here, it isn't about Bruce's urgency of trying to cure himself of his powers, but more his quest of trying to control them. He doesn't actually turn into the Hulk until at least halfway through the movie or so and while that does leave you wanting more, it is a well-handled use of the character. They've recast the role of Bruce Banner twice now so my piece of advice to Marvel is to not let your best guy off now when the third time's the charm. Otherwise you're going to have a lot of angry fans to deal with, myself included.
Really I could be talking about this movie for a long time, but I'll stop here for now because I've said all that I wanted to say. 'The Avengers' is the pinnacle of how superhero films are made. Even with a gigantic cast, director Joss Whedon gives them all rock-solid character development while maintaining a steady balance between humor, drama, and action. How Marvel will break these characters up for more movies (as Iron Man 3 and Thor 2 go into production for 2013 releases, with Captain America 2 hitting theaters in 2014) and bring them back again for an obvious sequel is uncertain, but if they do the same as what they did getting these characters together in the first place, then everything will be fine. But really, nothing will ever match the first time out.
Rating: 5/5
The Avengers is easily one of the best, if not the best, superhero films ever made. Needless to say, every superhero film now has a lot to live up to, even Christopher Nolan's 'Dark Knight Rises'.
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