The hype for The Avengers truly is something else, isn’t it? I mean, think about it. When another movie is advertized, you see billboards, commercials, trailers, advertizing on other products and so on. But I’m finding it very difficult to remember a movie that has had multiple movies used to hype this it up. Four or so movies (Iron Man’s 1 and 2, Thor, Captain America) have been used to hint at the fact that a movie with all of these heroes may actually happen. I guess that’s a lot to gamble, putting all that money into four other movies, and this one, hoping you’ll come out successful. Well, I’ve got to say, the gamble paid off.
The Avengers follows six different superheroes; Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Captain America (Chris Evans), Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner). They are assembled together by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), who runs the organization SHIELD, because Loki (Tom Hiddleston) stole the Tesseract, a cube of incredible power (see Captain America), which he is going to use to take over the world. Loki is going to bring an army of aliens to Earth, and the newly formed Avengers need to stop him.
This movie essentially gets the job done, but there are a few aspects that could have been done better. First of all, the plot could have been done a little bit better. The general bad-guy-stole-our-thing-got-to-get-it-back plot is a little cookie-cutter, but it works for the movie it’s in. I just can’t help but wish for a little more depth and complexity in my superhero plots since The Dark Knight. Anyway, another small issue is that of the plot holes. I could pick out one in particular that perplexed me, about the Hulk character. The entire movie, Hulk acts as if he has no control over the Hulk, and is trying his hardest to keep the creature inside. Later in the movie, however, he says he CAN control the Hulk persona, and uses it to help save the day. I just find it odd that all this time he somehow knew how to control the power, but we never had a scene of him having this revelation or figuring it out.
Most of the aspects of this film, however, are extremely fun and entertaining. First, the action in this movie is phenomenal. The final 45 minutes, which is the fight between the Avengers and Loki’s army, is worth the price of admission on its own. Every action scene is inventive and exhilarating, jumping from one member of the team to the others, as they cleverly take down the alien army. The camera work, during the action and the rest of the movie, does a good job keeping the audience on their toes, and showcases the large sets this movie has to offer. The relationships between characters, and the way the actors portrayed them, really caught my attention early on. Each Avenger has his/her own personality and style, which either clashes or works well with another person in the group. This leads to a few fights and some bickering, but also makes the team stronger and more together toward the end. These relationships also lead to some surprisingly funny scenes, most of which involve the Hulk. Everything else, like the special effects, was good as well, creating a great overall experience.
As I said before, The Avengers gets the job is was trying to accomplish done. It creates a situation in which multiple superheroes are forced to work together and stop a super-villain, though they don’t necessarily want to. What will really catch your attention are the characters themselves, who are so different from one another that they blend well together. If you’re looking for a great action movie to kick off the summer, or even a little bit more than that, this is your movie. I give it 4 stars out of 5.
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