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.
Written by Alexander Martin
Cast: Robert Downey
Jr.- Tony Stark/Iron Man Chris
Hemsworth- Thor Chris Evans- Steve
Rogers/ Captain America Mark Ruffalo-
Bruce Banner/ The Hulk Scarlett Johansson-
Natasha Romanoff/ Black Widow Jeremy
Renner- Clint Barton/ Hawkeye Samuel L. Jackson- Nick Fury Tom Hiddleston- Loki
Directed by Joss Whedon
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 143 min
