The first weekend in May one the biggest blockbuster movies of the summer was released with Marvel's The Avengers. It was the culmination of five years of planning and an unheard of idea in the Hollywood world of combining four huge franchises into one single feature film. The five preceding movies (Iron Man 2008, The Incredible Hulk 2008, Iron Man 2 - 2010, Thor 2011, Captain America 2011) all pointed toward the combination of these highly profitable Super-Heroes into one single movie. The risk was high for both Marvel and it's owner Disney. Should this one movie fail it could have in essence ruined four highly profitable franchises.
But don't worry, Mr. Joss Whedon got it right, OH SO RIGHT.....
The Good: One of the big concerns I had was how would all these big name actors have enough screen time, and how could enough story be told to make a genuinely good movie. Marvel did an excellent job of giving each character a chance to shine. Some of the best parts of the movie were actually when two of the characters were sharing the screen together. Whether it was Captain America with Iron Man or Thor with the Hulk or even Bruce Banner with Black Widow, each character never felt slighted in the least. For those that were yearning to see a Hulk done correctly, this movie nailed it. Mark Ruffalo was excellent as Bruce Banner and fit right in with Robert Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth and Chris Evans. One of the things I was surprised with was how much humor was in the movie, just when the movie seemed to be getting very serious the feeling would lighten with a good laugh. It had an excellent pace for this type of movie. The characters stayed mostly true to the way we know them all in the comics as well both in how they acted but also in the actual use of the powers. There is one part where Iron Man lands and blasts his energy beams off of Captain America's shield to take a big group of baddies out, and that was a classic Avengers moment from the comics.
The movie was filled with all of these little nuances that I found fantastic. The battle at the end verses the invading aliens felt like an epic struggle where the abilities of each of the characters really got to shine. A big shout of praise needs to be given to Tom Hiddlesten and his portrayal of Loki. All the Avengers get a one on one moment with him and he shines in all of them. His portrayal of the deeply disturbed God of Mischief was every bit the equal of the other characters. Overall the actions sequences, dialogue, and script all flowed together into simply a GREAT movie the likes of which I haven't seen in along time. It is very entertaining for non-comic fans, as well as sufficiently nerdy for fanboys like me. As much as I was looking forward to this movie it did not disappoint. A+
The Bad & The Ugly: This is a rare movie that can both get an A+ and not have anything negative to say about it. I will say this though, the movie has done so well (highest opening ever!) that movie studios will continue to crank out Super-Hero films. That can be a good thing or a bad thing. Marvel has definitely raised the bar in what fans expect in both story and action during these movies. (Also note that Christopher Nolan's Batman movies have done so as well.) My only worry is that the market will become so saturated with these type films that good stories maybe destroyed by rushing it to get a film out there. Hopefully that won't happen though and we can simply sit back and enjoy the second Golden Age of Comics, this time just on the Silver-Screen.
AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!