This is as much a review as much as it is a response to a fellow CBMers review of The Avengers. Despite being English I refuse to refer to it as Avengers Assemble, as I’m a little insulted the studio believes us on our albeit little island unable to differentiate between two vastly different films. First off I write this not as a die-hard Avengers fan, I don’t own a single avengers title but do have dozens of Justice League comics stashed away somewhere. But I write it as a hard-core cinema and Comic book movie fan.
Now as you read this it has just become Disney’s most profitable film to date, and I will argue that it is in fact a deserved title. After all, you can’t really say a film, which has cracked the billion-dollar mark, is over rated if its still pulling in cinemagoers. It has got to be doing something right. Right?
Firstly I have to say just one word. WOW. For a film many, including myself, though would be almost impossible to pull off not only did Joss Whedon do it but he did it with style. So many big egos competing for screen time and action would seem like a recipe for disaster but not only do they work they compliment each other.
Every character has a moment to shine specifically, some I would say more so then others but these I will put down to my own tastes more than the film. But for my own selfish reason the two stand out characters are Loki, a brilliant Tom Hiddleston, and especially Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner/Hulk. For those who have seen the film will know one of the best moments is when these two characters meet.
Captain America, played by Chris ‘don’t call me torch’ Evans does well to be the man out of time and the taste of ‘old fashioned’ the world needs. More could have been done to show his fish out of water storyline but the amount he gets to do action wise more then compensates for it.
We catch a glimpse of the old Thor as a twinkle in Chris Hemsworth’s eye during his Mighty action sequences, a nice subtle piece of acting, complimenting the generally more grown up god of thunder. He does after all feel he has to shoulder the responsibility for earth’s predicament while taking on his brother.
Many people both feared and secretly looked forward to this film possibly turning into Iron Man and the avengers. Rightly so, Robert Downey Jr pretty much single-handedly kick started the journey to the avengers by being brilliant and far larger then life. He really does strut his stuff wonderfully again, delivering the films best one liners, but credit to Downey for dialling it back enough to have the others share in the glory.
SHIELD as a whole gets padded out even further, allowing some of the best characters from their cameo appearances to really step up their game. Black Widow, amply played by Scarlet Johansson, goes from butt kicking super spy to butt kicking super spy with motive for her actions and Hawkeye, who you have to admit was a throw away character in Thor, actually delivers the reason he was shoehorned into that film in the first place. Samuel L. Jackson gives us a reminder as to why Nick Fury is the director of SHIELD. Proving that every tubby, Bernard Lee like M in charge of a spy agency, used to seriously take names and kick ass. Lucky for us, Old Nick isn’t old enough to be hanging up the eye patch, gun holster and grow a belly. But if he does decide to take it easy at least new girl Maria ‘Cobie Smulders’ Hill is there to help out. And who can forget everyone’s favourite SHIELD agent, the Son of Coul, is not only given a first name but also one of the more pivotal scenes of the entire film. Who honestly doesn’t love Agent Coulson, honestly?
With arguably the toughest job in the film is Mark Ruffalo, stepping into the purple torn trousers for the first time where others have had a movie or two to get to grips with the characters. And he does it brilliantly, not only as an extremely interesting and, unlike others who have played him, a stronger less pathetic Bruce Banner, but also as the first actor to portray the hulk as well. And let me tell you the green goliath really steals the show. He has most of the laughs, which really makes you look forward to each moment he appears on screen.
And who is it you say that stirs up all this trouble, why Tom Hiddleston of course, and by Norse god does he look like he was having fun Loki-ing it up every chance he got. His exchange with Black widow alone should go down in Evil villain history.
Now the film is not without its faults, I’ll admit. The army at Loki’s disposal is forgettable and only becoming a treat by their sheer numbers and slightly advanced technology. I mean really, give Stark a few years and we’ll all be zipping about on hover scooters. And the appearance of Thor in the film is handled by one line and forgotten, which is annoying considering how large a part of the Finale for his own film the loss of the rainbow bridge was. As for our fellow reviewers nag about the films story, if anyone were to break down any film into as simple a set of elements as he did, every film would be pretty standard and boring. After all it is said there are only seven stories you can tell. What is important however, as is this case, is HOW it is unfolded and told.
And telling a story in a unique and highly entertaining way is exactly what Joss Whedon does best, and adding in the humour was one of the best parts of the film. Couple that with an outstanding score composed by Alan Silvestri, which many who had voted on my poll will be pleased about, you end up with something special, something which lives up to the hype and to the amount of money being poured on it. And it’s something, if done right, should warrant a sequel. A sequel that is given an almost impossible task, how do you do bigger and better then earth’s mightiest heroes?