Marvel's The Avengers, arguably the most anticipated movie of all time hit theaters earlier this year and again this weekend. Broke multiple boxoffice records and is currently the third highest grossing movie of all time, bumping the Harry Potter finale to fourth place. So, was it all the hype? Here is my review
Marvel's The Avengers is directed by Joss Whedon and is written by Zack Penn and Joss Whedon. The story is, S.H.I.E.L.D brings together a team of Earth's Mightiest Heroes as they have to battle Loki and his mysterious army of aliens in order to protect earth and a cube known as the tesseract. Now, as a plot synopsis it's pretty simple. But on the inside when you see the movie itself, it's much bigger than most people could only imagine. Marvel started with Iron Man then moved to The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor and finally Captain America: The First Avenger. So, going into this film, there is alot of hype surrounding it and it certainly lives up to it and here is how.
Direction: You can't have a movie if you don't have someone leading a team of film makers from pre-production into production and finally post-production, a director needs to have a vision and know what he/she wants. For something like this, it's even better that not only they know what they are doing but also they have a passion for the source material and that is exactly who Joss Whedon is. He knew as a film maker what the film needs if it is to get the attention of the general audience as well as a fan he knew what the movie had to have as a comicbook movie. He showed that the impossible can be possible, this movie should not have worked but it did. He gave perfect balance in screen time for all characters with the exception of Hawkeye but his part in the plot worked though.
Acting: With the exception of members of S.H.I.E.L.D, some chitauri, the other and a certain leader ;) everyone from the other movies are pretty much back. Lets start this with Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/The Hulk. He does a fantastic job in the role, he makes you forget about the previous actors who played the character as the tormented Bruce Banner. The Hulk is the show stealer in his part in the final battle. Robert Downey jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man is brilliant as always although I thought he was better in the Iron Man movies. But that is just me. Chris Evans IS Steve Rogers/Captain America. There is no way around it, the depth and emotion he brings to the character can't be done better. He makes you believe that this man is real. Chris Hemsworth's Thor is great, he brought an emotion to the character as it was a mission to capture Loki and get the tesseract back, as well as a hurt being as what his half brother has become. Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, for me was great. I think he did a very good job with what he is given. Honestly, I've noticed a few haters of his on this site and quite frankly I can't understand why. Scarlett Johanson and Jeremy Renner as Black Widow and Hawkeye are really good in this movie. We don't see as much Hawkeye as we wanted but he did his part, and he did it well. Tom Hiddelston probably was maybe underlooked by most people, but I think he brought a rage, hurt, vengeful villain in Loki that I don't think most of us were expecting, let alone a challenge. Well, he wasn't. At least not to the Hulk. I think he comes in second as the highlight of the movie.
Visual effects: The visual effects were great. While I believe in certain scenes that The Hulk was better in his last solo outing, overall I don't see this movie winning any academy awards although I feel a nomination for visual effects should be in the films future at least.
Editing: I normally don't touch upon this too much but, I think the editing was very well done. It kept the pacing of the movie going, kept the story going and overall made the 2hr 22min film go by real fast.
Overall: This movie does have it's flaws, the biggest for me at least was it had more humor than what I felt was needed. But, that's just a minor gripe. The Avengers is every ounce of what the hype said and more. It has excellent performances, brilliant direction and action scenes that will be burnt into your mind. It is a fun, family friendly, unique film that is finally upon us and is without any arguement THE best comicbook movie of all time. Rating: 10/10
P.S: I know for most of you it was a turn off on how the Chitauri was shut down after the nuke exploded because it reminded you of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. It wasn't for me, then again it must be because I think Phantom Menace was the best Star Wars film and I'm not even much of a Star Wars fan.