Reviews : Movie
'The Avengers' captures Marvel superhero legacy
Characters' alliance creates "unbeatable team," entertaining battles


By Nick Fontes,
Writer
May 7, 2012

Merging five movies, several superhero sized personalities and a comicbook legacy is not an easy task to accomplish in just a two hour and 22 minute period. To do this, the movie would need to have a short backround on all of its characters, an intense superhero versus superhero conflict and of course, an epic final battle scene that leaves the viewer in awe. I believe that Marvel's The Avengers covered all of those bases.

Personally, I am not a devout superhero movie-goer. I walked into the theater not having seen most of the previous movies and not having been fully satisfied by the ones I did see. So, I was interested in seeing what this "giant of all comicbook movies" was going to bring.

The movie opens up with Thor's (Chris Hemsworth) exiled brother, Loki (Tom Hiddleston), coming to earth in search for the Tesseract, a cube with enough power to destroy entire worlds. When Loki arrives on earth, the Tesseract is in the hands of S.H.E.I.L.D, a secret espionage agency, and its secretive leader Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). Loki then steals the Tesseract and plans to use it to transport his massive alien army directly to Earth.

Fury decides to assemble a team of superpowered human beings to locate the Tesseract and defeat Loki before he launches his invasion. This dream team consists of Thor, Dr. Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) as The Incedible Hulk, Tony Stark as Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) as Captain America, Natasha Romanov (Scarlett Johansson) as Black Widow, and Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) as Hawkeye.

While all of the characters have recently been involved with their personal work, the Captain has been asleep for 70 years after his appearance as a hero in World War II. Although still trying to adjust to all of the changes since he was last awake, he still remains as patriotic and heroic as before.


The assembling of this "unbeatable" team does not go as planned. There is constant bickering and mistrust between the members of the crew, that eventually leads to epic hero fighting. In the end, they must learn to put aside their differences and work as a cohesive unit, or, face the complete enslavement of the human race.

One of the things that I enjoyed about the movie is how skillfully the director, Joss Whedon, blends the plots of all the previous movies together. As the movie develops, hints and pieces from all the previous ones fall into place to create a storyline that seems very intricate but not forced as to make the viewer dwell on it too long.

One of my concerns watching the movie was if the script could handle all of the ego that the cast brings. I was expecting a battle for screen time between actors but I was pleasantly surprised. The script allows the actors near equal roles and shows critical battle moments devoted to each one.

The entertaining conflict between the heroes themselves constantly kept my eyes glued to the screen with anticipation. Whether it was the humorous arguments sitting around the planning table, or the intense battles that almost tore the team apart; these interactions are thoroughly enjoyable and make the movie fun to watch.

The portrayal of the characters of the film was exemplary and each super hero lived up to the hype they had created in their previous movies. The two standout performances for me in the movie were Hiddleston as Loki and Mark Ruffalo playing The Hulk.

With his crafty words and arrogant smile, Hiddleston adds more and more depth to what would be a typical villain. By the end of the movie, I wanted The Hulk to rip him apart, a feat not accomplished by a sub par actor. In the final battle, The Hulk steals every scene that he has any camera time in. His childish humor and alien-smashing muscles leave the viewer in awe every time he appears on the screen.

One of my very few critiques of the movie is that the conflict is truly simple; bad guys have a massive army and the good guys have to stop it. This gives the movie a generic hero movie ending that, while epic, left me wanting something more. I would not worry about this too much because the first Avengers movie is mostly about bringing the team together. But in the future, I expect more complicated plots.

Overall, Marvel's The Avengers was a superb movie that super hero nerds and Marvel movie newbies will enjoy. If you go to see this movie, prepare to fall in love with the humor of Tony Stark, admire the courage of Captain America, fall in awe at the power of the mighty hammer of Thor and be amazed at the pure smashing awesomeness of The Incredible Hulk.

The Avengers is rated PG-13 for sequences of violence and runs for two hours and twenty-two minutes. For tickets and showtimes, visit Fandango.

For more film reviews, read the March 23 article, 'Hunger Games' satisfies with accuracy.



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