The Avengers review

"Avengers, assemble!"

Released in 2012 under the direction of Joss Whedon and distribution by Disney on a budget of $220 million, "The Avengers" is a film adaptation of the comic book series made by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko in 1963 and this weekend has been the weekend that everyone has been waiting for. It's been hyped up since 2008's "Iron Man" and it's been handed from Jon Faverau to Joss Whedon, as a reward, it's had the biggest opening for any film debut on it's opening weekend, grossing nearly $200 million, just in it's opening weekend. Impressive to say the least; this would indicate that this film is everything that we've all hoped for, right?

Right?

Plot: After the theft of the Tesseract (or Cosmic Cube as it bloody well should be called cause that's what it f*cking is) made by the newly-powered Loki, Norse God of Mischief (Tom Hiddleton), Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) the head of SHIELD (Supreme Headquarters International Espionage Law-Enforcement Division) decides to respond by compiling a team of heroes to overthrow Loki's plans to bring a race of ugly-as-hell aliens called Chitauri to Earth so he can rule over it. The Avengers Initiative calls forward billionaire playboy techno-genius Tony Stark AKA Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), recently revived World War II superhero Steve Rogers AKA Captain America (Chris Evans), brilliant radiation scientist with a powerful and destructive alter ego Bruce Banner AKA The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), agile and deadly russian assassin Natasha Romanoff AKA Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), the powerful Asgardian God of Thunder Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and the archery marksman Clint Barton AKA Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner). Together, they must band together to stop Loki's plans and learn to put their egos aside for the greater good if humanity is to survive.

Well, that's pretty much the plot in a nutshell, somehow it's just as I expected it, even before the trailers for The Avengers started coming up. Are you surprised that it was gonna be a "learn to work together and stop bickering" story? Couldn't expect less from Disney of all companies. What bugs me though is how long it takes before we finally get to that point where they finally put their egos on hold and work together to save the day. It works to establish characters, it works to build up a plot, yet, why am I am not praising this film like it deserves to be praised? Perhaps all the expectation and hype got to me and I expected a wildly original story that could throw me for some twists and turns. Were there things I didn't expect? Oh absolutely. I didn't expect this amazingly great scene where Loki is bragging at the Hulk about how he's just a god and he's a brute and the Hulk just grabs him and throws him around like a wet towel before dropping him and quoting out "puny god."

Speaking of quoting, I should address that the dialogue is sub-par but what works astoundingly well are the one-liners from the heroes, especially from Robert Downey Jr. who continues to show of his snarky character that has never gotten tired to me. Great lines will be remembered from this blockbuster like "Loki is still my brother!" "he killed 80 people in two days." "…he's adopted…." while other lines, just confuse me. But what bugs me the most is how self-aware the characters seem to be that Loki can't win and that he won't win, it feels like the movie is giving us the ending before the movie actually ends. Quite maddening.

Characters: They arrive, they work together, they learn. The end.

There, summed it up in one sentence, but might as well go in more in-depth.

Clearly, this film was not intended for anyone who had not seen the previous Marvel movies to just come in and expect to know everyone when they had been developed in the previous films, "Iron Man 1 & 2", "The Incredible Hulk", "Thor", and "Captain America: The First Avenger." In this film the characters have already been developed so therefore, it's not needed, hence, that should leave room to develop characters that are introduced in this film, namely Hawkeye. Instead, the only person who gets actual character development is Black Widow, which is nice but I was hoping for more depth from Hawkeye, instead, due to brainwashing by Loki, he ends up as the bad guy for the majority of the motion picture.

The biggest change Joss Whedon made was the inclusion as Mark Ruffalo to replace Edward Norton. While I've openly stated that I was not fond of Norton's subdued performance as Bruce Banner, compared to Ruffalo, I would prefer Norton than him. Not that Ruffalo is bad but my biggest complaint that I've had with that he's a little too mellow as Banner, while he spews out some techno-babble, I just can't buy it when he appears brilliant and yet he looks a little too beefy and, most of the time, I thought he looked high, even in this pivotal scene where he describes that "his secret is, he's always angry" (a line which only makes me ask, then how do you keep calm?)

Regardless of my complaints, the chemistry between the actors is superb, each character feels like a person to connect to; they're amusing, they're complex but they play off one another wonderfully. This is something that is hard to do in movies that has numerous characters and make them integral to the story as well as flesh them out and if Joss Whedon does one thing right, he can flesh out characters well, whether it's his successes like "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" or the short-lived "Firefly", he knows how to flesh out people to make them identifiable and make us care for them. Well done Mr. Whedon, you're not my favorite writer in particular, but you did a nice enough job.

Production: Hmm, how can I sum this up without going overboard with text?

It didn't suck. 

Nice details on visual effects for the large aliens, the helicarrier, the iron man suit, the Hulk, etc.

The sound editing was a problem, seemed to be off at certain time, not matching up with the action at times.

Music was all right, cinematography was all right; 3D was surprisingly good for a post-conversion.

Not bad, but nothing really that made me say "oh wow! that was awesome!"

Bottom Line: I was expecting more for this "most expected film" and Rotten Tomatoes already has it described as "With a script that never forgets its heroes' humanity and no shortage of superpowered set pieces, The Avengers lives up to its hype -- and raises the bar for Marvel at the movies." personally, I was wishing for a lot more action, I was hoping for a lot more development, I was hoping for more action, I was hoping for more wow, which I got some of, but not enough that would have satisfied my appetite.

That allegory is probably the best way to describe this film; like a nice bountiful meal in front of you, it appears to be too big for you to eat in one sitting, but after 2 and a half hours, you find yourself finishing with the taste you were looking for but you didn't get enough of the flavor and you leave the dinner table craving more.

What's really painful to me is that my sister, who wants nothing to do with me or my passions to film, loved this film labeling it the best film from the last 10 years. I've had to just sit and agree that it's awesome, which it does have it's moments to kick ass, but best film from the last 10 years? I'm sorry sis but for me, it's close, but no cigar.

Final Rating: 3.5/5

Until the next time, I'll keep the fires stoked for when we burn through celluloid.