The Avengers (2012)

nTitle: The Avengers (2012)

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nDirector: Joss Whedon

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nCast: Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Gwyneth Paltrow, ScarlettnJohansson, Samuel L. Jackson, Chris Evans, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, ChrisnHemsworth

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nReview:

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nThe Avengers is visual crack, seriously, your eyes willnbecome instantly addicted to the silver screen. This movies so good, you wontnwant to blink! It’s been a while since I’ve been honestly and wholeheartedlynfloored by a film, so kudos to Joss Whedon for making a film that reminds menwhy I love going to the movies. I want to be blown away, I want to be wowed, Inwant to laugh. And I got all these things with The Avengers; a gigantic,nbombastic, non stop thrill ride of a movie!  A love letter to super hero comics! It’s beenna while since I heard gasps in the movie theater, but it happened last night. Peoplenwhere gasping whenever any super hero would show up on screen. People werenclapping after action sequences, they even clapped when the Marvel logo went upnon screen…it was an event.

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nSure other films based on comic books have been made; and anlot of them have been quite good. For example, so far I rank Sam Raimi’s SpidernMan 2 (2004) as one of those films that really captured what super hero comicnbooks are all about, and I hold that film in high regard, but The Avengers blewnit away. The Avengers is officially my #1 super hero film of all time. Watchingnthis film, I felt like I was in geek heaven, there’s this thrill you get whennyou see all of these super heroes together up on the screen!

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nThe story for The Avengers is fairly simple. Loki, thendemigod from Asgard wants revenge. If you remember correctly, in THOR (2011), Lokinwanted to be king of Asgard, but Thor stopped him before he could achieve hisngoals, so now Loki wants not only revenge, he also wants to rule over earth. Henwants humans kneeling at his feet! In order to do so he enlists the help of annalien race called ‘The Chitauri’. SHIELD is an organization in charge ofnnational security, so seeing as how this is a potentially earth threateningnsituation, they decide that the best way to confront this is to organize angroup of the most powerful super heroes on the planet. And so The Avengers arenborn. Will they be enough to go up against Loki and his alien army? 

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nA lot of what makes this film work so well is the fact thatnJoss Whedon directed it. Here’s a man who is king of the geeks. He understandsnvery well the pleasures of reading a good super hero comic book. He knows whatnsuper hero fans want to see in an Avengers film, because he is one of them. Henknows what fan boys consider cool, and he gives it to them. How perfect is Whedon for directing this film? Well, apart from his vast television experience (he created Buffy and Angel) and having directed the incredibly underrated sci-fi/western Serenity (2005), he’s also written quite a few Marvel comics himself, including his popular Astonishing X-Men run. Many directors haventried to capture this magic of reading comic books, of seeing powerful beingsnkicking the hell out of each other, but only some achieve it well. For example,nSam Raimi and his first two Spider Man movies, Bryan Synger and his X-Men films,nChris Nolan with this Batman franchise…and now Joss Whedon can be added to thenranks, and dare I say it he is the one who has made, what I’m sure will benconsidered by many as one of the best superhero movies ever made. In mynopinion, this Avengers film eclipses all other Marvel movies, you kind of feelnlike they are less somehow after watching The Avengers, which is simply putnloaded with non stop coolness from opening to closing credits.

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nThe success of this film show us one thing: a movie willnwork better with the appropriate director at the helm, get a guy who knows whatnhis talking about, a guy who knows a thing or two about the characters and theirnbackgrounds, about special effects, about getting an audience hooked. I’m surenall those years in television production taught Whedon all about what needs tonbe done to keep the audience happy, to get them hooked. This is a directornwhose been given a lot of money to bring this film to life (reportedly 220nmillion) so basically, Whedon, King of Geeks was given the keys to heaven. MarvelnDisney did well in trusting this guy with The Avengers, no one else could havengotten this film this right.

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nSo what’s so good about this film? Well, let’s see, itnbrings SHIELD to life is what it does. For years, as a comic book fan, I’d beennreading stories involving SHIELD and now finally I get to see it come to life;nand in such a spectacular manner. I mean, SHIELD’S flying fortress, wow, what ansight! Which reminds me, the visual effects on this film are top notch, cuttingnedge, state of the line. They’ve done a fantastic job of bringing these gods tonlife. The action sequences where fantastic! What I really loved about them isnthat the action sequences are extended. Once they start, they don’t seem tonstop! The levels of destruction on this one are gargantuan! Battle sequences go on and on, and on,nshowcasing one awesome moment after the next. It’s an onslaught to the senses,nwhich is why you’ll probably want to see it again. After all, this is a Marvelncomics film we’re talking about, and Marvel Comics have always been king of thencliffhangers! Most of their comic books end with a caption that reads: “comenback next week for the thrilling conclusion” or a “to be continued”. This was anvery successful technique, I know it kept me buying comics for years! They’venjust applied this age old formula to films. This one also has an ending thatnwill make you want to come back for that sequel, so after the credits, wait ancouple of minutes, comic book fans will salivate at what they see, I know I wasnleft thinking of the possibilities for the inevitable sequel.

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nThe heroes are the star of the show and they all get theirnmoment to shine. I loved how Whedon wrote this film because none of the heroesnfeel left out. They are all equally important in the story, they are allnuseful, they all got a purpose. And this film really connects with all thenothers that came before it, which I thought was awesome. Characters referencenevents that happened in their own respective films, which is why I personallynrecommend seeing all the other ones that came before it before you see thisnone. But honestly, I don’t think you’ll get lost if you haven’t, the filmsnstory is a simple alien invasion flick. But speaking about the heroes, I believe this is the best depiction of these guys on any movie so far. Hulk really smashes! Captain American leads! Iron Man is a genius, an asshole and a hero all rolled up into one! Thor is truly the God of Thunder controlling lighting bolts through his hammer. By the way, has anyone noticed how many Oscar  nominees are on this film? 

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nOn the negative side of things I will say that the wholenalien invasion story line in which Loki opens dimensional portals in order tonbring an army of alien beings to assist him in his conquering of the earthnsounded and at times looked extremely similar to Michael Bay’snTransformers: Dark of the Moon (2011). But don’t you worry about that becausenThe Avengers is infinitely better than anything Bay has directed. Also, I wish Nick Fury had done a bit more in the film, it would have beenncool to see Jacksonnkicking ass in some form or another in his own spectacular action sequence, but then again, he’s not really a ‘super’ hero in the true sense of the word. Hey, at least he can shoot a bazooka! Okay,nso my last words on The Avengers? It’s definitely worth the price of admission,nso if I was you, I’d buy that ticket and take this ride! This is officially thenfirst blockbuster of the summer! And it’s a good one, so what are you waitingnfor?  

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nRating: 5 out of 5  

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