The Avengers
{4.5/5} “Dr. Banner, your work is unparalleled. And I’m a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster.”
The Avengers, released in 2012
In an unprecedented move, characters from four different movie series — Captain America, Hulk, Iron Man, and Thor — have been brought together in one movie.
When Loki (Tom Hiddleston) threatens Earth, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) attempts to bring the Avengers together. The problem is the people who would make up the Avengers aren’t the best at working together. Steve Rogers aka Captain America (Chris Evans) has been frozen for 60 years. Bruce Banner aka the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) has been living a low-key life in India and hasn’t turned green in a year. Tony Stark aka Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) is a billionaire and used to doing things his own way. Natasha Romanoff aka the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) has done things she’s not proud of as a spy. And Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is a god. The other potential member of the team, Clint Barton aka Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), is under the control of Loki.
I saw The Avengers in 2D. My favourite characters were two normal humans. Agents Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) and Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) are just doing their jobs but they do them very well. We’ve seen Coulson before, in Thor and the Iron Man movies. They acquit themselves very well while thing are falling apart around them.
If you’re looking for fights, some witty banter, and lots of things blowing up — then this is the movie for you. It’s a great movie but I was a tiny bit disappointed that it wasn’t even better. It seems like in each new action movie they have to one-up the last action movie. For me, absurdly large action sequences just aren’t that exciting. One flaw I noticed is that the Hulk’s character is a bit inconsistent. Sometimes he is aware of the people around him and sometimes he’s not. My other complaint is that the bad guys aren’t very interesting — Loki is a little bit interesting, but the aliens he’s working with are just standard bad guys.
On the other hand, there are many funny moments in the movie. And it’s great to see superheroes who don’t just automatically get along when they get together.
Most of the actors have played their characters before, so they know them well. It’s Mark Ruffalo’s first time as Bruce Banner and he might seem like an odd choice but I thought he did a fine job. Gwyneth Paltrow reprises her role as Pepper Potts (from the Iron Man movies) in a cameo. And as almost always happens in a Marvel movie, comic creator extraordinaire Stan Lee has a cameo.
I enjoyed the music in this movie — suitably energetic music from Alan Silvestri (Back to the Future, Forrest Gump). My favourite tracks on the album are “Arrival” and “The Avengers.”
The Avengers was directed by Joss Whedon (the TV shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly). One good thing about the success of the movie is that he will be able to do whatever he wants now.
Stay to the very end of the credits — even though there’s a scene part-way through the credits there’s another one at the end.