Review by Bob Ignizio
Ever
since 2008's IRON
MAN,
Samuel L. Jackson has been popping up in the Marvel Studios films as
Nick Fury, leader of the government security agency S.H.I.E.L.D., to
talk about his plans of putting together a group of superheroes. He
finally gets around to it in MARVEL'S
THE AVENGERS,
bringing together Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.), Captain America
(Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Black
Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) to, as Fury
puts it, “fight the foes no single superhero could withstand.”
The
foes in question are led by Loki (Tom Hiddleston), the same guy who
caused trouble in THOR.
Still smarting from his defeat in that film, Loki returns using his
powers of deception and manipulation to get his hands on something
called the Tesseract. This glowing McGuffin has seemingly limitless
power, but its main purpose here is to open a gateway to another
dimension so that an army of CGI space aliens can come through and
attack the Earth. After the obligatory fighting amongst themselves,
partly caused by Loki's manipulations but mostly due to their own
arrogance, the aforementioned heroes come together to face this
threat as a team, tearing up large portions of downtown Cleveland
(standing in for New York City) in the process.
Juggling
so many major characters, most of whom are played by actors used to
being the center of attention, is no easy task. Fortunately, THE
AVENGERS
was written and directed by Joss Whedon, a man who has plenty of
experience working with large casts in TV shows like Buffy
the Vampire Slayer
and Firefly.
He makes the right choice in putting the showboating, ultra modern
Tony Stark/Iron Man and the selfless, old fashioned Steve
Rogers/Captain America at the heart of his story, positioning them as
polar opposites who have to learn to respect each other. At the same
time, Whedon manages to give all the other players their own moments
in the spotlight. Only Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye comes up a bit short.
Whedon also does a fine job striking a balance between character
development and action. A lot of the heavy lifting in terms of
introducing these characters to the audience has already been done in
their respective solo films. Still, Whedon not only offers breezy and
unobtrusive refreshers, he also expands on the foundation he's been
given. This is especially true of Ruffalo's Bruce Banner/The Hulk, a
character that hasn't quite clicked in his previous big screen
incarnations. Whedon gets the green goliath right, and as a result he
steals almost every scene he's in.
As
much as I appreciate the attention paid to the characters, it's the
action scenes that really make THE
AVENGERS
the summer movie to beat. Not since SUPERMAN
II
has a superhero movie given us the kind of rousing, city-smashing,
super powered action we get here. THE
AVENGERS
may not be the best super hero movie ever made, but its certainly a
strong contender for the best translation of the tone and spirit of
mainstream superhero comics to the big screen. Whedon never
condescends to the material, but neither does he try to make more of
it than he should.
THE
AVENGERS
is not without flaws; in particular some of the exposition feels a
bit rushed. For instance, at the end of his own film, much was made
about how difficult it would be for Thor to return to earth. Yet when
he shows up in THE
AVENGERS,
the explanation feels like an afterthought. Still, given all the
disparate elements that Whedon had to incorporate it's hard to
imagine anyone doing a better job. 3 1/2 out of 4 stars.
Cool review Bob, as you know, I agree with ya, loved this one every step of the way, agree, it's the action scenes that truly shine, seeing these heros in action is really something. How cool was seeing HULK vs THOR...at the same time it was like reading one of those comics where hero would go against hero for whatever stupid reason and then realize, "wait a minute, were the good guys, we should be working together!" he he..
ReplyDeleteWhedon was the best choice, I mean, the dudes written actual marvel comics, he knows what makes a comic click!