The Avengers was always going to be pretty good.
Perhaps that is a recipe for disappointment, going in with high expectations, but I had a few things that gave me a bit of confidence: a movie written and directed by Joss Whedon, starring Robert Downey Junior, and a great big budget full of special effects. Still, I was a little nervous heading in to the Embassy cinema (not about the Embassy itself, as of course, I still adore it; though unlike some patrons, I was not dressed up as Iron Man), but those nerves were quickly relieved, even before the movie started.
Before launching into the movie proper, we were shown previews for the new Spiderman, Batman, Hobbit and Prometheus films, all of which got our taste buts salivating (actually, taste buds may not themselves salivate, now I think about it). And then, the Avengers began.
The general thrust of the story is pretty straight forward for this genre: a big bad comes to Earth, and a team of superheroes is assembled to protect humanity from conquest and/or extinction. The team consists of some of the mightiest Marvel heroes around, all of whom have been in movies recently: the big hitters of Hulk, Iron Man, Thor and Captain America backed up by Black Widow and Hawkeye.
Of course, first on the billing is Robert Downey Junior, as Tony Stark/Iron Man, who as expected, runs away with most of the film. He and Scarlett Johansen as the Black Widow and Samuel L Jackson as Director Fury seem to be the characters with most of the screen time, and they all make their mark, albeit with Downey Junior's mark a lot higher than the others. However, the "stand out" for the film is Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk, his human Dr Bruce Banner a quiet but instantly likeable character whilst his big green alter ego gets all the best action and humour scenes.
That leaves the rest of the main cast to do a lot of heavy supporting. Pin up boys Captain America and Thor (Chrises Evans and Hemsworth) provide the power and pecs. They are also lumbered with some of the cheesiest dialogue, although Joss Whedon's penmanship gives them a couple of great lines that would be at home in an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (see the exchange that leads to Thor saying, "Adopted", and you will see what I mean). And Tom Hiddleston as Loki has proved in Thor that he can be a good bad guy, and he carries on in his generally evil though not always terribly menacing (or intelligent) way. Meanwhile, Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) is... well, there.
I was thrilled to spot some familiar faces the "real" supporting cast. Gwenyth Paltrow is back for a bit, as are some familiars from Thor, but more interestingly I spotted the stunning Cobie Smulders (from How I Met Your Mother) all skin tight outfit and bad attitude (and she has more lines than Thor, I think) as Director Fury's second in command Agent Maria Hill (poor Director Fury sure does have it hard), whilst I am sure one of the New York City Police Department's finest was a former Doll, Enver Gjokaj (and IMDB tells me that Alexis Denisof was in there too! Huh!). Of course, Stan Lee makes an ubiquitous guest appearance and the end credits pave the way for the next installment.
Overall, the film is funny and action-y and altogether likeable. The film tries (and somewhat fails) to make those with non god-like powers or weapons credible Defenders of the Earth, but then, with the Hulk on the Avengers side, and Tony Stark on hand to deliver a quick-witted put down, who needs an army? The Avengers was always going to be light froth rather than the dark introspection of the latest Batman movies, and as such, it hit all the right shallow buttons and made sure to leave the deep ones completely alone. It starts off a little slowly as the group is formed, but this gives Loki plenty of time to sneer in all the right cameras and get his naughty plans together. Once the main action gets going, and in particular, once someone gets Doctor Banner a bit angry, then the whole film really takes off, with explosions and arse-whuppings galore. Which is what it is all about really. Excelsior.
Verdict: Joss Whedon gets everything right. That is not to say this is a movie great, but The Avengers is definitely a great action movie that makes two and a half hours fly by. Woe betide the Avengers if they actually encounter a really competent villain, but in the meantime, Hulk can smash as much as he likes. 8 out of 10.
2 comments:
Judge, I certainly hope you mean taste buds and not taste buts!
What about the storyline? Wasn't it weak, or is that just the way Marvel wrote the original comic (which I'm not familiar with). Wasn't the movie a tad on the slow side trying to justify something that was never going to make a whole lot of sense or be justifiable?
Ah, my spellchecking doesn't always work - rats. Yes, 'tis buds, as a taste but just sounds wrong.
As to a weak story... well, it relied on action to propel it, and it did pretty well with that as the main driving force. I think a lot of the film can be summed up in one of the best lines of the film: "Hulk, smash!".
R
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