The Avengers-review

It wasn’t until recently that I had heard of a movie like this. The Avengers takes the plot threads and characters from essentially four different films and combines them to make one big blockbuster.  The care of Joss Whedon’s script and careful direction, make this movie a great way to start the ride of summer blockbusters for 2012.

The Avengers team, comprised of Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, the Hulk, Black Widow and Hawk Eye, band together to stop the otherworldly, Loki.  His plans are to take over the world by unleashing an army of bizarre space creatures onto planet earth and extend his iron-will over humanity.  Only by working together can the team of heroes find hope to defeat such a menace.

The characters are written with the same care as the movies that preceded them.  Captain America, played by Chris Evans, is still a kind-hearted, star-spangled, knight in shining armor.  Iron Man, played by Robert Downey Jr., is still a hilarious smart ass.  They all have fallen into their familiar roles very well.  I particularly liked Mark Ruffalo’s newer take on Bruce Banner.  He plays the role more frightened and vulnerable then Eric Bana or Edward Norton did. His take on the role reminded me a lot of the late Bill Bixby on “The Hulk” television shows.

The script is top notch.  There are fist-slamming moments of action intercut with wit and humor, which make a long movie seem to go by rather quickly.   Loki is a hilariously haughty villain.  It makes for some dynamic pieces of dialogue between him and the other characters, many of which are not used to such a bizarre yet powerful entity. 

There is no way that you have to watch ALL the movies that came first, which I thought was smart.  This movie gives you a taste of each character’s back-story, and allows you to piece it together yourself.  It showed a lot of care, and for a summer superhero movie, that sometimes is a tall order. 

The movie is a ton of fun.  I recommend staying until after the credits to see the extra footage.  I would definitely say you should go see this movie.  If you are at all a fan of any of the Marvel comics’ movies that make up the Avengers, you will enjoy this movie as an unofficial sequel. Otherwise, you’ll enjoy the fresh action and humor of “The Avengers”.