The Avengers / Avengers Assemble

Iron Man, Thor and Captain America all carried their respective films with ease. The challenge with The Avengers wasn’t putting the characters together in one movie – the challenge was making it work.

PLOT: Loki (Tom Hiddleson) has arrived back on earth ready to conquer and destroy. Agents Fury (Samuel L Jackson) and Coulson (Clark Gregg) unite Iron Man (Robert Downey Junior), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) to save the day. Egos and cultures clash and there are plenty of witty and bitchy quips thrown in for good measure. The Avengers assemble in the money-shot and save the day. END PLOT

The plot of The Avengers is decent but  it sticks religiously to a “McGuffin” style format which climaxes in a big noisy battle for the world, and by world I mean Manhattan.

The script is typically Whedonesq and full of snappy one liners my personal favourite being “the target is angry!”. I had been worried that The Avengers would become The Tony Stark Show but it didn’t and although RDJ’s dry wit is very much present a lot of the humour is found in unexpected places.

With such a huge cast, and the main players all having their own films, it would have been very easy for The Avengers to become a convoluted mess. The time is divided out perfectly with each character getting their own moment to shine – even bit players like Agent Coulson get a turn.

Jeremy Renner - makes all established franchises 78.5% cooler.  By wearing sunglasses.

There is no weak link in the cast and the chemistry is outstanding. Tom Hiddleson almost steals the show by playing Loki exceptionally well. It is a testament to his acting ability that he can utter the phrase “whimpering quim” with such venom. Kudos to Whedon for getting that one past the censors!

The biggest risk, or depending on your point of view, the biggest unknown was always going to be Mark Ruffalo. In a relatively short space of time we have had three very different actors playing Bruce Banner and although Ruffalo’s casting seemed odd he proved why he was the right choice and let’s be honest – Edward Norton doesn’t play well with others.

The action was a mixture of The Avengers fighting one another and thereafter Loki’s army. The set pieces were very well executed, and again, they were balanced with everyone getting their very own character moment. The friction at the beginning of the film had worn away by the final set piece and we got to see some impressive double-teaming with Captain America and Iron Man getting a nice little shield/laser moment. It whets the appetite nicely for more combo attacks in the sequel!

Although Loki’s army was CGI the individual battles each Avenger fought kept the human element front and centre. In the action scenes the focus was always kept on the characters rather than the effects which helped to keep everything fairly grounded.

I absolutely love comic book based films so I knew what to expect from each of the characters before The Avengers started. The trailer gave us a glimpse of The Avengers together in their group shot but seeing it in full on the big screen was a ridiculously special moment and there were goosebumps.

It was always going to be risky, if not arrogant, for Marvel to introduce each Avenger in their own film before tying them altogether in The Avengers but by the Gods they bloody well pulled it off and then some.

The Avengers shows us that when in the right hands a fun filled and character driven action film cannot be beaten. It gets a 10/10. I loved it but I am as relieved as I am happy. I had such a blast with my two besties today but I am just as excited to see it again tomorrow with two Marvel education kids!