The Avengers

For those of you who are not in the know about The Avengers where have you been?  Seriously not only have there been two recent movies featuring The Hulk and Iron Man, but last year Paramount obviously rushed through production of Thor and Captain America to get the public ready for what could be a record breaking opening.  And while these two movies were nothing all that special, they both lay the ground work and have important information leading up to the first major blockbuster of the summer.  

For those who could not be bothered with the previous projects here is a recap, or you know just go and watch the other movies.  After the first Iron Man we meet Nick Fury, who is behind The Avengers Initiative, a team of Earth's mightiest heroes to come together should they ever need it.  From there we meet Thor, whose brother Loki was the featured villain in Avengers #1.  At the end of the movie we see The Cosmic Cube or the Tesseract in Nick Fury's possession.  We learn more about the cube in Captain America which is the source of many of The Red Skull's weapons of mass destruction.  While all independent projects, the stories of our heroes intertwine to build up to the summer blockbuster.

The Avengers is directed by major fan boy Joss Whedon responsible for television series like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Angel, and Dollhouse.  To the uninitiated many out there may not know who Joss Whedon is, after all he has only directed one feature film before, Serenity, and it was based off a show that no one watched while it was on.  But anyone who recognized the name knew immediately that this was the perfect match for the movie. Whedon is a lifelong comic book fan and not only did he create comic versions of Firefly and Buffy he also worked on a version of "X-men" and helped to develop Marvels crossover hit "Civil War."  With such passion for the genre, there was little doubt of his success.  

With so many characters, stories, and battles to fit in it is not surprising that the movie runs a little long.  The only time the movie feels long though is while the crew is on board Nick Fury's helicarrier.  Throughout the rest of the movie Whedon finds a perfect balance.  With eight major super heroes, four of which have been featured in their own movie, it would have been easy to put the primary focus on Robert Downey Jr., whose Tony Stark character has undoubtedly the most successful franchise of the superhero team.  But instead he finds something interesting for all of his heroes to do and gives them all equal screen time.  Whether it be finding back story or a featured fight, we feel like all eight heroes share an equal part to the story.

The show stealer of the whole movie may be the Hulk.  While Mark Ruffalo played Bruce Banner very well, at the very least better than Eric Bana did, I'm talking about the big guy.  The big screen has not been kind to the green giant, having been played by several different actors with no movie nailing down success.  Due to a combination of Hulk's inability to speak coherently and complete dominance of the enemy's around him his story has suffered as a leading man.  But as part of an ensemble The Hulk excels and has many of the movie's best moment.  He will no doubt be a fan favorite, now we can only hope that those movie execs don't try to make him the leading man again, the other guy is best in small doses.    

The action in the movie is in a word awesome.  In a superhero movie like this an epic battle scene is always anticipated, but there has never been anything quite like this.  There are always groups of thugs for the hero to take out before getting to the final battle; this may be the first time a blockbuster like this features a climax against an army.  The final sequence of the movie is nothing but action, but unlike Michael Bay's action movies which feature similar pacing it feels like the audience is much more vested in the outcome.  There isn't just cool shots for the sake of cool shots, it is all building to something.  While all the battles were great, any comic book nerd will tell you the best fights are when the heroes go at each other.  Everyone wants to know if the Hulk really is unstoppable, or who would win in a fight Captain America or Iron Man.  It is just another another point of praise for Whedon knowing what the audience wants as he sprinkles in fights between our heroes throughout the flick.  It sometimes feels as if the action never stops.  

For those who won't get excited about all the wonderful 3-D battle sequences there is also plenty of humor injected into the movie.  From the bickering of the superheroes, to the well placed quips, to the visually funny; Whedon, who also wrote the story, knows his crowd and injects the movie with plenty of laughs to make sure the movie constantly stays up.

The Avengers hits on all the right levels.  Putting up two duds last year, the movies will no doubt pay off as this one is a guaranteed success.  It will have fan boys, and casual movie lovers alike jumping for joy at just how well the movie is done.  The summer of 2012 starts off on a great note and The Marvel Superhero team have set the bar high.  A

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