Film Review: The Avengers (2012)

Let's do the math: 4 awesome superheroes + 1 film = 4x the awesome in 1 awesome film- oh, and $200m in it's opening weekend.

Smashing through the box office records like the hammer of Thor itself, The Avengers (or Marvel Avengers Assemble as it is known here in the UK) is here, and I reckon it's as awesome as it should be.

Now admittedly, I've never read any of the comics that the titular characters are in (so sue me, comic book fan-boys), nor had I watched any of the films besides Iron Man and Iron Man 2 prior to seeing The Avengers (I saw Thor only yesterday). However, Iron Man is probably my favourite superhero film, Thor, The Hulk and Captain America as characters are all supposed to be awesome, and having been convinced by the trailer that it'll at least be a fun popcorn flick where stuff explodes for my enjoyment, I thought I should go and see The Avengers on the big screen.

I don't know how the comic book(s) go, but in this film rendition of Marvel's Avengers, three of the world's greatest superheroes, a demigod, a hot Russian redhead, some guy with a bow and arrow and Samuel L. Jackson with an eye-patch unite to combat the evil forces of the aforementioned demigod's step-brother- who has a massive inferiority complex- and his extra-terrestrial army. This immediately sounds like my cup of tea, regardless of the fact that I know virtually nothing of the source material.

I'm pretty sure he was wearing a tracksuit zip-up top
underneath his awesome leather trenchoat.

The plot is pretty much as formulaic as you would expect for a character crossover-type film: the threat is introduced, all four are individually introduced, and are usually goaded into joining the cause by the noble leader (Nick Cage, played by Samuel L. Jackson), for reasons that none of them really have any cause to accept but do anyway because they're just that nice, or love to get into fights and break stuff.

Robert Downey Jr.'s portrayal of Tony Stark aside (as cock-sure and supremely yet satisfying arrogant as ever), my favourite character was probably Thor. He was new to me, but I loved his bold, assertive and venerable demeanour-yet oozing testosterone from every pore and conveying the sense that any sort of honour and pride go out the window when he's kicking seven bells out of you. I was also fond of Tom Hiddleston's performance as Thor's evil sibling Loki, who makes up in scheming and malevolence what he lacks in wrath-bringing hammers and superior hair follicles.

A real demigod would have probably won this
fight against two men in suits, to be fair.

I wasn't too keen on the very vanilla Captain America, but Bruce Banner (played by Mark Ruffalo) was great. I honestly don't know how he didn't hulk out sooner, though; I think if it was down to me to track down some eternally-powerful and potentially world-ending artefact that was stolen by a group of war-waging aliens, while battling an alter-ego so terrifyingly powerful that he could make me wet myself until I was passing dust, I think I would have probably lost that little personal struggle and annihilated S.H.I.E.L.D's floating fortress before it left the ground.

I went out and bought Thor on DVD the day after I saw this, and I fully intend to do the same with Captain America and Hulk, as that is how interesting I felt this film made the characters for me. Definitely a good way to get people, like me, who had for some reason not seen the previous films, to go out and bump up the DVD sales by buying the ones they'd missed.

As is the case with most- if not all- of these blockbuster superhero pictures, The Avengers would not be complete without a good quota of violence and destruction. I loved the fights scenes, from Iron Man and Thor scrapping for man points, to Scarlett Johannson doing her bit for feminists and capitalism everywhere by somehow laying the smack down on several Russian gangsters while tied to a chair, to the battle royale at the film's climax between The Avengers and the evil Chitauri.

In between all of the warring and brawling is a smattering of slapstick and comedy, complimented by some well-written dialogue, and it all goes together nicely in an enjoyable package that does not outstay it's welcome.

I expected this film to be awesome and I felt it was- I was not disappointed. I would certainly recommend this to anyone who is into this kind of film and hasn't seen it yet, and even if you don't know anything about The Avengers or any of the starring superheroes, but love a good action picture with plenty of explosions and fight scenes, this might be for you.