The Avengers – The Worlds Mightiest Superhero Movie

Grab your seats, class is in session.

 Couple things to know about the Professor before reading this review. When I was growing up, I was a huge comic book geek, courtesy of my older brother. He would go buy them and I would get to read them when he was finished. I ended up a Marvel “fanboy” as that’s what we tended to gravitate to. When I got older and had my own money, I started collecting too, almost strictly Marvel comics. You can imagine how excited I got as these movies started getting made. When they started the bar high with Iron Man, things got really interesting. The rumors started as to what was next. Some of those rumors actually came true: Captain America, Thor, and the Hulk. Iron Man did so well it earned a sequel. The other movies did well, not as well as Iron Man, but still well, and were all well done. Then the big rumor became reality. The Avengers movie was going to happen. Joss Whedon, One of the “geek culture gods” was tagged to direct and the geek world rejoiced (for the most part.) That all lead us to today. May 4th, opening day for:

Let’s get this out of the way, right away, as some people think I write too much. This movie…absolutely fantastic. Hands down the best superhero movie made to date. I know people will argue for The Dark Knight. Yes, TDK was a great movie, but this…this, for me, trumps it. There is more action in this movie than any other superhero movie made yet. Easily the last hour is entirely non-stop action and it’s all done right. Comparatively the beginning of the movie seems slow, but it’s really not and it’s tremendously important. They don’t go back and review all the main character stories, but there are some brief flashbacks. There is also enough background given on the important side characters, Black Widow and Hawkeye, that you learn just enough to want to know more, but wisely, it’s left out. I personally think taking time to give any kind of back story would have bogged the movie down.

Anyone who has read my reviews previously knows I don’t like to give spoilers and I’m going to stick to that. I’ll try to be as generic as I can. One thing I can say is that if you haven’t seen the other movies (Iron Man, Iron Man 2, the Hulk, Captain American, Thor) you don’t really need too, but it does help a lot. Some of the movie (or this review) won’t make sense without it. So, the premise of the movie: Loki finds a way to Earth and steals the Tesseract, or Cosmic Cube. He wants to use it’s power to take over the Earth and subjugate all life on the planet. Enter SHIELD and the Avengers. The Avenger’s Initiative is designed to bring together “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” and have them work together to stop this type of attack. As you can expect, when you first put together a team of people used to working solo, things get…wonky. There’s conflict within the group that begins pushing everyone apart, which is just what Loki wants. Divide and conquer. It’s only after a fairly major movie event does the team come together and begin to be who they are supposed to be: the team that saves the Earth. I know, it all sounds very cliche when you put it this way, but without giving away parts of the movie, I can’t give much more of an explanation. Just trust me that while this seems to be an age old story, you don’t feel it. The one thing I will say is watch for the confrontation between the Hulk and Loki. Best part of the movie, hands down.

The actors in the movie are pretty much what you would expect if you’ve seen the other movies. Robert Downey Jr continues to show why he was the absolute perfect choice to play Tony Stark. There is no one else would could come close to playing Stark this spot on. Chris Evans and his Captain America are awesome. With Cap, you need someone who is both powerful and in command, but also someone lost in a time that really isn’t his. Evans does a really nice job showing both sides of that coin. Chris Hemsworth literally looks like a demi-god. I am comfortable enough in myself to say that. His Thor is even better in this movie than it was in the actual Thor movie. Just something about the way he carries the character gives you a sense of power. Scarlet Johannsen, well…while I’m also comfortable enough in myself to say that while I could sit and watch her chew bubble gum all day as long as she wears that suit, she actually does a nice job as Natasha Romanov, the Black Widow. Could someone else have done better? Maybe, but she honestly plays the character well. And hey, even a superhero movie needs eye candy. Sam Jackson is muthafuckin’ Sam Jackson. That’s all that needs to be said there. Jeremy Renner was interesting. I didn’t exactly know what to expect from the Hawkeye character, as it’s not one many people know about and has never really been used before, but I liked it. He’s a damn fine actor as is and this was no exception. I imagine there will be more about him if/when he shows in another movie, mostly because I believe people will want to know more.

Two people really stuck out to me though, one for good reasons, one for not so good. The not so good? Mark Ruffalo. Okay, he did a nice job in the movie. He was not my favorite as I didn’t really like his take on Bruce Banner, but that might be my bias. I loved, loved, loved Ed Norton’s Banner from the Incredible Hulk and really wanted him to be in this one too, but alas, it was not to be. I found Ruffalo to take a more squeamish approach to the character which didn’t seem to fit properly. For me, he was almost like a really smart high school kid trying to hide a “roid rage” issue. It was like he was ashamed of his alter ego. I have always read Bruce Banner to be afraid of his alter ego instead and spent his life just trying to be rid of it. To me, that’s how Norton played it and played it perfect.

The movie stealer for me, though, was the same one as from Thor. Tom Hiddleston as Loki is just fantastic. He is exactly what you would picture Loki to be onscreen if you know him at all from the comics. This is a guy I expect to see a lot more of in the future in other movies simply because he is a fantastic actor. The other movie stealer for me is after the credits. They set up the villain for the sequel and it’s one of my two all-time favorite Marvel villains. No idea how they will make it work, but I don’t care. I can’t wait to see it.

If there is one thing I honestly didn’t like, it would be the Hulk itself. Just the look, really. I loved the action of the character and all of it’s scene’s in the movie, but I did not like the way it was done. The CGI was good, but the appearance just looked off to me. Besides giving it chest hair (which is just bizarre) it actually looked TOO much like Ruffalo for me. It was much better in the Norton movie. Also, I didn’t like how it moved. It looked too much like a gorilla, always having it’s knuckles on the ground and just moving like an ape. There is one other bit I did not like, but it’s a major spoiler, so I can’t get into it now.

So, as most of you can tell, I loved this movie. So much so, I actually wanted to go see it again once it was over. I will definitely be going to see it in the theater again. If you’re a fan at all of this genre, you have to go see this movie in the theaters. You’ll regret it if you don’t. If you do go, call me. I’m in.

Until next time…

Class dismissed.