Saturday, May 12, 2012

Movie review - The Avengers

Following the events of Thor, when it became apparent that there were other beings who might harm Earth, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) has been secretly assembling a team of superheroes who might defend our planet - aka, The Avengers Project!!! The team is hastily assembled when Loki (Tom Hiddleston) steals the Tesseract, a source of power - which can be PURE EVIL in the wrong hands! In order of appearance, the Avengers consists of  Hawkeye/Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner), Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johanssen), Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans), Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), and Dr. Bruce Banner/The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), who are then joined by Thor (Chris Hemsworth) who feels bad that his adopted brother is now trying to destroy the World....


When I got to work the day after watching this, I was asked for my thoughts. I replied, "ES WAR SUPER ECHT TOLL, JA!!! (It was super really great, yeah!)" Now, I haven't seen all the other Marvel movies related to these characters but director/writer Joss Whedon (yes, the guy who brought us Buffy and Toy Story) gives enough background and star-time to each character that you get enough of their backstory that watching the others (as far as I can tell) is not necessary. Whether it be friendly or antagonistic, every character interacts naturally, no doubt due to the great performances from each of the actors. Even though the absolute star with the best lines is without a doubt RDJ, the others display great timing and comic ability. I was particularly amused when a character who is potentially as humourless as Thor, when told of his brother's destructive rampage through Stuttgart, can come back with the witty rejoinder, "He's adopted." Gold. 


But the best thing about this movie? It is pure fun. A hefty running time of 143 minutes didn't feel that long to me with great pacing between exposition, action, and humour. It's got enough service for the fanboys with various character match ups (which is stronger? Thor's  hammer or Capt. America's shield?!), funny moments that seem to come out of nowhere (you'll know them when you see them), and a high perve factor. Sure, ScarJo is there for the guys, but I was amazed the size of the chests from the males while a comment from a male co-audience member indicated that he was thinking the same thing about their arms!


Anyway, go watch this. I'm eagerly hanging out for the sequel!
It's a solid...
8-9/10

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