During the past few years, Marvel had been teasing us about the upcoming The Avengers movie at the end of Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor, and Captain America – And they finally delivered in a BIG way.
We have to say, The Avengers is way better than most of the films that led up to it, and there are very few writer-directors that could do as good a job with this story as Joss Whedon. The story, which Whedon conceived with Zak Penn, establishes a tension among these larger-than-life figures, gives them a way to work out their problems, and brings them together against a common enemy. But it’s the writing, in harmony with its perfect casting and awesome visual effects that set this film apart from the rest.
One thing that we have always wondered is how a director would deal with creating a movie with so many different characters, with distinct personalities and abilities, in a single picture. We’ve already met Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Chris Evans as Captain America, seen Scarlett Johansson kick ass (and make leather outfits look SUPER hot) as Black Widow, and have thoroughly enjoyed Robert Downey, Jr. as billionaire playboy Tony Stark/Ironman. Even Clark Gregg is back as Agent Colson, who has become a very familiar character by now, not to mention the ever-awesome Samuel L. Jackson as S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Nick Fury.
As for the performances, everyone did an amazing job, but Downey set the bar pretty high and it almost seems like his fellow actors are forced to play at the same level. There’s not one weak link here. As for newcomer Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/The Hulk, we initially couldn’t really see him playing the character, because Edward Norton did such an amazing job in 2008’s The Incredible Hulk – But Ruffalo pulled it off. Instead of trying to keep with Edward Norton’s version of the character, he put his own spin on the character, and did an incredible job. Jeremy Renner did really well as Hawkeye, even though they didn’t showcase his skills as much as we would have liked to see.
Tom Hiddleston as Thor’s step-brother Loki, was allowed to be sly, sarcastic, and casually cruel – Which is something that he didn’t get a chance to do in Thor. This was a truly great performance by Hiddleston.
Another thing that we loved is that Whedon inserted a welcome dose of humour into the movie, introducing wonderfully funny dialogue, and moments that seem like they came out of a Looney Tunes cartoon. It’s the first superhero movie that we can think of that has made us laugh out loud, a lot.
Joss Whedon has officially made himself the best comic book movie director of all time. Whedon gives us everything that we could have hoped for and more in a superhero team movie, in a film that is over two hours but never seems long – At all. You don’t even notice the time pass.
We wish that every summer blockbuster or comic-book movie were as good as The Avengers. If you haven’t seen this movie yet, go see it today. As a matter of fact, stop reading this and go see it. If you HAVE seen it, see it again because these guys DESERVE the paycheck.
