Avengers, The

Release date: May 4, 2012
Directed by: Joss Whedon
Comic by: Stan Lee, Jack Kirby
Screenplay by:
Joss Whedon, Zak Penn
Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Tom Hiddleston, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Samuel L. Jackson, Clark Gregg, Cobie Smulders, Stellan Skarsgård, Gwyneth Paltrow

The culmination of years of work that started back in 2008 with Iron Man (and Robert Downey, Jr.). It was very important that Marvel got this right. And, oh boy, they certainly did!

I’m not afraid to show how geeky I am, and as such I was nervous that The Avengers wasn’t going to live up to my expectations. That somehow Whedon wouldn’t be enough as a movie director, as much as how geek-talented he already is. That the cast may fail to get the chemistry going, even though they seemed to get along so well. That maybe all the people who already saw it and waxed poetic about it, were overestimating it. Man, I am so glad to say that all my fears were unwarranted.

This movie is entertaining, flashy, funny, dramatic… and epic!

The cast was practically flawless. And the main ones, the Avengers, had more or less the same screen time, despite what the trailers implied by showing Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man so much. RDJ was still as great as ever but now he shared the mainstream spotlight with Evans, Hemsworth, Renner and Johansson. That last one was the best I’ve seen her lately, actually. Her Black Widow was tough but also showed emotion, and her bond with Renner’s Hawkeye was strong while keeping out of the romance box. The only romance shown was RDJ’s Iron Man and Paltrow’s Pepper Potts, who was, according to RDJ himself, something the actor wanted added in the film because it was logical to his character growth. I love it when the actors get their character so much!

The S.H.I.E.L.D. guys, while having less screen time, were also very well rounded. We finally see Jackson’s Nick Fury doing something else than being vaguely menacing, and Coulson’s (Gregg) fanboyish ways were a nice addition to his character. Smulder’s Hill didn’t have much to do, but there was the competent slightly confrontational attitude we expected from the character.

Now Mark Ruffalo deserves his own paragraph. Oh, Mr. Ruffalo, the little faith they had in you! You certainly showed them. He was strangely adorable as the geeky not-quite-zen Bruce Banner, and so awesome a Hulk. You see, this Hulk had personality! He wasn’t a bunch of CGI, he was real! He was strong, he was menacing, he was even funny. Good job, Mr. Ruffalo! I’m totally behind you if they decide to give you your own Hulk movie.

And now onto the bad guy. Tom Hiddleston, you magnificent bastard. Loki’s done hurting, or so he thinks. Now, it’s time to claim something for his own. Why not that planet filled with such lost creatures, they were clearly meant to be ruled. Yep, Loki is indeed a bastard, but still you can feel there’s something fragile underneath that rage. A self-consciousness underneath that icy bravado. And he’s so very angry that his brother chose to side with these mortals. The range of emotions passing through Hiddleston’s face was truly fascinating.

The movie itself was highly entertaining and funny. Yes, I must say it again. It was funny, hilarious at parts even! The one liners, the retorts, even physical actions. And it was well balanced with the dramatic parts and the heart-stopping action. The fighting scenes, especially the aerial ones with the Chitauri (Loki’s army) were very good. And the music was good but not distracting, it just enhanced it all. And the change of camera perspectives during these moments gave it a documentary feeling sometimes that worked rather well. In fact, when all the infighting, figuring out was going on, and drama is gone, the action is glorious! It needed to be seen a second time. Hell yes, I’ll watch it again.

I would have given 5/5, except for minor pacing problems in the first half and because of the slight cheesiness of Loki’s “allies”… though they got awesome at the mid-credit scene.

Still, The Avengers is easily the best movie of the lot. Well done, guys! Thank you, Joss Whedon. I am so pumped for more Marvel films, especially The Avengers 2!

Rating: ★★★★¼ 

mirella

YAM Magazine geek resident. Cloud Cuckoolander. Seldom web developer. Graphic designer.

29 Responses

  1. Rodrigo says:

    Great review, Mirella. :)

    This was a fun movie. Started quite slow, but once the guys were gathered together, it started to be fun.

    Gotta admit Ruffalo stole the show. I’d be interested in seeing a Hulk film with him on board. Or maybe Whedon’s script made him look greater?

  2. Camiele says:

    Oh. My. GOD! Just saw it not 10 minutes ago… my life is completely different now.

    • mirella says:

      @Camiele, Isn’t it just glorious… I’ve watched it twice already, and I want to watch it again… and again! Evertyhing is Avengers and nothing hurts!

  3. amy says:

    Well, to be fair… Whedon’s other feature film, Serenity, was pretty kick-ass too! xD

    I think you pretty much sum up everything with your review. I’m actually really REALLY SUPER surprised Whedon was able to make Scarlet Johansson not only slightly interesting, but also pretty kick ass. Like… I had said she was mildly interesting and kickass in her previous turn as Black Widow, but Whedon actually made her kick real butt. This must be one of the most exciting career moves she has had for the past 5 years. LOL Then again, it is from the dude that gave us Buffy, and Cordelia, Willow, Anya… River, and all the female cast in Firefly. LOL

    And yes! Mark Ruffalo and Hiddles~~~ Puny demi-god xD

  1. January 2, 2013

    […] 6. The Avengers […]

  2. August 20, 2013

    […] is not fine for Tony Stark (Downey, Jr.) after the events of The Avengers. Besides the anxiety attacks, misdeeds from his past have come back to bite him in the ass. And […]

  3. September 4, 2013

    […] yeah, those people saying that Rise of the Guardians is like The Avengers for little kids… they are kinda […]

  4. September 23, 2013

    […] The Avengers (2012, USA) […]

  5. October 14, 2013

    […] somehow in the days after shooting what is arguably one of the best superhero films around (The Avengers), a man by the name of Joss Whedon has brought new life to these dusty old words. By inviting his […]

  6. November 3, 2013

    […] week started with a hangover of The Avengers stuff, and I haven’t even watched the movie yet. It was filled with cute interviews of the […]

  7. November 3, 2013

    […] Girl. So what geeky stuff happened this week? A lot of stuff, including how I finally got to watch The Avengers, and it was as cool, if not more so, as I […]

  8. November 3, 2013

    […] Girl. This week has had lots of geeky news. Some awesome, some interesting and some upsetting. BTW, The Avengers (yes, I’ll still talk about it) premiered yesterday in the US, and there will be spoiler […]

  9. November 3, 2013

    […] there, fellow geeks! The Avengers buzz is still strong as ever, thanks to the movie being recently released in the US… Still, […]

  10. November 7, 2013

    […] last year [1], The Avengers and Moonrise Kingdom tied for our top spot. Did they make it this time around? One thing is […]

  11. February 4, 2014

    […] taken over where you have kind of cartoon characters brought to life through high technology. The Avengers series is a product of high technology playing a major role in the new order of filmmaking so I […]

  12. February 5, 2014

    […] to life after being asleep for 70 years [1] and later fighting aliens and saving the world in The Avengers. Two years after the battle of New York, Captain America is now a full-fledged member of […]

  13. March 28, 2014

    […] get this out of the way first: Captain America: The Winter Soldier is the best Marvel movie since The Avengers, and it’s a great improvement over the first Captain America movie. Not that I didn’t […]

  14. May 1, 2014

    […] Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America in Captain America: The First Avenger and The Avengers […]

  15. May 27, 2014

    […] the ending could have been handled a lot better that what it was shown on screen. I want to blame The Avengers for the film’s ending to a certain extent, but I can also see that after everything the […]

  16. May 27, 2014

    […] the new Avengers trailer became available on Apple Trailers, five minutes later it was all over the […]

  17. May 30, 2014

    […] gambling realm. In fact, there are numerous video games on Betfair Casino created for heroes in the Avengers or X-Men series, and they allow comic book lovers to engage with their favorite characters in a […]

  18. July 13, 2014

    […] part of that World Security Council I was talking to in (The Avengers), just he wasn’t there. We also know each other because we’ve been comrades for a very […]

  19. September 8, 2014

    […] This show requires watching The Avengers and Captain America: The Winter Soldier because the final 7 episodes deals with the aftermath of […]

  20. December 1, 2014

    […] Man being a huge hit, both economically and critic-wise, I doubt we would be thinking of having The Avengers, let alone having its highly-anticipated sequel Avengers: Age of Ultron premiering next […]

  21. April 29, 2015

    […] the first Avengers movie, Hawkeye got a lot of screen time! Which is great for Renner, who was grumbling a lot about […]

  22. May 10, 2015

    […] Kitchen, New York — somehow not too drastically affected by the New York battle from The Avengers, but it’s still a crime-ridden place nonetheless thanks to the presence of businessman/crime […]

  23. April 26, 2016

    […] been four years since I saw The Avengers, and it’s been so long since a movie left me with slight tachycardia. And while the reason […]

  24. April 26, 2019

    […] from an MCU movie, Captain Marvel also gives references to the other movies, specially that first Avengers movie and Avengers: Infinity War, as a way to fill in “plot holes”. And as predictable as […]

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.