The Avengers Review

Justin and I saw The Avengers on May 5, 2012. Well, they've assembled and the results were impressive. The cast of Robert Downey, Jr, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, and Mark Ruffalo meshed very well together creating an awesome cinematic experience. Loki played perfectly by Tom Hiddleston returns to Earth as scientists reopen the portal allowing him to come through and begin his plan of ruling the Earth. Nick Fury played by Samuel L. Jackson realizes that its time to revisit The Avengers Initiative. Each member of the team has their own unique personality and it results in some volatile situations, as well as several comedic moments. I personally like Black Widow and Hawkeye as they have no special powers. They just are master assasins going out there and getting the job done. Johansson and Renner were excellent in their roles as they were believable. I wish Edward Norton had reprised his role as Bruce Banner, as I don't find Ruffalo to be a good actor, but this movie is not really about acting so it worked. It's about action and a fun story. Chris Evans was excellent as Captain America, displaying leadership qualities and using a more serious tone than is usually seen out of him. I feel Hemsworth's casting as Thor is excellent and he really does look like a god throughout the movie. RDJ always entertains me. He is a master of incorporating improvisation lines in movies and it was no exception here. I personally liked Tony Stark and Steve Rogers arguing most of the time. They would basically be co-leaders which makes sense in keeping with the comics. There are even some cameos by Pepper Potts played by Gwyneth Paltrow and Stellan Skarsgard reprises his scientist role from Thor. The team dynamic where the different personalities do not get along and then subsequently put their differences aside for the mission is done very well. I really enjoyed watching all the different interactions between the characters. The movie flows very well. On top of some of the dialogue (which as I mentioned was both excellent and at times funny),the action scenes were top notch. One battle I really liked was the battle between Thor vs. Captain America vs. Iron Man. It was interesting to see the heroes battle each other. Thor would also battle The Hulk (who I thought was one of the best parts of the movie-not Banner, just the Hulk) In fact, there is a scene during the awesome final battle (in which each hero gets the opportunity to take down certain members of Loki's army that he is able to get from Asgard to begin his rule) where Loki basically tells The Hulk I am a god what are you going to do and then he just tosses Loki around. The audience erupted into applause at this scene. It was awesome to see. I also liked Lou Ferrigno playing the voice of The Hulk. This movie definitely has a great mix of action, great character development, group dynamics, and a good plot to keep the audience into the movie. It's definitely one of the best comic book movies I've seen, although I'd say The Dark Knight, Kick-Ass, Super, and Sin City are better. I'll give this movie a 4/5 for how well Joss Whedon was able to present this and smoothly cross over between comic book universes such as Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, The Incredible Hulk, etc.