Movie Review: THE AVENGERS

My greatest concern about having so many superheroes crammed into one movie was that it’d be a disjointed mess, but Joss Whedon has managed to justify—for the most part—each character’s presence in The Avengers, and create a reasonably coherent summer blockbuster.

I’m not sure how important the plot is to you with this type of big action movie, but it involves Thor’s brother, Loki (Tom Hiddleston), being hellbent on ruling Earth and stripping earthlings of free will. He’s helped by a powerful energy cube called the Tesseract—also seen in last year’s Captain America: The First Avenger—and the alien race called Chitauri. Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), agent of S.H.I.E.L.D, manages to convince Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), and eventually Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) to band together as The Avengers to fight the evil invasion. Much action ensues, with lots of special effects, especially if you see it in 3D.

One of the best things the movie has going for it is Whedon’s trademark witty dialogue, with Downey Jr. getting the bulk of the funny lines, even though after a while, he does start to sound one-note with his endless snarky remarks. Ruffalo is my favorite movie Bruce Banner/Hulk yet. His soft-spoken manner contrasts nicely with his giant green angry guy, who has some funny scenes when he just won’t take any more bullsh*t. And thanks to motion capture technology, Ruffalo actually got to play the Hulk, who resembles the actor in facial expressions and hair.

Johansson has one badass fighting scene (you’ve probably seen it in one of the trailers) and is quite effective despite being the most petite team member with no actual superpowers or fancy costume. Hawkeye doesn’t get to do much, but Whedon does take him in an unexpected direction for the first half of the movie.

At two and a half hours, Avengers takes a little long to build up to the climactic battle, with a few pissing contests between the dudes before they agree to come together. And the finale looks a little like something from a Transformers movie, but these superheroes are a lot more interesting than robots, and with Whedon as their leader, they manage to save people’s brain cells from exploding by delivering an entertaining popcorn movie that doesn’t make you feel stupid.

Nerd verdict: Entertaining Avengers

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6 Comments

  • Reply
    Paulette
    May 3, 2012 at 8:39 am

    I’m all for saving people’s brain cells from exploding and I like popcorn, so I’m in! Fun review! Thanks….

  • Reply
    EIREGO
    May 3, 2012 at 10:01 am

    Of course I’m going to this! And I’m going to act like a child the whole time. Yay!

  • Reply
    Natalie ~ the Coffee and a Book Chick
    May 3, 2012 at 6:23 pm

    I am absolutely attending and watching this with a big smile on my face every time Thor comes on the screen. I loved that movie! I love this idea of pulling all of these characters into one movie, and am interested to see what they do with Hawkeye. I’m totally in for this flick and cannot wait!

  • Reply
    Poncho
    May 4, 2012 at 12:06 am

    I loved it! Went to see it with tonsilitis at a midnight showing but I regret nothing. I felt like a kid in a candy store.

    I do agree with you that it takes a little too long to build up, but it turned out to be a very good summer blockbuster.

    Thanks for the review, PCN!

  • Reply
    Pop Culture Nerd
    May 4, 2012 at 2:49 pm

    Paulette, EIREGO, Natalie—Have FUN!

    Poncho—Yay! So glad to hear you enjoyed yourself. And you went at midnight with tonsillitis? You are hardcore, my friend.

  • Reply
    Shell Sherree
    May 5, 2012 at 6:22 am

    It does look like fun ~ and you know I don’t need to be asked twice to watch something with Robert Downey Jr. in it. Thanks as always, PCN.

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