Nothing like The Avengers has ever been attempted in Hollywood history. No major motion picture has ever been the culmination of four different blockbuster franchises, each with its own protagonist, and crossing them over into one gigantic film. It’s bigger than a sequel or even a planned trilogy. Marvel had to take pieces from their previous superhero films to assemble The Avengers. The studio wedged set-up into Iron Man 2, wove the covert government agency S.H.I.E.L.D. into Thor, and tacked bookends to Captain America: The First Avenger. The plan for The Avengers was audacious to the point of near-hubris, but writer-director Joss Whedon has managed to deliver an absolute powerhouse of a payoff that’s truly worthy of Marvel’s astonishing ambition.
After being exiled from Asgard, the villainous demigod Loki (Tom Hiddleston) makes a bargain with a shadowy, malevolent entity. Loki must go to Earth, capture the fabled Tesseract (a cosmic cube of immense power), and use it to open a portal that will allow the alien Chitauri army to invade our planet and make Loki our ruler. S.H.I.E.L.D. has the cube, but Loki quickly takes it along with agent Clint Barton aka “Hawkeye” (Jeremy Renner) and Dr. Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård) by using a mind-controlling scepter. Barton has access to S.H.I.E.L.D. resources, Selvig has the science to open the portal, and the only ones who can stop Loki’s plan are Earth’s mightiest heroes: Tony Stark aka “Iron Man” (Robert Downey Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Natasha Romanoff aka “Black Widow” (Scarlett Johansson), Bruce Banner aka “The Hulk” (Mark Ruffalo), and Steve Rogers aka “Captain America” (Chris Evans).
Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor, and Captain America all provided an essential ingredient in helping the plot of The Avengers by allowing it to skip character introductions. Thor and Captain America get a couple brief moments to recap the key events of their movies, but The Avengers doesn’t waste time with exposition. Instead, the film devotes most of its energy to bringing a bunch of superheroes together and expanding their individual stories.
Writer-director Joss Whedon does a wonderful job of taking the characters other people built, staying true to their personalities, and then adding his unmistakable spin. Captain America in The Avengers is essentially the same pure-hearted, unflappable do-gooder from Captain America: The First Avenger, but through Whedon, we get a character emotionally struggling to adjust to being ripped out of 1944 and awakening over sixty years later. At the same time, Whedon still has the good comic sense to let the character get giddy at recognizing a pop culture reference.
Almost every character gets this strong blend of comedy and drama. Thor provides the emotional grounding for Loki, who would simply be a moustache-twirling supervillain without his superhero half-brother. Black Widow gets plenty of screentime to expand her individual story to the point where it feels like a heavy prep for a great spin-off. As for Hulk, The Avengers manages to deliver the best on-screen adaptation of the character. In addition to having the Hulk kind of look like Mark Ruffalo, this is the first time the Hulk is actually fun. Whedon and Ruffalo turn Banner away from the brooding loner, and turn him into a bashful, nerdy guy who will only acknowledge the Hulk as “The Other Guy.” In The Avengers, The Hulk is Chekhov’s Gun if Chekhov’s Gun were a howitzer tank. When that blast finally goes off, we see the Hulk realized in the best way possible.
However, Whedon can’t quite shower everyone with this lavish attention and development. Robert Downey Jr. has so thoroughly defined the character of Tony Stark that no one, not even a writing master like Whedon, can leave an imprint. S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) has been a presence in all the previous Marvel movies, but he still doesn’t get to be the all-out badass we’ve been itching to see. As for Hawkeye, he spends half the movie being Loki’s slave, so there’s not much room to build a character.
Despite the varying levels of development, The Avengers succeeds on a character level because the story is about bringing these superheroes together. It’s an absolute joy to see these distinct personalities play off each other. When Iron Man fights Thor, it’s not just a geeky thrill to watch the showdown, but to also see how each hero retains their noble intentions while having a genuine conflict. Whedon operates with an understanding of how someone with the unshakable morality of Steve Rogers is going to handle a wild card like Tony Stark, or how Thor’s arrogance hasn’t completely diminished since his solo movie. However, one of the film’s few flaws is jumping into some of the conflicts without providing an adequate set-up to the scene. The second act of the film lacks the flow to move from conflict to conflict so the arguments feel slightly manufactured even though Whedon has stayed true to the characters.
The movie may stutter a bit in the middle, but when The Avengers swings into the third act, it becomes a blockbuster picture at its finest. Joss Whedon has absolutely realized the geek dream we’ve been waiting for since Nick Fury introduced himself to Tony Stark after the credits of Iron Man. The scope of the final battle makes it perfectly clear that no individual superhero could handle this challenge solo. More importantly, the battle had to be constructed so each superhero was a valuable addition. The film’s climax needs Iron Man’s speed, Captain America’s on-the-fly tactics, and Hulk as the unstoppable weapon. Every superpower is an instrument in Whedon’s grand symphony of delightful destruction.
The opening set piece raises doubts about Whedon’s ability to direct action since it’s difficult to tell where characters are in relation to each other, but after this initial misstep, the action scenes are an absolute blast. Whedon swooshes his camera around the battlefield, embraces the magnitude of the situation, and makes the audience feel every hit. The 3D provides a little bit of depth to the climactic finish, but the effect doesn’t add much to the overall picture. The third act of The Avengers bears a resemblance to Transformers: Dark of the Moon, and while Michael Bay has a greater mastery of 3D, Whedon has mastery over creating a coherent narrative featuring characters you care about. I’ll always take the latter over the former.
Leading up to The Avengers, every director had left a stamp on their Marvel movie, but not to the point where he was inseparable from the material. Kenneth Branagh provided a fantastical grandeur to Thor (along with superfluous canted angles) and Joe Johnston imbued Captain America with an old-fashioned, patriotic vibe. These are styles, and they can be recreated. But there is only one Joss Whedon, and The Avengers wouldn’t be as strong without him. He understands how to develop meaningful relationships between his characters, has a surprising talent for crafting epic action scenes (a welcome surprise considering his only feature film before Avengers was the modestly budgeted Serenity), and his humor is second-to-none. There are some one-liners and visual gags that still have me giggling when I think about them.
The Avengers is why we go to the movies. The film will work fine on a big-screen TV, but it’s the kind of gigantic blockbuster fare that sends us back to every summer we went to the theater and were absolutely wowed. By crafting a winning combination of wonderful characters, brilliant comedy, and spectacular set pieces, Whedon hasn’t simply created the biggest superhero movie; he’s created one of the best.
Rating: A-
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House of Frankenstein kicked off a series of Universal Monsters mashups that drew on their highly successful predecessors individual films. In other words, this is not technically unprecedented except in the fact that from Iron Man the Avengers film was the goal.
Outside of Hollywood, several kaiju films of Japan have brought together many of their characters with their own franchises.
Ahhhh yes, House of Frankenstein’s Universal Monsters mash-ups… How on earth did Matt Goldberg forget those summer tentpole blockbusters!?!? Jeez…
Shit happens. Duh.
I thought the film was fine but definitely not great. I would give it a C+ or B-. Scarlett Johansson was definitely a nigh point. Colby Smulders was embarrassing. I haven’t seen acting that bad on screen for a long time. I missed how the Hulk went from uncontrollable to be able to fight as a member of a team. Plot hole or did this happen when I went to the toilet? Anyway, like all the Marvel films so far, with the possible exception of Captain America, I have enjoyed them but have no desire to see them a second time.
I feel sorry for you, bro
Why lol cause he doesn’t share your same feelings for the film. It is what it is.
Hope you learn to enjoy things more as you get older.
Did you entirely miss The Incredible Hulk? If so, you should check it out. Makes me sad that Edward Norton didn’t get to have the part.
If not, you’re blind.
The problem for me is that Chris Nolan has set the bar so high that I am always disappointed by other superhero films, other than Scott Pilgrim and Kick-Ass which were brilliant and of the same high quality as Nolan’s films. In a universe where the Dark Knight films didn’t exist, I would probably think that this film was amazing.
Personally, I think the first two Chris Nolan Batman films were really good, but not great. The Dark Knight was benefited from some residual sympathy in my opinion. It was fun, but longer than it needed to be with plot holes of its own.
I just want to be entertained. And this summer looks like a full season of entertainment kicked off by The Avengers.
The movies exist in two different universes and it’s pointless to compare them. The only choice to make is which universe you prefer more. TDK probably benefitted financially from Ledger’s death, but his death had no bearing on the quality of the film. In my opinion, TDK is masterful and The Avengers is superlative fun.
I don’t think he stayed true to Loki’s portrayal in Thor at all. Loki in Thor is a son wanting to be loved, Loki in Whedon’s Avengers is just evil for the sake of evil, even when you think he’s struggling with what he is doing it’s just an act to let him get a hit in. I also thought a lot of scenes went on too long. I don’t care about Hawkeye, Black Widow or Nick Fury, bring them in, get them to do their job getting the real characters together and then let those characters do their thing.
The Hulk thing is actually quite clear, but you obviously didn’t catch it. This movie did exactly what it was meant to do, which was be a fun, exciting action film. Colbie Smulders was far from good, but she wasn’t embarrassing. I just don’t understand casting a “name” for such a worthless role. Otherwise, loved this movie.
I’ve been waiting for this movie since i was a kid reading Avengers #177 where they’re all defeated by Michael/Korvac, and thinking, “hang on, they’re not supposed to be ALL defeated!” I was hooked on these guys since then. 1978 i think.Anyway, i was more than worried about this film because it was to be very much MY film! I’d invested a lot of myself in these characters. I wouldn’t be at all pleased if it didn’t live up how awesome i know these characters have been written over the years. The battles, scars and losses they’ve had to endure. I thought it was going to be a kid flick! Pure and simple. That it wouldn’t round the character’s personalities enough, and the script would be too simple.
Plus Joss Whedon WAS under my radar as a director. I hadn’t gotten into Buffy or Firefly and anyway, let’s just say i wasn’t overly keen on the director. Nothing personal, or derivative of his craft and skills, but this was a boyhood dream taking form. People i spoke with about it all rated him though.
So, as per usual i tried to keep away from as many clips, interviews, rumours etc as possible. I like to go into the show knowing as little as possible. I only watched trailers.
Anyway, i went to see it in 2D on Wednesday 25th with a friend. Full of expectation and dread, heheh.
All i can say is, Whedon has made an Avengers movie we fans can be so proud of. The Dark Knight for me is a monumental film, and easily was the best supe movie project ever executed. Until now that is. THE best supe team is now all together in a live action film. And they have been drawn together beautifully by Whedon’s script. The mind boggles as to who else they will bring into this universe.
Respect is due to the research, and his interpretation of how these characters work together. He nailed it. I’m not sure anyone else would have. Maybe not even Nolan himself! Whedon’s view of them was almost exactly how i have interpreted their relationships over the years.
I’ve seen The Avengers twice now already, and will probably go again before the Bluray release. That will be an occasion too, i’m sure.
I’ve got to give the score a mention too. It’s on repeat in my headphones at the moment, because its bloody great! You hardly notice it during the film because of the awesome visuals and dialogue, but i recommend having a listen to it alone. Alan Silvestri is a master of action cinema. He did Predator for god’s sake! He delivers royally here. Check it out.
I couldn’t be happier about The Avengers. When Iron Man came out Downey-Junior was perfectly cast, and to top it all, a great movie was made, i thought maybe it could be the time when a really cool Avengers movie would be made. And so it has transpired. A huge BRAVO to all involved! AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!
the exclusion on hank pym in the movie is a let down … i dont expect to enjoy this movie much
Because Hank Pym isn’t in it? That’s like not looking forward to the first X-Men because Beast isn’t a main character.
Honestly, The Avengers felt like it just barely had time to give all the characters it did have their due. Squeezing in Pym or Wasp would’ve just made it worse, as they don’t have other appearances to go off of. There would’ve needed to be an origin story for both of them in The Avengers, which would make the movie unfocused and lengthy. I’m sure they’ll both show up eventually though.
It is the most fun of all superhero movies. The way the big egos rub on each other, these big personalities are like bickering Gods, and this is the core of the movie. Hulk redeems himself after 2 lackluster, wrong-headed approach to a character who specializes in good ole fashioned destruction. During the last epic battle, he gets the most laughs from the audience. And unlike X-MEN, each member of the AVENGERS is well defined with strong characterization, and has something unique to contribute to the team. Iron Man is like the Air Force of the team while Captain America does ground duties. Hulk is the weapon of mass destruction. lol. Hawkeye may have zero superpowers, but his bow-n-arrow tech is very cool. And Robert Downey Jr, as usual, has all the best lines. It opens early in Australia.
It was alright
had lots of action but no real plot.
4/10
can’t wait for TDKR
Ridiculous post.
Enjoy the mumble competition between Batman and Bane.
It’s also ridiculous to bash someone else’s take on the film without offering anything in return. And it’s even more ridulous to slight another film you haven’t seen yet. Not everyone agrees with you. Get over it.
I didnt read Matt’s review (not out of dis or anything like that!) but this movie is fan-freakin-shockingly-tastic!!!
Its well done & thought from start to finish…other than the leader of the Chituari lookin like Frank Langella’s Skeletor its all good.
I tend to agree with most of the review. Amazing movie. I thought the 3D was good, until I saw it again in 2D. The 3D was a much more immersive and enjoyable Experience. Well done mr whedon. You’ve done an awesome job
Save the original Spiderman, it’s wasn’t much of a chore to top most of the other Marvel films – or most of the movies released in the last few years. But it’s no revelation.
Average action movie, with good characters.
I loved this movie. I thought that all the characters got enough screen time except Hawkeye. Also, I would of more scenes with Thor. But, to have any complaints about this movie is pretty hard to find unless one is being over critical or nit picky. Lets face it people its a COMIC BOOK MOVIE and one that stays true to the comics. If you like realistic movies than don’t watch it.
I liked the movie for what it was. The whole climax scene however was a bit of a mess at times for me, a little too much cgi, cartoonish effects at times. Tom Hiddleston stole the show again for me though. B+
Spot on about Hiddleston. Best part of the film for me (as with Thor). Loki owned every scene he was in.
I feel the 3D for this film was really good..I would really like to suggest to those people who haven’t yet booked their tickets and planning to watch in 2D to drop that idea and try the 3D for this flick..I’m definitely sure everyone would love it..
And Like others even I felt that few scenes went longer than they should have been.Though I’ve watched the film twice by now..I nearly fell asleep in my 2nd viewing at some point during the film..
But the penultimate 40-50 minutes are breath-taking,adrenaline rush action which gave me chills and goosebumps in both of my viewings…Especially because of the AWESOME 3D!!
This movies won’t be any better than the sh** Bay put out with the Transformers. Almost no plot ad a lots of CG! Period.
I can’t believe you just compared this masterpiece to Transformers. You really are scum, Matt Goldberg.
Watched Avengers(albeit in 2D)yesterday,…awesome sums it up nicely!Although i was kinda disappointed with Whedon’s Cabin In the Woods,…he has certainly redeemed himself with this!Loved the sense of humour running throughout & the scene where Loki confronts the Hulk & ends up being pulverised in ‘Tom & Jerry’cartoon-style had the whole cinema audience in stiches!
Originally,X2 was my fave superhero movie & one that(for me)couldn’t be topped,…i now have a new number 1.
The new batman flick is gonna have to be pretty special to beat this!