May 5, 2012

​

I have been excited for the movie since last year's Captain America. Not only is this an awesome film, it literally kicks off all of the awesome action films of the summer. And many of those we saw previews for.



The Avengers is really fun for everyone. If you are like me, where you've seen all the films, you love everything about them, but have not read the comics, you'll love it. If you have read all the comics, seen the films, etc., you'll love it. OR, if you just like action film with amazing special effects and a great plot, then you'll love it. It has some comedy, it has eye candy (for men and women). It literally has everything.



The premise is simple, save the world from the bad aliens from another planet, universe. The bad guy Loki (Tom Hiddleston) comes to Earth by activating an energy source with unknown powers the Tesseract, which is being experimented on by the S.H.I.E.L.D. He takes over the minds of the main scientist and Agent Barton/HawkEye (Jeremy Renner) and the three make off with the Tesseract, to essentially activate it again to destroy Earth.



Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) decides to re-activate the Avengers Initiative, a team that consists of Agent Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johannson), Dr. Bruce Banner/The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Captain Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans), Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and eventually HawkEye (after he's good again).



The group of five (minus HawkEye for the time being), get aboard the S.H.I.E.L.D. plane to figure out how to stop Loki and get the Tesseract back. The group captures Loki and keeps him contained in a cell meant for the Hulk. Loki basically mindf*cks them to argue and eventually breaks out, with the help of his cronies. In the meantime, Stark has figured out that S.H.I.E.L.D. has been working with the Tesseract to create weapons of mass destruction, should our planet ever be attacked again, such as what's about to happen with Loki and his army.



Loki gets away and the group doesn't know what to do. With some coaching from Fury, Stark decides the Avengers need to assemble and fight to save the world. Afterall, no matter how big of an army Loki has, they have a Hulk.



And then comes the big battle, in all places, New York at Stark's huge tower. The battle scene was incredible. Manhattan is essentially destroyed. And just when they figure out how to close the portal to stop the aliens from invading, Fury informs Stark that NASA is sending a nuke to just get rid of the island of Manhattan to rid the world of the aliens. And so on and so forth.

Brilliantly done, I think. Downey is amazing as Stark, as usual. Hemsworth is pretty as Thor, as Thor is just eye candy really. Ruffalo did a great job stepping into Norton's shoes as Banner/the Hulk. One of my favorite lines is from him when he utters, 'I'm always angry' and the proceeds to transform, and attack the bad guys. Another favorite scene is when Loki tries to get him to 'kneel before him' and Hulk just picks him up and throws him around like a rag doll. Classic.



Seeing all of the Avengers fight each other at the beginning was pretty good too. As each has their toy or strength of their own.



And as I said before, the plot was pretty good. Very detailed, but also very straight-forward. And they did a good job of explaining Black Widow and HawkEye, as those were the two who have not had a movie separately.



Please go and see this in the theater, you will not be disappointed. Oh yes, and you really only need to stay until after the first set of credits, as there is sort of foreshadowing if they decide to do another film. There is something at the very, very end of the credits, but its more of a comedic relief than anything really important.

​

4 stars. A must see to start the summer blockbusters early!