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The Avengers (2012)

The Avengers



8/10



Starring
Robert Downey, Jr.
Chris Evans
Mark Ruffalo
Chris Hemsworth
Scarlett Johansson
Jeremy Renner
Tom Hiddleston
Samuel L. Jackson



Directed by Joss Whedon


Distributed by Walt Disney Pictures


Earth's Mightiest Heroes come together to stop Asgardian outlaw and lord of mischief, Loki.

Let me sum up this movie in two words - Ridiculous Fun.

It's a little difficult for me to review this movie objectively because I'm still reeling from having just seen it. The Avengers is everything a summer blockbuster should be, and then some. Fun Fun Fun.

Marvel's The Avengers is the culmination of years and years of teasers and easter eggs left at the end of all Marvel studio movies since Ironman in 2008. It's a long time to wait for one movie and aniticipation was almost volcanic. Based on the hype alone, the movie had a big challenge trying to meet up with expectation. And I'm glad to say it delivers. Big time!

Firstly, the setup. Before you see The Avengers, it would be best if you've seen, Ironman 1 & 2, Incedible Hulk, Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger. These movies all serve as a background for all the major characters (heroes and villians alike) in The avengers.

Question: What happens when u put Bruce Banner and Thor in a vessel way up in the sky and then Banner sets Hulk loose?

Answer: Chaos like no other.

This movie is CGI invasion, almost everything at the final frontier (final battle) was CGI incorporated. So well crafted was the CGI and so well mastered were the actors themselves that they flowed with the scenes with ease.


The Norse god, Loki arrives on earth in a top secret SHIELD base, takes over the personnel and destroys the site. He also happens to acquire a very power energy source called The Tesseract, which the mischievous god intends to put to nefarious use. All these in the first 10 minutes of the movie. It's therefore up to the Director of SHIELD (Nick Fury played by Samuel L. Jackson) to commence the avengers initiative. Its all very comicbooky and sounds like something only nerds and comicbook readers would enjoy. But at the same time, it is very easy to follow and understand. 


The Avengers is a glowing testament to Joss Whedon's ingenuity as a writer/director because he manages to not only write a funny and fast-paced script(more on that later) but he also writes the characters in a way that portrays them as heroes with flaws. This makes it very easy for the audience to relate with whatever is happening on screen instead of alienating those who've never opened a comic book.

And watch out for cool camera angles, one had Captain America assessing a scene and we get to see it from a reflection.
Which brings us to the screenplay. This is a comic book through and through, so there's a plot to take over the world, lots of funny quips, high tech weaponry, an alien race and some fantastic battles. 

One of the major fears in doing an avengers movie is handling all the characters (there are 7 major characters) and their story arcs, working their motivations and personality into the script. In the hands of someone else, this may have been a recipe for disaster, but not Whedon. He manages to bring out each character's personality and idiosyncracies, giving each one enough screen time to allow the actors really shine. The dialogue was sweet as no one seemed to speak out of character. The story, though a little generic - crazy god steals a doomsday device that can end the world and several superheroes band together to stop him, is quite adequate as the first part of this franchise (a sequel has been confirmed). 

And the action... Oh the action!

Halfway through the movie I ran out of Exclamations and just hanged on to my seat. Loaded with amazing scene after amazing scene, you'd be hard pressed to get bored watching this. It's like the producers kept asking "That last scene was good, but how do we top that in the next scene?" Then they went ahead to just blow the coolness level off the charts in the final action sequence.

It's no wonder because the budget for this movie was titanic (pardon the pun) - nearly 220 million US dollars. And it's worth it because every scene in the Avengers is just so spectacular. The attention to detail was intricate. Things like Thor's lightning bolts tearing through the night sky, the wear and dents on Iron man's battle armor, Bruce Banner's hulking out scenes, the list goes on and on. Everything looked so good it was like the special effects people were saying "look at me, aren't I pretty?" If I was to be nit-picky, I'd say the aliens looked quite generic and not as foreboding as those trying to take over a planet.

The actors did a splendid job playing their respective roles. Particular mention for a wonderful performance by Tom Hiddleston (Loki). When he played Loki in Thor(2011), he did it so well I actually thought he knew the guy. He kept up the good work here also and I hope this won't be the last we hear of him. Sad to say, but Samuel L Jackson's acting was the weakest among the group and Mark Ruffalo's was the best. It was also good to see Chris Evans playing Cap with such aplomb and Robert Downey managed to chew up his screen time also. Though his "funny" lines always went over my head all through the movie(maybe its just me though). Captain rose up to the occasion to show why we all (especially Agent Colson) love and respect him. Without a doubt, he deserves to lead the Avengers into any battle. One thing that I enjoyed was seeing his character be so oblivious to pop-culture references thereby re-enforcing his back story as a man "out of his own time". Thor was graceful as usual, but the Hulk was the icing on the cake.

All in all, go see it.


by Ibukun Taiwo and Tosin Laguda

4 comments:

  1. yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    this is a must watch...been waiting so long and i cant wait anymore
    now with what you've said, i really want a popcorn, if possible 2 bags of popcorn to watch this!!!!
    nice post tosin!

    ReplyDelete
  2. It is, and it is so captivating that you will wish the cinema will give you the ability to rewind.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Avengers was thoroughly entertaining
    It was worth every penny and all the time!

    I actually rad your review here before seeing the movie.
    Nice work you're doing. Keep it up!

    ReplyDelete