Dir: Joss Whedon
Starring: Robert
Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans
After
many months of anticipation and at six films leading up to it Marvel’s Avengers Assemble finally
arrives in cinemas courtesy of Joss Whedon.
Loki
(Tom Hiddleston) arrives on earth and steals The Tesseract, a source of great
power. He plans to use it to open a gateway for an alien species to come
through and together they will take over the planet. Director of S.H.I.E.L.D,
Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), assembles the earth’s most extraordinary heroes,
Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Ironman (Robert Downey
Jr), Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Black Widow
(Scarlett Johansson) to defend the earth.
Firstly,
we have to get this out of the way. This is not the greatest Superhero film of
all time. The film has sat upon so much expectation, at least six individual
films setting up each individual character up until this point, containing
various hints and cross over characters which have all been leading up to this
one film. It is a wealth of expectation which is simply impossible to live up
to. However, the film is certainly entertaining and it should please fans and
the uninitiated in the audience. There is plenty of action and even more
humour, as to be expected in a Joss Whedon script, to keep anyone entertained
for its running time. After a slightly slow beginning, the fun starts when all
of the heroes are thrown together and the one liner’s start to fly. All of the
characters are juggled well and they each get their chance to shine. Unfortunately
Captain America is a bit dull and Hawkeye and Black Widow suffer in comparison
to their more super powered colleagues but they do get to have a good part in
the action. Thor is fun and Tony Stark is back to being the funny arrogant guy
we fell for in the first Ironman (2008) film, an improvement on the more
grating Tony Stark of Ironman 2 (2012).
However, the real revelation is Bruce Banner/The Hulk, played greatly by Mark
Ruffalo, who, once he lets the green man out, is the most fun and has two of
the funniest parts in the film. Tom Hiddleston is a great enemy in the guise of
Loki, even if his army of aliens are a bit too faceless and are basically just
there as cannon fodder. You need not worry if you have not seen all the other
films before this, each character is introduced and drawn well so you can
quickly get a hold on who they are.
The
film does have a few problems. It takes a while to get going as all the various
pieces of the Avengers have to be introduced and brought together. It is also
too long, but the longer running time does have to be expected considering the
amount of varying characters and character arcs it has to bring together. There
is never any real threat as you know none of the main characters are going to
die and of course they will win in the end but this doesn’t mean that the
journey is any less fun. As is typical with many American Superhero films, you
are shown the might of America rising up to take down foreign invaders and you don’t
really feel the world is in danger since they aliens only attack from in part
over Manhattan. The action is entertaining and a good spectacle but it
ultimately isn’t overwhelming and is fairly rapidly fading from you reviewers
memory.
It’s
not the best Superhero movie of all time and it’s not the best Joss Whedon film
out at the moment. It is a good, entertaining, funny and fun Saturday night
film. Go and enjoy yourself for a couple of hours, just don’t expect it to
change anything.
4 out of 5 Buttons
