It feels a bit redundant to write a review of Marvel’s Avengers at this point since the entire country turn out this weekend and loved it. So I’ll just throw on some more praise to the pile.
Easily the best Marvel movie, if not the best comic book movie made yet. The Avengers is a huge movie with 6 major superheros throwing their weight around. It’s been a long time coming, the pieces of this adventure being put in place in the last 5 Marvel movies. Now, with an external threat to Earth, only the power of the Avengers can save us!
Writer/Director/Champion of the Nerds, Joss Whedon carefully crafted and brought to life an amazing ensamble of superheros. He juggles these characters in both dialog and action so well he should get an award just for that. It could have been a disaster (see X-Men 3) but his knowledge and love for these decades old characters shines through at every turn. They’re all distinct people with their own issues despite their tremendous physical and mental capabilities.
Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk is my favorite. He’s the newest cast member (he’s the third actor to take the role) and he portrays the stress of holding the Hulk within him so well, you’d swear he’s not acting. The talk between Tony Stark (the always popular Robert Downey Jr.) and Bruce Banner in the lab was a real stand out for me. Two guys on the same wave length with seemingly opposite problems are actually shown to be pretty similar. Plus, when the Hulk shows up he steals every scene. His action segments are the best and Joss gave him some of the funniest moments in the movie.
One character never completely dominates the movie though. They all get their time to shine: alone, as a pair or in a group. Everyone is used and used well, the dialog is very sharp and surprisingly funny. We finally get to see Iron Man really do his thing in action (something I thought his two movies never did enough of) as well as Hawkeye and Black Widow.
The final act is really exceptional, with so much careful planning and foresight. It’s a massive action set piece in the NYC and the clarity and pace is second to none. There is so much going on, the Avengers are constantly engaged in different places and in different groupings, but you never get lost. You watch as they take down bad guys by themselves, then quickly see a team member help them out with such beautiful power and choreography. Iron Man and Captain America work together on the street at one point while Hulk and Thor just crush together while zooming around on enemy aircraft. Assaults from all sides, all the time! Truly something to behold. I found myself smiling all the time as they worked together in these brilliant ways.
It’s about 2 hours and 20 minutes long and any complaints are really just nitpicking. It takes a bit for the movie to really get rolling and you can think of more than a few plot holes (as is the case where you are dealing with super heroes. You need to just accept some things and keep going) if you really dissect it. The good far outweighs the bad and a new bar for comic book movies has been set.