The Avengers: Movie Review... So I saw the much-anticipated comic book ensemble film on IMAX 3-D last Friday, and needless to say, it was friggin' awesome! From Loki's (Tom Hiddleston) opening scene where he demonstrates that mere bullets can't hurt a sinister god like him to Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) showing that he's more than a "billionaire playboy philanthropist" in the movie's climax, The Avengers was a nice blend of action, drama and humor all rolled into one.
Director Joss Whedon did a terrific job with the way Iron Man, Captain America (Chris Evans) and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) interacted in his latest cinematic hit...as well as bringing new life to the Hulk with a talented actor like Mark Ruffalo portraying the mild-mannered Bruce Banner and "the other guy". And it doesn't hurt that Scarlett Johannson returned as the ass-kicking Black Widow, Jeremy Renner [who must be really grateful that he's on a roll in Hollywood right now, what with him being in a Best Picture winner (The Hurt Locker), a well-made bank robbery flick (The Town) and then matching wits with Tom Cruise in a hit action film (Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol) and all] got to play with arrows as Hawkeye, and Samuel L. Jackson was the usual badass motherf**ker playing Nick Fury.
In terms of my favorite moments in the movie, most of them involved Iron Man and the Hulk. Let's face it— Marvel's plans to bring The Avengers to the big screen probably would've hit a snag if Robert Downey Jr. didn't nail it with his portrayal of Tony Stark and Iron Man in the hit 2008 film. Iron Man is just totally awesome in The Avengers...and when Stark ditches the Mach 6 suit (which he used in the finale of Iron Man 2) to don the Mach 7 armor (which Stark put on in one of the coolest sequences in the movie) as he confronted Loki, I couldn't resist the urge to shout out "F**K YEA" in the theater. (Which I didn't do, just to be polite). And when Loki is about to admonish the Hulk about who's the more powerful being between the two, only for the Hulk to quickly grab Loki by the legs and swat him back and forth against the ground like a bullwhip (can’t think up of a better analogy), the rest of the audience couldn't help but shout out "F**K YEEAAA" in the theater. (Which they didn’t do. The audience just cheered.)
As for other aspects of The Avengers that were awesome, the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier looked really cool. And Iron Man firing those micro-missiles against those alien invaders in the climax was badass. (BTW— When is a Robotech movie gonna be made, damn it?) If there are nitpicks that I have about the flick, it's that the story of The Avengers was reminiscent to that of Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Much like in TF3, The Avengers had to deal with an alien army who used a portal to get to Earth and start an invasion. And whereas Michael Bay avoided the cliché of destroying New York City by having Chicago be the victimized metropolis in Dark of the Moon instead, Joss Whedon decided to have the Big Apple be the place where the alien army causes major chaos and destruction. But overall, the fact that The Avengers is a well-made film makes up for the somewhat derivative plotline. Oh, and Transformers had a better music score. You da man, Steve Jablonsky.
All-in-all, The Avengers was an enjoyable flick. Having a current worldwide gross of $702.2 million (with $226.4 million of that coming from us Yanks and the Canadians), Marvel's latest hit definitely started the 2012 summer blockbuster season with a bang. Would I watch the movie again, you ask? Of course! But for personal reasons, not at the theater. I'll just wait till the DVD is released...as originally expected. That is all.
4 out of 5 stars. ****
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