Avengers

Some of the best Superheroes on the planet are brought together to fight a threat to the world as we know it in this Mega Marvel Movie.

Loki, brother of the demi-god Thor, has made his way to Earth to obtain a lost relic from his Father's trophy room known as the Tesseract. This relic is a source of unbelievable power and with it, he intends to use that power to open a gateway to another universe and lead an alien race, the Chitauri, to take over the world.

Nick Fury, director of the espionage agency S.H.E.I.L.D., decides to gather these known "Superheroes" to combat this threat to the Earth in the "Avenger Initiative" as opposed to the other alternative of an anonymous council who want to go ahead with something called "Phase Two". Fury, along with his agents Hawkeye and Black Widow, set out to recruit Captain America, Iron Man, Thor and Dr. Bruce Banner/The Hulk.

Getting them to work as a team is difficult, as they spend time arguing and fighting each other at first. But when they are all finally on the same page and fighting together, they turn their attention to the real threat in a battle to save the world.

The film is written and directed by Joss Whedon and features an ensemble cast that includes Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Clark Gregg, Cobie Smulders, Stellan Skarsgård and Samuel L. Jackson.

Who will like this movie:

If you've been playing along and have been a fan of the Marvel Movies leading up to this one, than this movie is geared right to you. If you've never seen any of the previous ones, I still think an action adventure/fantasy fan could get into it. However, I strongly recommend that you at least watch Thor and Captain America before seeing this one as there are carry overs from those movies into this one that will make it easier to follow.

Phantom Thoughts

If you've been following my blog, you may already know that I went to the Marvel Marathon and saw 6 Marvel movies including this one for a total of 15 hours all at once. One might think (the thought certainly entered MY mind) that you could get burned out watching the same genre of movies for such a long period of time. This did not happen as the new Avengers movie was all it was hyped up to be and more! I loved it!

There are pitfalls in making an ensemble movie such as this with so many stars and main characters in it. The most prominent one being to center the story around one of the characters and have everyone else play a role in that story. With the villain being Thor's brother Loki, this would have been an easy road to go down. However, the balance of story between all of them was really well done and no one outshines anyone else. The different storylines of all the Avengers were so well integrated into the main story of the movie that it also never got confusing to follow, which is another problem movies like this can face.

If there was any criticism I could make, it would be that they did use a well worn idea of a group of different personalities having to work together to achieve a specific goal. These personalities clash and fight each other until there is that one event that unites them in their quest and makes them work together as a team. This criticism is so minor and overshadowed by how well everything else worked that it barely stands to even reference.

The Avengers had action, had a good story, it was amusing and even funny at times, and kept my interest throughout the almost 2 and a half hours so much, I didn't even notice the length. And after watching 5 full length movies right before this one, THAT'S saying something. There has been a lot of buzz about how they finally got the Hulk right in this movie, and I would agree, even though I did enjoy the Edward Norton version for the many nods to the comic and TV show that were laced throughout that rendition. The Hulk steals a lot of scenes during the final battle in the film.

Speaking of the end of the movie, I encourage you all to stay to the end of the credits. The VERY end of the credits! There is a scene about two minutes into the credits that sets up the inevitable sequel that has been prominent in every Marvel movie thus far. However there is another little scene at the very end that I think, is the most awesome ending to this movie that they could have written. It is so perfect in it's simplicity. I loved it.

Until next time, I'll see you in the center seat.