Posted by Nick April 26, 2012

Today I took a lil time off work just so that i could check out the new Avengers Assemble movie, come back and write a review for you guys. Tough work i know, but i like to put myself out and do these things just for you, nothing at all to do with the fact that i really really wanted to see this movie. As expected lunchtime on a Thursday was a good time to see the movie, the cinema was still pretty packed but there weren't any kids in sight for this the first showing of Avengers Assemble (non 3D version).

Ok so firstly let me say that I have enjoyed all the previous Avengers related movies (Iron Man 1&2, Thor and Captain America) and have appreciated the consistency that has been weaved across these films. And yes i actually had forgotten that The Incredible Hulk with Ed Norton is also an Avengers tie-in, but think that is the only movie that really doesn't feel like it fits in with the others. Also before i get to the film i should point out that I have no major knowledge of the Marvel Universe except what i have been taught by movies and early 90s cartoons.

So, onto the plot of the movie…. as the stories of Captain America & Thor concluded we had been made aware that there was massively powerful object called 'The Tesseract' which once belonged to Odin. The Red Skull had used the Tesseract to power new potentially war winning weaponry but was foiled by Captain America, and at the end of Thor, the evil Loki was drifting into space and Professor Selvig was asked to be part of the research team on the cosmic cube as an apparition of Loki appeared to have control over the scientist.

WARNING SOME MINOR PLOT SPOILERS

Here we go then, Loki is off in space still, making a deal with an unknown force sending him to Earth to retrieve the Tesseract for his own means, in return Loki is promised an army to enslave the human race. So, Loki steals the Tesseract from SHIELD HQ, destroying it in the process, and Nick Fury is forced to put calls out to the previously abandoned 'Avengers Initiative'. Captain America, Bruce Banner, Iron Man and Black Widow are all called in and seemingly have things all tied up as Loki is captured but the Tesseract is still out there. Thor also chooses to show up at this moment and wants to return Loki to Asgard. As the Avengers assemble for the first time there's friction in the camp, mainly between Cap, Thor and Stark. So they release some steam on each other and play an upscaled version of Rock, Paper, Scissors to settle their differences. Essentially Shield beats Hammer and Robot absorbs lightning and kicks your ass - you'll see what i mean honest. Essentially they all begin to respect each other as warriors as they see that each has his own defence against the others powers. As the Avengers are in disarray, tragedy strikes SHIELD - but born out of this tragedy is a new togetherness and will to work together to stop Loki (was lacking a Rocky style montage here to really sell this togetherness).

Together the newly assembled Avengers finally put their heads together and track Loki and the cube to New York where he is trying to open a portal that will bring through his army to take over the world. You already know from the trailer that the portal is opened and the alien army advances (i mean what fun would this be if it wasn't opened) and all out action proceeds. Sufficed to say that Loki is stopped, the armies vanquished and the Avengers disband to fight another day?

My Conclusions

Ok so i thought the movie was excellent, sitting here writing about it, reliving it, and being able to recall so much of it is proof enough that it was awesome. I'm not sure it was as mind-blowing as many hoped for, especially with Whedon co-writing and directing it, but it's a damned good film with some staggeringly good special effects. And there's no real Natalie Portman OMG moments that have the potential to ruin the whole thing like in Thor. Avengers is pretty light on plot and dialogue and there's not a huge amount of character development aside from the 'why cant we all just get along' stuff. But really the bulk of the plot and development is contained in their standalone movies, this is merely the finale.

I really didn't have high hopes for Mark Ruffalo as Hulk, but i have to say he performed amicably and his transformed Hulk is a real scene stealer, possibly moreso than Tony Stark. It is almost impossible to imagine Ed Norton starring as Hulk in this movie. The one character i was really disappointed in was Hawkeye, who is fine as an assassin with a bow as his choice of weapon but in a mass war with an alien race you can only carry around so many arrows surely? Reminded me of 80s action films where a pistol had an infinite amount of bullets in it. To put it simply: all the characters you know and love are back in a big way for this movie and if you enjoyed the other films, then you will definitely enjoy this one cos you know exactly what you're expecting and thank god it delivers.

Tom Hiddleston as Loki is the stand out performance in this movie, wonderfully slick, snide and silver tongued he has all the best dialogue in the film (there isn't much), at one point calling Black Widow a 'mewling quim'. lol and all returning actors are decent on the rare occasion that they are asked to speak actual dialogue. One thing i did notice is that every male character in the movie seems pretty grumpy, i think you have to put this down to SHIELD HQ being a bit of a sausagefest, cos they all seem to perk up when Scarlett Johansson's about, they all seem to have one eye on her (quite literally in Nick Fury's case)

Some people have said it's the best Superhero Movie Ever? Hmmm… probably not. It's up there for sure but it's not in Batman Begins/Dark Knight territory for me, but it's hard to compare as its a very different take on the superhero movie. To make 5 films (not counting Hulk here) with a consistent style of dialogue, action, special effects and humor is quite a feat and Avengers Assemble is the worthy conclusion of all of that.

The rumor mill says that there are sequels for all the Avengers, Samuel L Jackson has a deal to appear in 9 movies as Nick Fury and he's been in 5 now. Iron Man 3 should be on the cards next, tho I was sad to hear that Favreau won't be directing it - major shame as his Iron Man movie set the tone for the rest of the films, as executive producer of Whedon's Avengers movie his sticky fingerprints are all over this film. i'm not sure that Captain America 2 would work now that the Cap is in the future. It would supposedly follow the Cap's work with SHIELD. And once again i'm not sure Thor 2 would be a good idea either, especially after Kenneth Brannagh ruled himself out of directing a sequel. Looks like we'll have to wait till Avengers Re-assemble… which brings us finally to…

 

MAJOR END TITLE SPOILER

YOUR CHOICE WHETHER TO SCROLL DOWN

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

End credits teaser

You don't have to wait long for this teaser as it appears after the main cast list. There is nothing right at the end of the credits… basically the dude in space Loki made a deal with at the start now believes the Human race is a formidable foe and that he may require some more power of some kind. Possibly in the form of a Gauntlet of some kind. (LOL) Ok well despite not being a complete Marvel geek i recognised this dude from a cartoon, but did have to look him up - he is Thanos and one of his storylines revolves around the Infinity Gauntlet and this is what many think, and hope is being teased as the next storyline for the Avengers, and really it makes sense as it's the kind of story that can be broken up over a few films as he tries to acquire Infinity Gems to place in the gauntlet that make him Invincible and Omnipotent.

Interesting for sure but i'm really unconvinced at how appealing this baddie is for Avengers to go up against individually, to me it really seems like he will only work in an ensemble film scenario. Maybe we'll have agents of Thanos in Iron Man 3 and the other sequels building to a face off with the Infinity Gauntlet in Avengers 2. That sounds much more workable to me. Have to say i was impressed with how much he looks like the Thanos of the comics tho.

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