SOS MOVIE REVIEW - AVENGERS ASSEMBLE

"Never underestimate the entertainment value of, Hulk Smash."

A celebration of specialness, Joss Whedon's slick blockbuster "The Avengers" presents what may be the ultimate team: half a dozen Marvel Comics superheroes for the price of one.

Plot

When global security is threatened by Loki, “adopted” brother of Thor, Nick Fury and his team will need all their powers to save the world from disaster.

Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D, an international peace keeping agency, sets the Avengers Initiative into action.

The Avengers Initiative is a who's who of Marvel Super Heroes, with Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow all playing their part to restore peace.

 Review

You don't need me to tell you it's the culmination of a five-year plan that began with Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury taking Tony Stark aside at the end of the first "Iron Man" to tip him off as to the "Avengers Initative." There is a bigger picture, he told him -- and here it is: The be-all but not (they're hoping) the end-all of the current craze for CGI-enhanced superheroics.
 

Firstly I should say that I was pleasantly suprised by the implementation of the characters whose individual outings where less than enjoyable to me! With the exception the Iron Man films which are awesome. The rest just bored me to tears. The most disappointing was The First Avenger's outing only beaten by two Hulk outings which where outshone by a video game made for the last generation of consoles.

 

With interspersing flip one-liners, a host of larger-than-life characters and the usual flurry of fight-and-flight scenes, the film is never less than amusing. Still, it's never more than amusing either. Marvel Studios has made it a point of pride to diverge from the grim severity popularized in the DC / Warner Bros Batman films. The lightness is fun but it doesn't offer much of a foundation on which to build an epic.

 

And let's face it, there's more than a whiff of opportunism about a project that pits a defrosted World War II hero, Captain America (Chris Evans), an inventor-industrialist, Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), the pagan lightning god, Thor (Chris Hemsworth), a scientist with anger-management issues, Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), and SHIELD agents Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) against the Norse god of mischief, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and a legion of marauding aliens. In 3-D, which I was impressed by for the first time ever and easily warrants paying the 3D tax which seems to be tacked onto the already ridiculously high cinema prices.

 

The movie delivers the kind of pleasures usually reserved for fan fiction or playground stand-offs. Not surprisingly, Robert Downey Jr.'s flip, cynical Stark (Iron Man) gets a good measure of the movie's best lines, bouncing off Steve Rogers' (Captain America) boy scout idealism and Thor's guileless sledgehammer style (sometimes literally). Whedon also crafts a couple of choice scenes beautifully tailored for Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow, a far more interesting character here than she appeared to be in "Iron Man 2."

 

The films secret weapon is most definitely The Hulk. Mark Ruffalo is the third actor to play Bruce Banner/Hulk in the past decade, and even though the soft-spoken star would seem to have the longest fuse (when we first see him he's tending to the sick in an Indian slum) he's immediately both more dangerous and more fun than either Edward Norton or Eric Bana in the same role. Whedon gives him a long build up.

 

For the first hour of the movie we're invited to speculate along with his new allies just how much havoc Banner's rampaging id might cause. Then the lead comes off!

If at this point you are still wondering whether or not to see this film? I have some words of wisdom that will help you decide!

Never underestimate the entertainment value of “Hulk Smash”.

That's probably the most important lesson to be drawn here, and one that clearly hasn't been lost on the filmmakers, who have reportedly signed Ruffalo to a six-picture deal.

 Beyond that, the movie wants us to believe that these action figures have learned to play nice and work as a team -- which is good news for humanity, but maybe not so promising for the inevitable sequels. A climax on the war-torn streets of Manhattan could almost be an extended outtake from a "Transformers" movie.

This movie pull no punches (hammers, shields or smashes) and is easily one of the best comic book films I have seen in a while. All we have to do now is see how Warner Brothers and DC Comics respond with The Dark Knight Rises coming to the big screen later this year.

 Verdict

If it's a Friday Night SmackDown you're after, "Avengers" gets the job done. The 3D is very impressive and if you wanted more reasons to go see the movie and pay the extra £2 I have two for you! "Scarlett Johansson's breasts"

 Beyond that there is enough entertainment value to keep both male and female patrons entertained as well as the young and the old alike. Funny all the way through and genuine with the 3D. Go see this film while you can

 10/10 mindless, hysterical fun with explosions and miss Johansson wearing a skintight cat suit! What more could you need?

 [Big Boss's Notes]

Must agree with the review, I only saw the film in 2D but I'm not a big fan of 3D. Scarlett Johansson's breasts and ass are certainly up there with the films main assets and she is phenominal. However a couple of my own thoughts:

1ST - During the big fight at the end of the film, where does Hawkeye keep getting them arrows from? He is firing and yet the stock doesn't seem to be running out. :-/

2nd - Who came up with Captain America's costume? Why couldn't they stick to the version they used in the FIRST AVENEGER or at least a similar version. The helmet just looks a tad ... well... GAY.