The Avengers (2012)

Director: Joss Whedon
Story: Joss Whedon, Zak Penn
Cast: Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson  
Music: Alan Silvestri
Time: 142 minutes
Bottom-line: Impressive in most aspects; one of the few superhero films I liked

 You may like few players in the Indian cricket team, and you may like few players in the South African cricket team, and maybe few in some other team. You always see them play separately. Now supposing they were to play for the same side, you would feel pretty ecstatic right? That is exactly what The Avengers is about. All the heroes of the Marvel Universe come together for one epic battle. With an all stars team and cast, this film is almost irresistible to watch.

Ruffalo as Dr. Banner (left) and Downey Jr. as Tony Stark

Loki (Hiddleston) from Asgard is given an offer: if he can retrieve the Tesseract, a very powerful energy source, he will get an army so that he can conquer Earth. Nick Fury (Jackson), director of the espionage agency S.H.I.E.L.D has some scientists experimenting on the Tesseract, when Loki comes and steals it, and in the process converts agent Clint Burton (Renner) into one of his men. Fury decides to reactivate the ‘Avengers Initiative’, and begins to assemble various heroes: Natasha Romanoff (Johansson), Dr. Bruce Banner (Ruffalo), Tony Stark (Downey Jr.) and Captain America (Evans). While various heroes form a team (after lot of hesitation and stuff), Loki and his men try to activate the Tesseract. What follows is a battle between the good and the bad, until one of them wins.

Evans as Captain America (right) and Hemsworth
as Thor

Two things why I don’t take a liking to superhero films: one, almost anything is possible, and the viewers have to believe whatever they see; two, because there will be lots and lots of destruction, which sort of bores me. The main reason why I like Batman and Iron Man among other superheroes is because the characters are realistic: they use gadgets and not some magical powers. Here, you have Iron Man, a green angry giant, a guy with a shield made of some out-of-the-earth metal, a guy with an equally powerful hammer and an archer. Other than Burton (archer) and Iron Man, all the others have powers that are godly, so well, in that aspect the film does not impress me. However, I like the way the story brings together all the characters. The story goes very well till the fight with Loki and his army. After that, like I said, there’s just lot of destruction and lots of guys showing off their powers.

Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff 

The characters, well, there is nothing new about them. The heroes are already known to people; the movie just combines their strength against an equally powerful villain. But The Avengers had something which I don’t normally find in superhero films: excellent acting. Robert Downey Jr. was splendid in his role as Tony Stark: tons of punch lines, a lot of other funny ones, and he was perhaps the most entertaining character. I wouldn’t call this great acting, but it was certainly very stylish. In my opinion, Mark Ruffalo’s acting was very poor in Shutter Island, his previous known film, but his performance as Dr. Banner was pretty superb in this film. I also liked Renner’s acting, and Hiddleston as Loki played a very convincing villain. Some villains may lose the battle, but win the audience: The Joker and Loki are part of that list.

Jeremy Renner as Clint Burton

The visual effects were outstanding, no doubt. When it comes to making such a film, where the superheroes have to showcase their power, the effects need to play a big role. Towards the end, during that fight with Loki, the effects are really good: the wormhole and fight scenes are pretty interesting to watch, but as I said, the scenes did not impress me so much because every now and then something or the other breaks through a building, some dozen cars are flying to all parts of the street, and what not. The score was also awesome, and this gave a boost to the film.

Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury

The dialogues were brilliant. Each character has many catchy phrases and other memorable ones, especially Downey Jr. One dialogue by Downey Jr. I liked is when Loki says, “I have an army,” and Tony says, “We have a Hulk.” Another one is when agent Hill asks him, “When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?” and Tony coolly says, “Last night.” But the best one might be this dialogue he says to Dr. Banner, “I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster.”

Last but not the least: Tom Hiddleston as Loki 

To conclude, Marvel’s (and Joss Whedon’s) The Avengers is both: a good film and a crowd-puller. Big stars, who play some of the most powerful heroes (and villains) of all time, catchy dialogues, good score and a fairly good story make this film a high-octane thriller. Though this film didn’t get me any closer to liking superhero films, I admit that The Avengers was quite satisfying, among films in that genre.

My Rating: 3.5/5
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 92%