Marvel's The Avengers - Film Review

Having never truly been a Comic Book ‘Geek’ – preferring Doctor Who over such things as Iron Man and Batman – it was of course with an untrained, uncaring eye that I left the Iron Man film and its sequel in the dark, never really feeling for the build up towards the inevitable Avengers. Of course, with that said I still loved Marvel’s other comic book heroes, the X Men and Spiderman; loving both for their 90’s cartoon series and the former for its first three and most recent movies (the latter’s live action movies, thus far, being kind of on the crappy side – although bring on The Amazing Spiderman!).

I can say now that what first got my attention for the latest, biggest, Marvel franchise was that of actually seeing Iron Man 2 on television and loving it for its actual believable technology, witty humour, clever(ish) plot and of course, Mr Downey Junior and Mrs Martin (aka Gwyneth Paltrow). It was with that that I went back and watched the first Iron Man film (thank god for brother and his habit of buying anything he sees on the shelf) and the rest is, as they always say, history.

Of course, it also helped that I had one truly fantastic friend who is an absolute, adorable geek of the franchise, who really helped me get up to speed on what Marvel is and what it’s about bar people in metal suits, mutants with power issues and teenagers bitten by radioactive arachnids. So when Thor came out on DVD it was on the top of my list to see, along with Captain America – the first true sign of what epic-ness the Avengers was going to be with its teasing ‘The First Avenger’ sub-title. Although this wasn’t to say that I was an immediate fan of everything in the franchise.

The Incredible Hulk; it was a must-see film and of course, part of the bigger picture to the direction of the Avengers. I had seen the 2003 film Hulk, I already knew the story in spite of it and yet didn’t feel the need. The fact that Edward Norton was such a diva when the cameras weren’t rolling wasn’t a big help in my need to see it but I was eventually persuaded to watch the film anyway and can easily say I was impressed but not overly mind-blown. It didn’t matter. I had seen everything I needed to be ready for the big screen blockbuster; I was actually excited and could easily squeal with my superior geeky friend at what was to come.

And then can the announcement of the name change in the UK from ‘Marvel’s The Avengers’ to ‘Marvel’s Avengers Assemble’. Well, the backstory behind that was because of apparent confusion in the box office because of the ‘60/‘70s television show, and it’s ’90 movie remake ‘The Avengers’, which might I add now did NOT have the word ‘Marvel’ anywhere in the title so confusion between the two would have been minimal to say the least. If I could have had a suggestion with the box office people, a much clever and fan-pleasing title would have been ‘Marvel’s The Avengers Initiative’ – yes, a bit of long but makes more sense and is less annoying than ‘…Assemble’.

Despite the random title change, this fan, and many, many, many, over the UK and across the world went to see the film and it’s easy to say that it blew everyone’s mind. Rightfully beating Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 in the first weekend (as a Potter fan too, I’m pleased) and put Joss Whedon back on the ‘God-like’ radar after his meh-ish series Dollhouse; fan’s able to see how much of a fan Whedon really is by writing the characters of the Avengers as close to their cartoon counterparts (apparently) while keeping in mind their movie personas.

The choice of casting was also something to blow the fans away. Of course we all knew that Downey Jnr, Evans, Hemsworth, Hiddleston, Jackson, Gregg, Renner, and Johansson were all returning, respectfully, but the announcement of diva Norton leaving production and the brilliant Mark Ruffalo replacing him could not have been a more brilliant choice! Ruffalo easily surpasses Norton and Eric Bana (Bruce from 2003’s Hulk) and brings such a calm, adorableness to the role that the moment he starts turning into ‘the other guy’ you suddenly question how this character didn’t scare you before, and even question why you don’t fear the character after. Even as Hulk, with stop-motion capture to get Ruffalo to play the mean green smashing machine, there’s still something sweet and caring in those dark angry eyes.

Cobie Smulders casting as Maria Hill, a character I admittedly didn’t know too much of, was also a fantastic choice, looking a lot like her comic counterpart and just perfectly kicking arse while remaining a somewhat ‘suit’ to S.H.E.I.L.D. and their staff – a much needed female presence on the film, along with Johansson’s Natasha who was much better written and portrayed than in Iron Man 2.

Now, the two twists within the movie was something of perfection. The first being Loki’s ability to change the mind of anyone his awesome-looking sceptre touches, by the changing of allegiance for both Clint ‘Hawkeye’ Barton and Doctor Erik Selvig. It’s something no one could see coming until it happened but the moment it did, it all made sense and added that little bit more emotion to bring in Natasha. The other twist within the film was something fans of the Son of Coul will never forgive Whedon for, but with a sorrow-filled heart know it needed to be done – to motivate the team into working together, for a real proper, human, cause.

The comedy aspect within the film was perfectly amazing – I bet you can easily tell me three things that made you laugh off the top of your head and these would be among them: Tony stealing Thor away just before Thor speaks to Loki (“…I’m listening.”), Coulson’s trading cards, Thor’s rushed announcement of Loki being his adopted brother, anything Tony Stark says, the appearance of a classic computer game, Bruce waking up naked, Hulk smashing the ‘puny god’ along with punching the other one off of the screen, the policemen’s questioning of Steve Roger’s authority in the situation of defending New York against the Chitauri, Rogers telling Hulk to Smash, Romanoff commenting Stark’s definition of a ‘party’ and of course, the brilliant cameo of Stan Lee denying the existence of what he made his career out of. The words following these funny moments on screen could not be heard for laughter within the cinema – that’s for sure.

Now the Chitauri! What creepy looking things are they? That whole epic battle, those few heroes against that massive army and those massive snake-like things that housed some of the army and did quite a lot of destruction themselves where hell to fight, although Hulk smashed through them quite easily hope really did seem vain, with the army keeping on coming through that really brilliantly CGI’ed portal. Selvig and Stark were the final heroes of the film, the former having subconsciously created an ‘off’ button to the Tessaract portal and the latter flying a nuke, Independence Day style, into the Chitauri’s lead ship and cutting off the power and life-support for its Earth battling fleet. Such a truly brilliant use of graphics, story, acting and skills – makes one want to have a Shawarma, doesn’t it?

With every second of that film being epic, with the build-up of the team, the differences of each member and that amazing battle in the woods, Loki’s massive ego and the comedy involved, there really is just too much to speak of and review in one so all I can now say is this: The film is awesome. It’s worthy of its box office breakthrough and those who haven’t seen it, MUST, even if you’re not a comic book fan, it is such a great production and begins and rounds itself off nicely with no massive need to have to know the backstory, although it helps to find out a bit more before seeing it. So go, get off your bums, and use that spare tenner you have sticking out of your purse or wallet and wander to the cinema and have yourself a great time! Off you go!