The Avengers
So here is the first movie where the core members of the Avengers are brought together. The game plan for the franchise was genius. You start off getting audiences to love each of your characters individually, in their own movies. Now those movies all have to be good enough to stand on their own, so that when you bring them together, you don’t have to devote any time to introducing the characters. We all know who they are already. That way you can get right to the story-telling and the action. But that takes time and patience, both of which the MCU has proven to have.
So that core group is made up of Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, The Hulk, Black Widow, and Hawkeye. Now granted, the only time we have even met Hawkeye was in Thor, and we only met Black Widow in Iron Man 2. But at least they were not complete strangers. We had already met the villain Loki, so that was good, too. But the cannon-fodder bad guys, the Chitauri, were new. That’s ok. We don’t really need to know much about them. They are just there to give the good guys someone to fight.
Chris Evans as Captain America is always awesome. He is so good and noble that I an always drawn to him. He’s the kind of guy we all wish we were friends with. And his super-soldier enhanced fighting skills are amazing. This is also the first time we got to see Mark Ruffalo playing the part of the Hulk, and I honestly think that though Edward Norton did a good job, I Ruffalo was better. Norton’s performance, his approach to the character of Banner, had a harder edge that didn’t work as well for a man who makes a practice of being calm. Ruffalo was more at ease when he was at ease. Black Widow, played by Scarlet Johansson, was sexy and dangerous all at the same time. The only Avenger who I think needed more back story and development was Hawkeye, played by Jeremy Renner. But then again, like Black Widow, he didn’t have any super powers. He was just a guy with unmatched archery skills, so I guess he didn’t need as much of a history as the rest of his teammates. I just want to know where he gets all his trick arrows from. Did S.H.I.E.L.D. make them for him?
So there we have our team of six fighting against Loki, who was brilliantly played by Tom Hiddleston. He was so smarmy, so arrogant. He has personality for days, making us love him, even though he is the bad guy, the God of Mischief. It never really occurred to him that his plans might fail, until the very end, when all six of the Avengers have him beaten and cornered.
But part of what made the movie so good was the script. You see, the core group didn’t really come together as a team until the final battle. Before that, they were all at odds with each other, trying to fight the bad guys on their own. They didn’t know how to cooperate with each other as a team. And who was it that brought them all together? It was Samuel L. Jackson, playing the awesome character of Nick Fury. Jackson is so cool! Sure, he used a combination of coercion and manipulation to get them to work together, but it worked, and the world was saved from Loki and his Chitauri army.
There were so many things that this movie got right, from the pacing to the cinematography, from the directing to the costume and set design. So many details were given great attention. And the various personalities of all of the heroes and villains were so well-written. And the actors really did a great job staying true to the characters established in the previous movies. My personal favorites are Thor and Iron Man. Seriously, Chris Hemsworth and Robert Downey Jr. were born to play these roles. Hemsworth has just the right blend of arrogance and nobility to bring the God of Thunder to live. And Robert Downey Jr. is so witty and narcissistic that you can’t help but like him. Who am I kidding? I like them all!
Top 10 Favorite Parts
- Loki’s arrival and the destruction of the research facility.
- Cap and Iron Man capture Loki in Stuttgart.
- Thor tries to take Loki and fights Cap and Iron Man
- The Helicarrier is revealed. So cool!
- Stark breaks into S.H.I.E.L.D. security.
- Barton and Loki (and the Hulk) nearly destroy the Helicarrier
- The Avengers defend New York from the Chitauri
- Banner changes into the Hulk and punches down one of the giant Chitauri creatures.
- The Hulk completely trounces Loki by grabbing his feet and slamming him into the floor several times. “Puny god.”
- Iron Man takes the nuclear missile to the Chitauri mother ship and falls back into the rift.