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Monday, May 7, 2012

Movie Review: The Avengers

Simply put, The Avengers is my new favorite film EVER.  Sorry, Braveheart; you've been dethroned.

I'm not sure what I could possibly say about this film that hasn't been said dozens of times since it's been released Friday.  I'll give it a shot, though.

The plot: Loki - the villain from last year's Thor - has been searching for a mysterious object called the Tesseract Cube.  He's figured out it's on Earth and has assembled an army to track it down.  The cube will give him a limitless source of power, one that he will use to conquer our planet.  He manages to steal it away from S.H.I.E.L.D., run by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson).  Fury knows how powerful the cube is, so he has to figure out a way to stop Loki and get the cube back.

Fury quickly decides to put together a team of superheroes to find Loki.  He uses what's left of S.H.I.E.L.D. to round up a group of pre-selected men for this team.  They track down Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, and Steve Rogers, and also work on finding Thor.  It's clear this motley crew doesn't jive from the moment they all meet one another.  Round ups like this sequence have been used time and again in movies, but this situation is somewhat unique since we've already seen all four of these guys in action on their own.  That's actually a positive about the film because we care about these characters already, instead of meeting them some or all of them for the first time at this point and trying to care about them later.

One of the other great things about this film is that while the audience can sit in awe over these guys interacting and fighting alongside one another, the film itself isn't in awe of them for the most part.  When I saw Star Wars: Episode One in theaters for the first time, I went in expecting to be in awe over seeing the Jedi in action, fighting with the Force and their lightsabers.  The problem was that the film was in awe over the same things, and so the characters and story were all constructed to suit those special effects.  The films all sufffered as a result.

Such is not a problem with The Avengers.  Sure, it's great to see Iron Man and Captain America argue with one another about whose ego is more important, but there's an actual pay off to everything in the final battle sequence.  It'd be incredibly easy for one or more characters to be overshadowed by the other heroes, but they all get roughly equal amounts of screen time throughout the film.

That brings me to one character in particular in this film: Bruce Banner.  The previous incarnations of Banner and the Hulk certainly were built over the inner struggle between the two sides of Banner's personality.  Here we get to see not only the Hulk truly rampage over everything in its path, but also how Banner can simultaneously focus its anger.  Up until now, Banner has been focused on ridding himself of the Hulk from him; and while he still lives in fear of his version of Mr. Hyde at the beginning of The Avengers, he actually gets to contribute more to the plot of the film prior to turning into the Hulk in its climax. 

Speaking of the climactic battle, it's the kind of balls-to-the-wall action sequence that has to be seen several times.  Iron Man blasts serpent machines out of the sky.  Hawkeye picks off baddies flying through the air with his bow and arrow.  Captain America and Black Widow lead the ground assault.  Thor bashes things left and right with his hammer.  And the Hulk...my God, the HULK.

The other great thing about this film is its ability to juggle the drama and tension with comedy.  There are points even during the battle sequence that are priceless, ones that had me clapping while laughing.  I'm sure I'll love those moments the second time around even though I know they're coming.

I hope by the time you've gotten to this point of the review that you've stopped reading and ordered tickets for your own Avengers experience.  If you haven't, then I beg you to do so.  It's the rare film experience that's worth not only a big screen viewing, but multiple viewings.  Enjoy.

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