The Avengers Review

Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!

Plot Summary: Earth's mightiest heroes are gathered to track down the mysterious Cosmic Cube from the clutches of the Asgardian god, Loki.

Review: After temendous hype and a buildup that spanned five other films, the Avengers most certainly lived up to the promise of an incredible movie. You get everything you would hope from a big summer blockbuster: huge action, fun and beloved characters, clever and often humorous dialogue, and a thrill-ride adventure. There are quite a few battles here with many of the heroes even fighting each other. The pacing is spot on as we are never left bored and you don't notice that the film is well over two hours. I love all the members of the Avengers team, and I've always been a big fan of Captain America and Iron Man. Each character also gets quite a few chances to shine and adds something significant to the team's mission. I do wish they had included more members as the Avengers have had quite an illustrious lineup over the decades but this was enjoyable enough. With most of the characters having their own movie or cameo in another film, it definitely helped enhance the satisfaction of the team uniting. The audience has really come to know these characters over the last couple years so there was a natural flow to the film without having to delve too deeply into backstory. The actors all did an excellent job bringing these legends to life for the big screen; I must give special note to Robert Downey Jr. for not only playing Tony Stark so well, but because he practically is the character in real life. Typically I do not like too many comedic moments in my action movies, but with writers like Joss Whedon you knew the dialogue would be witty to a degree. There are so many lines that you would think would be corny but they just work and fit the tone perfectly. I only have two gripes where I wished the writers had pursued some other angle, but I think they may have intentionally held back for a sequel (which was heavily alluded to within this film). The first problem is using Loki as the sole villain. This was a wasted opportunity and, for me, took away from any tension because Loki was already single-handedly defeated by Thor; it's hard for me to imagine the team feeling threatened by a foe that one member already beat quite easily to boot. This film could have benefited from the addition of at least one new villain to spice things up even if they were a mere lackey of Loki. The other gripe is with the overly simplistic plot to "take over the world." The Cosmic Cube (called the Tesseract in film) has many extraordinary abilities and they could have done a little more with it rather than just opening a portal for aliens to invade. Eh, this is a small complaint, because it is still entertaining to see the aliens do battle with the heroes. In the end, this is a fantastic movie that is a must see if you're a fan of these superheroes. But seeing how this is one of the biggest films in history already, I'm sure everyone has watched this one by now!

Notable Moment: The second scene at the end of the credits with the group quietly eating. It is such a nice touch to such an awesome movie.

Final Rating: 7.5/10