Director: Joss Whedon
"There was an idea to bring together a group of remarkable people, so when we needed them, they could fight the battles that we never could." - Nick Fury
Synopsis: A group of superheroes are brought together by S.H.I.E.L.D. to form The Avengers to help save the Earth from Loki and his army.
Sequels and spin-offs to popular franchises rarely work. Take Predator 2 for example. Made about 3 years after the original, Arnold Schwarzenegger said in his biography that it was made for around the same budget as the original, and it fell flat. He feels that if they had doubled the budget, it would have been more popular than the original, he would have starred in it and it would have done better at the box office. But they didn't, it wasn't, he didn't and it didn't. For The Avengers, Paramount Pictures and Marvel threw enough money at the project to make it very good.
The film takes place a few months after the events of Iron Man 2, Captain America, The Incredible Hulk and Thor. The Tesseract, found by Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) at the end of Captain America is activated while in a secret S.H.I.E.L.D. test facility, and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) comes to Earth in preparation for the Chitauri invasion force. In seeing the trailer for this film, I was glad to see the original actors reprising their roles from the original films, although a bit disappointed to see that Edward Norton did not return due to contract issues.
Robert Downey Jr. performs his usual sarcastic tongue-in-cheek role of Tony Stark to a T. Chris Evans returns in his role of Captain America, a bit bewildered by everything that has changed in the 70 years he was frozen although I was glad that the director decided not to go into too much detail. There is deleted scene on the DVD and BluRay edition that shows Steve Rogers visiting his Captain America love interest Peggy Carter (played by Hayley Atwell), who is now in her late 70's. Chris Hemsworth is enjoyable again in his role as Thor. Mark Ruffalo has taken over the role of Dr Bruce Banner, AKA The Hulk quite well, portraying the brilliant scientist with extreme anger management issues. A bit of a surprise character and role change is Cobie Smulders, (usually seen as Robin Sherbatsky on How I Met Your Mother) who plays Nick Fury's second in command, Agent Maria Hill. Smulders has turned out to be feisty, good with a handgun and dishing out orders.
The action in this film barely lets up. But Joss Whedon has done very well at balancing the action and dramatic scenes. He is also no stranger to science fiction, with his Firefly TV show and follow up movie Serenity having a very big cult following. As most of his TV shows get cancelled, (except for Buffy and Angel) its nice to see Whedon moving up in the world.
This film is all I could have hoped for and more. The special effects are fantastic, the story line is very good, and there is a good balance between humour (one-liners like Scarlet Johansson's "I don't see how that's a party..") and drama throughout the film. A sequel, written and directed by Joss Whedon is scheduled for release May the 1st, 2015.
Favourite scene: The Hulk has just single-handedly taken out a flying Chitauri troop transport creature; the Chitauri invasion force realise The Avengers are a force to be reckoned with: "That's my secret, Cap, I'm always angry..."
Note: Watch out for the teaser for a sequel at the end of the initial credits, and the restaurant scene at the end of the credits!
My rating: 8.5 / 10
The Avengers is available on DVD and BluRay at all major DVD stockists.
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