Monday, May 7, 2012

The Avengers Movie Review (Hulk Smash Spoilers)





Being a diehard Avengers fan from the 80’s I was ecstatic to hear that they were making an Avengers movie.  Having started reading the book since the mid 80’s and having a complete run of the comic book from issue 200 to present day with about a  whole bunch from the 100’s that are scattered around with holes that need to be filled.  So being a true fan of The Avengers comic book this movie was a fanboys dream comes true.  So did it hold up to expectations or was it a fanboys nightmare.



Well it was definitely not a nightmare.  There are not enough words to describe how awesome this movie was.  If I typed them down then this review would go on forever and people would stop reading.  So to simplify, yes, The Avengers was awesome.  It had everything you could want in a superhero movie. Action, drama and the right amount of humor. Joss Whedon made use of all the aspects in making this film and did a great job in bringing The Avengers together.   


This movie had it all and it made use of it to help bolster the strength of the movie. The action was nonstop something that commonly happens in comic books and wasn’t really in your face for the most part.   Well except for the movies climax which you expected the action to be nonstop and furious. The buildup of the drama was excellent as there were lots of things going on.  Like the buildup of how to get all those egos to work together and the point they needed to rally around to be successful and work as a team.


The comedy was perfect also. It wasn’t over the top or in your face.  It was perfectly timed and place to make the action sequences more enjoyable.  I mean the comedy was really well timed and came at the right moments like during the big fight scene at the end when the Hulk just punches Thor right after they beat up the bad guys at Grand Central Station.


Yes that is all and good but what about the story you say.  Well it was one of the best stories I have seen in a superhero movie.  Well it was loosely based on The Ultimate’s from Marvels Ultimate Universe and The Avengers number 1 from the original run.  Well at least that is where the idea to use Loki from and also the aliens they fought the Chitauri who was introduced in The Ultimate’s. Also it explains the appearance of Thanos during the post credit sequence.  This was kind of neat as Marvels Superhero movies have mirrored the Ultimate Universe for the most part.


What I really enjoyed about the movie’s story and this was my biggest worry coming into the movie was that one of the characters would be regulated to just standing around in the background and forgotten.  Well that didn’t happen with The Avengers.  All of the characters all had equal time and had plenty to do.  That was really refreshing as is the case in team movies someone gets the Checkov treatment.


Another worry I had going into this movie was Mark Ruffalo playing Bruce Banner aka The Hulk. Well my fears were relinquished as Mark Ruffalo so far has been the best actor to play the Hulk since Bill Bixby in the 70’s.  He was really good and I hope to see him in a Hulk movie pretty soon.  I also liked the time they gave to Agent Coulson.  He was really good and added some timely comic relief in the movie.  But I was really heartbroken to see him killed off.  I really enjoyed this character and he was really good in all his other appearances in the other movies.  But it did work to further the plot in killing him off.  It was his death that snapped The Avengers into action and start acting like a team. His death gave them something to rally around and a team was born.


I loved this movie.  It was everything a diehard Avengers fan could ever want in a movie about their favorite superhero comic book.  As a fan I had chills going up and down my spine and felt very in awe that what I was seeing was finally a reality.  After growing up in the 70’s to those really bad Marvel Superhero TV movies I’m glad that longtime fans have finally gotten the superhero movie that we have been clamoring for from Marvel for a long time.  So thank you Marvel and hey DC Comics you’re on the clock.  Give us that Justice League of America movie.  Marvel has just raised the bar.

Grade A+

1 comment:

  1. Nice write-up. With over billions and billions of comic book fans and Marvel practically breathing down his neck, Joss Whedon was given one job and one job only and that was to not screw this up. Thankfully, he doesn’t even come close to screwing it up and makes this one of the funnest superhero movies in recent time.

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