The world of Marvel is far more fantastic than that of DC, fantastic in terms of fantasy, of space-age sci-fi, gods, magic and the ridiculous ideas of comic book men who create alternate worlds to recreate themselves in images the could never fulfill in reality. Their greatest achievements join forces in the Avengers Initiative to blend all of these fond dreams into one crack team to combat the forces of evil on an epic scale. It is nerdy inadequacy combated and put to the challenge of reaffirming the power of the imagination.
In our story, which has been building up for many past superhero movies from Marvel with super-spy Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) collecting incredible people for his project, the world is threatened by an intergalactic army from Thor's birthplace. In a dazzling opening sequence a power source with the potential to generate unlimited, self-sustaining energy is stolen by the evil Loki (Tom Hiddleson), Thor's brother, with the intent of opening up a portal to his world to unleash his terrible forces. A god, like his brother, his wields a staff able to control the minds of others which he uses to capture nuclear physicists for his goals, including Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner).
In a panic, Fury scourers the globe to collect his somewhat reluctant fighting force including the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) while later taking on Thor (Chris Hemsworth) who seems to tag along on his own. These people, which their special abilities and unique personal attributes are called on to close the portal, which inevitably opens, and fight off the army that wishes to enslave humanity.
Pretty generic plot. But then I don't expect that anyone going to see this film is expecting anything more. Looking at the row of young men sitting in front of me I'm fairly certain that through half of the film they had some sort of adrenaline-induced, homoerotic erection from the amount of head-pounding explosions and muscle men beating each other into a pulp. Frankly, the most exciting battle sequences were not those between the good and bad guys, but amongst each other. And what 17 year old boy doesn't secretly hope that two ripped men in spandex and capes are going to pommel one another and then act as though it never happened?
Looking at the film and really trying to take in the scale of it all I was absolutely stunned by what I was seeing. Logistically this film seems a titanic feat of money, creativity and planning--something that I really feel must have been a monstrous undertaking. Not only were at least six plots being unraveled at once (small though some of them might be), this film was also dealing with some of the biggest names in Hollywood, working on dazzling special effects, a final battle scene that was roughly 40 minutes long and all the while this film works. It works well.
There are some incredible plot holes that I doubt even the most avid fan would be willing to overlook such as the ridiculous way four people of different intellects and skill sets were able to breach S.H.I.E.L.D., and the fact that this apparently very advanced race of alien beings were using their version of war-elephants to fight their "glorious" battle, but as far as shear entertainment value this film cannot be beat.
However, what I could not wrap my mind around was the reasoning for the war. Loki is at times a terrifying villain, and others a wimpy cur. According to him he was jealous for the fact that he was robbed of his rightful throne of Asgard. Therefore he decided to wage war against Earth and enslave humanity to spite Thor. There were hints that the battle began in order to quell human advancement technologically, the theory being that if we have a power source with the capability to open a wormhole then we would use it for just that purpose, right? But why wage war? My thinking is that if these people are gods and they do have unlimited power why not simply steal the power source and return home keeping us on our planet? Or, instead of conquering by force which never works (a nice Nazi reference was made), could these gods not simply do like the aliens in "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and demonstrate their power on a global scale while keeping the humans alive? Further, if they did that they would only need to take care of the Avengers in which case they would not need to open a wormhole to begin with and would simply send down the other immortal gods to do the bidding. I doubt that Iron Man's suit of armor could contend with that very well. But these are digressions and unimportant.
The effects in the film are outrageously good. From the colossal fight sequences to the smallest details like the CGI-implanted reflection in Downey Jr.'s eyes were really outstanding. The people developing the sets and props were absolute geniuses. It is one thing to make something a reality with a computer, but the idea behind it is almost equally as important. I would be stunned if this film was not nominated for best art/set design because they are flawlessly slick and cool.
The cast was great. Downey Jr. was the best as he usually is, but Mark Ruffalo in a disarmingly understated performance was able to upstage him. His work, though minor, as Bruce Banner a.k.a. the Hulk was thoughtful and at times very sad, but he didn't play for sympathy which was lovely. Jackson was also very good though Fury wasn't much of a role to play. Still, he looks pretty bad ass with an eye patch and a pistol which is good enough for me.
The film is loud, stupid, exhilarating and tons of fun. As far as getting bang for your buck there is nowhere better to go. This is not some revolutionary comic book movie like "The Dark Knight" or "Spiderman 2", but it aims to please and please it does.
3.5/4
*Note: I saw this film in 3D which I only slightly recommend. The final battle scene was shot outdoors and was done expertly, but through the first half of it the colors were duller and sometimes muddled. I would suggest seeing it on the biggest 2D screen you can find to maintain the vibrancy while achieving the same thrill-ride effect.
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