Man, I'm really late with my reviews. After grossing more than $600 million domestically and almost $1.5 billion worldwide I think you can easily call Marvel's The Avengers THE success story of summer 2012 (yes, even outshining The Dark Knight Rises and The Hunger Games). Setting up its heroes in their separate movies and teasing us with bits and parts of the greater scheme we finally get to see the showdown, years of build-up come to a conclusion and we get the ultimate superhero blockbuster.
The story (if you actually care) is that Loki, the villain from Thor, is about to attack Earth with his army and the only force able to stop him is the S.H.I.E.L.D. agency led by Samuel L. Jackson's badass Nick Fury and a team of superheroes. Simple and straightforward, the perfect setup for a film that just wants to entertain. Don't expect any brooding character studies as seen in The Dark Knight or the revamped The Amazing Spider-Man, Marvel's The Avengers is all about fun and action.
What makes this film so appealing is that it unites not just the whole cast from the previous movies (with the exception of the Hulk played here by Mark Ruffalo who replaced Edward Norton who replaced Eric Bana who replaced Lou Ferrigno) but also makes great use of each of the characters in the context of the plot. This means we see them not only clash physically but also verbally. Enter Joss Whedon, the geek king himself and director of this film. To have him helm Marvel's The Avengers initially seemed an unlikely choice. Although he has some feature film credits, he is mostly known for his work on TV, especially his shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly. Nonetheless it pays of perfectly as Whedon seemingly without any effort balances his array of superheroes and gives everyone their moment to shine.
Nonetheless what you shouldn't expect from this film is any kind of depth. This is pure popcorn entertainment and succeeds where other comic book movies had minor problems. The stakes are raised from the previous films (take your pick: Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America, they all pale in comparison) and the film builds smoothly towards its massive climax in the middle of New York City. The set pieces are enormously exciting and every time the intense action scenes are getting close to painful Transformers levels we are treated with some captivating dialogue to reestablish that we are watching more than a hollow video game cutscene.
There is exactly one thing that this film understands so much better than many other bloated CGI extravaganzas: We, the audience, care about and emotionally connect to the main characters. All the action that's going on would be worthless and tiresome if the characters were poorly written or the performances would be terrible. But luckily everyone is on top of their game: Robert Downey Jr. can probably play the cocky but lovable Tony Stark in his sleep now, Chris Evans is surprisingly fun as Steve Rogers aka Captain America and (probably the biggest surprise) Mark Ruffalo just steals scene after scene as Bruce Banner who is finally relieved from all the pseudo-depth of the two previous Hulk movies.
If you watch movies to be entertained, there is no way around Marvel's The Avengers. Check it out, it might be the biggest bang for your buck you' can get at the movies in 2012.
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