The Avengers (2012)

review

One of the biggest movies out this year and I might be a bit late to finally review it. I watched it a some weeks ago, just didn’t get around to writing down my thoughts on it. So what did I think of The Avengers?

This is the movie all the previous Marvel movies were leading up to. I’ve seen all of them, so Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Captain America. As I was now familiar with all the characters (not really needed if you just want to see this film, but it’s nice to know some background) I was ready to experience what this would lead to. The story is about Loki (a god just like Thor) wanting to rule the world and The Avengers getting together to prevent this.

After a big opening with lots of action it’s time to get the team together to fight the common enemy. Iron Man, The Hulk, Captain America, Thor, Black Widow and Hawkeye all need to be assembled and of course learn to work with each other. The middle part is where this takes place, all set on this big helicopter carrier. There are some entertaining conversations and jokes (liked the Galaga one), but I thought too much time was spent on this location with not enough action. I understand it’s important to show the team dynamics and the big egos arguing, but I was waiting for more action. It does deliver this in the final act where New York is under attack and the Avengers kick ass. This is what action should look like. With a lot going on director Joss Whedon manages to keep it all very clear. It’s easy to understand who’s fighting who despite the big amount of characters.

Whedon also manages to give each character plenty of screentime (although I do think Thor could have gotten a bit more) and allows them all to shine. My personal favorites were Iron Man, who seemed back to being the fasttalking billionaire he was in the first movie (and which I was missing in the second one) and The Hulk, who is great for the moments of physical comedy and who provides the biggest laughs.
One thing that did stand out like a sore tooth to me was one very short shot of a car in the middle of the frame during the last battle, which was obviously product placement and it annoyed the hell out of me.

The Avengers is the best blockbuster out right now and is worth checking out even if you are not into comic book movies. It delivers enough action and comedy to make you forget everything around you and at the end makes you want to eat a shoarma.

Score: 8

18 thoughts on “The Avengers (2012)

  1. The Galaga line cracked me up!

    I love, love, LOVE this film. It was everything I hoped it would be and then some. The dialogue is cracking and the action is amazing. The bar for comic book films is now considerably higher.

    • Yeah, it seemed like a throwaway line that didn’t make much sense, but then following up on it was funny.

      Agree that the bar has been set high for upcoming comic book movies.

  2. Glad you finally saw this Nostra, and I agree w/ your rating. It’s not perfect but darn right entertaining. I totally concur with your last line there, just have to find a place that sells a Swaharma!

  3. The Galaga line didn’t get much of a laugh any of the several times I went to see The Avengers, is it more of an American thing? I don’t know. Anyway, I thought that this movie was perfectly flawless; there were some lines that I thought were a little bit corny but it’s a comic book movie the way comic book movies are supposed to be, it was never going to be completely serious.
    All of the characters shined I thought, I would have liked to have seen more of Hawkeye. He is one of my favourites from the comic book but I understand why he wasn’t used as much as everyone else. It was great to see Tony Stark back on top form and Steve Rogers’ getting to grips with life in the modern world didn’t seem to cause too many problems with the film. And as for the Hulk, well… INCREDIBLE.

    • Well, I’m from the Netherlands and it got laughs when I saw it. It’s probably gamers who will like the reference to Galaga.

      I was very happy to see Tony Stark the way I liked him most and like you say the Hulk was incredible.

  4. I loved the Avengers – it ruined me for quite a while for other movies coming out because none of them could be as action-packed, hilarious, and emotionally involving (because of the history we all have with these characters through watching their individual movies) as this one. Granted, there also haven’t been that many great movies out recently, but I’m still waiting on the next one that will make me feel the way The Avengers did, and I think it’s going to be a long wait!

    • Yeah, other Marvel superhero movies now have to be really amazing to look good now compared to Avengers. Hope we won’t have to wait long, but we’ll find out 🙂

  5. WOW WOW WOW… what a film. I am not a huge comic book geek and I actually did not even like Captain America that much or even Iron Man 2, but this film is so much fun with the right amount of humor and action and story.

  6. Pingback: “The Avengers”: All about the superheroes « Radu presents: The Movie-Photo Blog

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