The Avengers

I was buzzing to see The Avengers when it was released last year, but I think I had quite a bit of work to do at the time and never got round to seeing it. When it was released on DVD I kept trying to find a price that was cheap enough that I could justify it. When I eventually bought it (for £5 in Sainsbury’s) I decided to keep it for the day after my exams finished, just as a little treat. Now that they have finished I have finally seen it, and I loved it.

I am a massive fan of superhero films, and love most of the Marvel characters. Recently, Iron Man has been a big favourite, and I was very excited to see how some of the other characters turned out. I was however a little bit tentative. Normally when a film has a large number of main characters they start to detract from the film a little bit. If this happens then what could have been a phenomenon turns into a bitter disappointment (remember Spiderman 3?). The Avengers deals with this problem very well. There are 7 characters featured on the majority of the promotional posters, and the film balances them out equally. There are a couple of stories going on with each character, but these are all given an appropriate amount of screen time, and instead of the film being all about one character, there is no character who plays an obviously major role to the detriment of another.

The plot is a fairly straightforward ‘bad guy wants to destroy the world as we know it’ sort of thing, but it is made to be original and so it works. Complete with an extraterrestrial threat to the freedom of humanity and an unusual source of power that the bad guy has obviously stolen to help his plot to subjugate the Earth, The Avengers has a fresh feel to it, despite the plot being a little bit old.

Now there are obviously too many main characters for me to talk about all of them in depth. Suffice to say that they are all excellent. Those actors whose characters have already had a film have not changed their style in the slightest. For example Robert Downey Jr. is every bit the same Tony Stark that previously appeared in Iron Man and Iron Man 2. Chris Evans makes Captain America a little bit different in this, but I suppose that he was frozen after the Second World War and so the world he wakes up in will be completely different to him. The Hulk/Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) is different compared to the one in the previous film, but that is only to be expected given that this is a different actor. Chris Hemsworth does very well as Thor as well. This was my first experience of Thor and I thought that his character was very enjoyable to watch. The interesting responsibility that he feels as a result of his adopted brother being the one to wreak the damage is an interesting twist and plays out very well on screen. Jeremy Renner is absolutely wonderful as Hawkeye and given that he has nothing to build on with this character. His is a character whose story plays out during the film, with twists and turns along the way. I wasn’t sure whether he was good or bad for a bit, and Renner does very well when he falls on both sides of this fence. Scarlett Johansson is fantastic as Black Widow and never feels like anything less than one of the group. Her character is one that could be quite easily forgotten about but both she and the writers do very well to make her an equal member of the team. Finally, Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury does a magnificent job of being the glue between all the characters. Before this film he had appeared in a number of the ‘prequels’ without a major role. However, here his part is much bigger and his character becomes one of the few things tying the group together. He is, as ever, magnificent to watch in action.

Another aspect of The Avengers that I really enjoyed was the special effects. With many ‘blockbuster’ films today there is a slight tendency for directors to spend most of the budget on special effects that really don’t add anything to the film. Equally, as Michael Bay shows us, sometimes special effects can actually damage a film more than enhance it. With The Avengers, Joss Whedon does a fantastic job of getting the balance just right. The special effects are not overpowering and completely work in the context of the film, rather than being there to grab the attention of the people finding clips for the trailer. The weird alien ship monster things (if you’ve seen the film you will know what I mean) are fantastically well designed, and the effects around each of the superheroes are fantastic – particularly the way that Bruce Banner changes into The Hulk. The effects for this film are so impressive that it was nominated for an Academy Award, understandably losing out the Life of Pi. It is a very impressive example of how special effects can be used well in modern action films.

If you don’t like superhero films then you should not watch The Avengers. Also, I wouldn’t advise it until you’ve seen at least one of the prequel films because otherwise you might find yourself a bit lost about who all the characters are. However, if you do decide to watch it, then you will find yourself enjoying a fantastic film that keeps you entertained pretty much from the first minute to the last. Also, after the film ends, watch out because there are two post-credit scenes. Definitely one for the action superhero fan to enjoy.