Movie Review: The Avengers

I generally don't go to the movie theater much, as it's too expensive and there's really not many good movies that are worth seeing nowadays. However, for my birthday, I went with my family and a small group of friends to see "The Avengers."


WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD


"The Avengers" takes place at some point after all the other movies (i.e. "The Hulk," "Iron Man," "Iron Man 2," "Thor," and "Captain America") have taken place. Thor's adopted brother Loki shows up at a S.H.I.E.L.D. base and steals the tesseract, also converting Erik Selvig and Hawkeye/ Clint Barton to serve him. Nick Fury then begins assembling Captain America, Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, and Black Widow to get the tesseract back. Thor ends up joining the team when he tries to convince Loki to stop his ambitions to rule over mankind. The Avengers team must learn to put up with each other and unite to bring down Loki and his alien army.


I must say that the movie was very, very enjoyable to watch. The characters were good and, generally speaking, portrayed very well. I'm still not fully into Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/ Hulk, and I wasn't overly impressed with the Black Widow's character either. I liked Hawkeye's brief cameo in "Thor," but he spent half of this movie as a bad guy and wasn't seen around much until the last battle in New York City. I did enjoy Chris Evans as Captain America, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, and Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man. What made the characters really memorable, to me, was their interactions with each other. The Avengers team all have their different personalities and abilities, which often set them at odds with each other but makes for good, realistic entertainment. Tom Hiddleston as Loki was also very good. Loki, since "Thor" the movie, has grown more darker and creepier, and the actor does an excellent job of pulling off a good, worthy villain.


The plot itself was good and pretty easy to follow, though I'm still trying to figure out Loki's motivations for his captivity (I'll probably understand it after a second viewing of the film or if I watch the movie with captions- I'm a bit shameful about my use of captions). Joss Whedon did an excellent job of making the film darker than "Iron Man" and "Thor" but adding plenty of humor to lighten it. Even though I'm only familiar with Whedon's work on "Firefly" and "Serenity," he has a good sense of humor and did an excellent job on directing as well as writing the screenplay. The visual effects were also very good, and plus, you get to see New York City destroyed for the billionth time in cinema history.


In conclusion, the movie was very enjoyable and definitely worth seeing in theater. I saw it a few days ago and am already itching to see it again. I will say, though, the plot and characters are easier to understand if you see the Avengers set-up movies like "Thor," "Captain America," "Hulk," and "Iron Man" ("Iron Man 2" didn't really add much to the story, except for the introduction of Black Widow, but that was about it). So, if you're a big Marvel fan or just looking for an enjoyable action-adventure movie, this one is for you.


I give the movie four out of a half stars.