The Avengers (2012)

Having been left with a somewhat bad taste in my mouth from Iron Man 2, I passed on the forthcoming Marvel films, which heralded the arrival of Thor and Captain America, with little interest.  My zeal for the "ground breaking" Avengers film, of which these were all building up to, was not as high as most.  But needing a day off from work, and not having ventured into the theater since last year's Cowboys & Aliens I thought this would be as good of time as any to give Marvel another chance.

Like most comic book portals there isn't much to the plot of The Avengers, it all surrounds aliens from another planet attempting to take over Earth lead by a stooge named Loki (Thor's brother who has major daddy issues).  He's obtained control over an unlimited power source which SHEILD was testing and has used that power source to open a portal for this alien race to come through.  The world's only hope is to bring a bunch of massive egos together and attempt to get them to fight alongside one another.

Let's get down to the nitty gritty, if you're a fan of action films The Avengers is unlikely to disappoint.  Being privy to all the prior Marvel films meant to lead up and connect to this one isn't necessary but definitely would help being familiar with some of the characters and this powerful cube they're all fighting over.  I enjoyed the film's balance of action, comedy and drama, but as expected some characters kind of fall flat in the mix.  

For me Robert Downey Jr. steals the show, which shouldn't be unexpected as he is the film's biggest star and Marvel's greatest success (not counting Spider-Man whose actually owned by Sony).  Tony Stark really shines in this hero packed atmosphere with his sarcastic wit and charm, and it worked extremely well for him.  Next the drab Scarlett Johansson, who let's face it is famous because she's incredibly hot.  These action films work incredibly well for her because acting talent very isn't the major key to success.  Black Widow was one of the few things I enjoyed about Iron Man 2, and her character doesn't disappoint here, she's given a nice opening fight sequence that easily tops her Iron Man 2 appearance and has multiple intentional shots of her curvaceous rear end in that tight cat suit.  I'm waiting for a Black Widow spin-off Marvel...

Aside from those two, for me the rest of the hero cast was okay.  Having not seen the Thor or Captain America films I was left rather un-amazed by their performances.  They had a couple sparks, a couple decent one liners but nothing really made me want to go back check out their films for the first time.  Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye was okay for his role, although it's easy to see why his character didn't get an introduction film.  And finally the Hulk, whose 0 for 2 in terms of box office successes, definitely appeared to be a crowd pleaser in the theater during the second half of the film receiving quite a few laughs and cheers from the crowd.  I've really never gotten the appeal of that character, but I'll admit aside from Iron Man he did seem to bring the laughs.

So overall, is The Avengers a masterpiece?  No. And at this point I'm not even of the mind to call it the best comic book film ever made.  But it is a class A action film, and undoubtedly will break all sorts of records.  But at this point I'm not ready to say it's better than either of the last two Batman films or Marvel's own first Iron Man film.  While The Avengers easily out-mans and out guns all three of those films combined, there's a more personal character driven aspect you always lose in these group outings, and for me that gives those solo films a slight edge.

8/10