I love Marvel. Sure, the DC Universe has Batman and Superman, but Stan Lee has created some awesome heroes. If you haven’t read my other review of X-Men: First Class… you should! And when you have the time, watch it.
So, what’s the verdict of the mash-up of Thor, Hulk, Iron Man and Captain America? Well, the movie is exactly that: four cool superheroes (in addition to Black Widow from Iron Man 2 and Hawkeye, an epic archer) fighting to defeat Thor’s half-brother, Loki. Nick Fury, the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. has a difficult time trying to recruit these heroes when the Tesseract, an energy source of unknown potential, is stolen by Loki.
It’s a pretty simple plot, but Joss Whedon adds lots of elements to keep the audience excited. The Avengers is truly an action movie with a lot of story, but lacks some character development. Although the climax of the movie shows a pivotal moment for the heroes, I felt like the movie lacked the emotion that the original Iron Man movie had (which I found to be one of the best movies from the four characters).
The Good
This movie is action-packed and generally has awesome cinematics. I fell in love with Hawkeye, and even though he wasn’t a major character or has his own movie, The Avengers utilized this hero with Black Widow. The side-plot with these characters was admittedly the most developed compared to the main four avengers. I guess I can’t blame them, really; the heroes’ journey has already been portrayed in their own two-hour film, so fans were treated with witty comments by Tony Stark and a great portrayal of Dr. Bruce Banner by Mark Ruffalo.
The Bad
There wasn’t as much character development as I had hoped; most of it was the group’s cooperation (If I were Tony Stark, I wouldn’t want to work with a guy who wears spandex, either) and a slight insight between Black Widow’s and Hawkeye’s lives. But despite this, I found that if there was too much romance, the action-packed-ness of the movie would have been lost. So I guess Whedon (the director) had to balance it properly.
Oh, and some of the visuals were obviously computer generated. That’s just not cool, Marvel!
The Breakdown
I actually watched this movie twice (first time in 2D, then 3D). And I didn’t understand certain parts until I read this article (spoiler alert), so this movie isn’t just 100% action. I think it’s great for Marvel fans (movie or comics) and even non-Marvel fans; I’m pretty sure after this movie, people would want to watch the Avengers’ exclusive movies (except for Hulk, because… yeah). Oh, but I want to let you know: the beginning is mostly about Captain America, then it’s mostly about Iron Man… then it’s still mostly about Iron Man.
Was it Better…
In 2D? Yes. The 3D was good at first, but there were a lot of parts that seemed too blurry… and it wasn’t just because of my poor eyesight. My friends witnessed this problem as well; and some of the blurriness wasn’t even because there was action going on!
Than X-Men: First Class? That’s debatable. This movie had cooler action scenes, but X-Men had more character development, cameos and politics… so personally (and since I like the series more), I’d pick X-Men, despite its hideous costume for Beast, and the strange cast of superheroes (really, a girl with butterfly wings?!), The Avengers is still missing something that the X-Men has.
Verdict
Plot – 8.5/10
Characters – 8/10
Visuals – 7.5/10
Music – 8/10
Total – 8/10