Summer Movie Fest: The Avengers

This was the movie that somebody should have screwed up. Marvel had been plotting this one out for what seems like forever and the hype, the build-up and the anticipation have all been insane. In short, it had 'POTENTIALLY HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT' written all over it and a lot to deliver on. And you know what? It totally rocked.

I suspect a lot of this has to do with all around bad-ass Joss Whedon taking the helm of the movie. He pulled this off with bells on. The dialogue is peppered with the usual Whedonesque wit (which sounds extremely awesome coming out of the mouth of Iron Man) and humor while letting the characters remain well-rounded and retain a health amount of soul and humanity (another Whedon trait.) Iron Man especially shines in this movie- but I think I have to jump on the critical bandwagon and agree that Mark Ruffalo infused his Bruce Banner/Hulk with a new take on the role that makes it worth noting that there appears to be a new rule in the superhero business: the Hulk works better in carefully controlled doses. And Ruffalo's Banner is deeper, more nuanced than he predecessors in the role (Eric Bana and Edward Norton) making Banner a man who is constantly fighting- himself.

The unsung and maddeningly interesting duo in all of this is Black Widow and Hawkeye (played by Scarlett Johansson and Jeremy Renner respectively.) The hinted at backstory, the enigma of their relationship to each other is mainly played out in hints, winks and nudges- but all of that MAKES ME WANT TO KNOW MORE. I get that Black Widow and Hawkeye probably aren't going to carry a big-budget Marvel release all by themselves but maybe together? Can we learn more about these dashing pairs of assassins? Pretty please?

Thor is back in all his Viking glory, doing things with his hammer and flinging lightning around the place. It's pretty awesome- he gets to rumble with Iron Man and Hulk in turn but he's also dealing with some serious family drama- as the bad guy Loki (Tom Hiddleston) is his brother. Hiddleston is having fun with this role managing to chew the scenery with more panache that you usual find in these roles.

If there's one minor quibble I have with this movie, it's the beginning. We kind of get dropped into the middle of a kind of muddled story about the Tessarect (crazy blue cube) but you know what? It doesn't slow down the story at all- and the movie more than redeems itself with the rest of the story. (Speaking of which: the story? Basically, Loki shows up, opens a portal to another dimension that lets an invading army of the Chitauri that the Avengers have to assemble to destroy/save the world from- of which is courtesy of the Tessarect- and that's all the plot I'm going to inject into this review.)

Overall: **** out of **** Joss Whedon pulled this off which is impressive in and of itself but The Avengers is one of the finest entries in the genre of the Superhero movie. The build up, the hype and the anticipation were huge and Marvel delivered the goods. (It's going on my Amazon.com wishlist as soon as I post this.)