An all-star team worth of superheroes battles a godly foe in Marvel’s mega-blockbuster, THE AVENGERS.
A highly powerful and dangerous energy source has slipped into the wrong hands. Thor’s adoptive brother, Loki, a Norse nemesis seeking to strip mankind of their free will has seized the energy source.
A secretive international peace keeping organization titled S.H.I.E.L.D has been monitoring superheroes worldwide, knowing that someday their services might all be needed to stop a great evil. That day has come, and S.H.I.E.L.D director Nick Fury, played by Samuel Jackson, has put in motion a recruitment team to bring together Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hawkeye, Black Widow and scientist Bruce Banner in an effort to thwart Loki’s plan to overtake the world.
THE AVENGERS has been hyped as the superhero movie of superhero movies. With a cast of comic book heroes who have carried their own blockbusters in summers past, there’s little doubt that aligning these popular heroes and heroine into one film was bound to be a gigantic hit.
In spite of the wonder in seeing Thor, Captain America, Hulk and Iron Man share the screen together, THE AVENGERS feels more like a superhero highlight reel than a complete comic book movie. A lot of the film is devoted to obligatory mano y mano match-ups between the superheroes. This would seem like a grand idea, every comic book fans dream, but instead the scenes play more like a comic book celebrity death match, with little at stake.
Without a real sense of drama, tension or suspense, THE AVENGERS almost coasts by on the visceral visuals from the film’s action scenes, and the well-written banter between the team of talented misfits.
All of the performers are game for the material, particularly Robert Downey Jr. as Ironman, cracking one-liners off the naïve nature of Captain America, the ignorance of Thor and the repressed anger brewing inside of Bruce Banner.
THE AVENGERS is a terrific concept, but one which doesn’t quite satisfy, with a script that pulls one from one superhero to the next, and never captures the excitement or interest in any of them.
THE AVENGERS is a terrific concept, but one which doesn’t quite satisfy, with a script that pulls one from one superhero to the next, and never captures the excitement or interest in any of them.
Grade: C+
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