The Avengers – Review

Marvel takes its first big step at tackling a large scale superhero collaboration. With boundless classically entertaining action sequences and fun character interactions, The Avengers offers viewers blockbuster entertainment at its absolute best. But does it still hold up today?

The Avengers follows the story of multiple super-powered individuals teaming up to take on a larger threat none of them could face alone.

This film had done what many other superhero films had never achieved – taking standalone heroes from their own films and “worlds”, then cramming them together and throwing them into a situation where they must work as a team. Above all, ensuring that each character got the screen-time they deserved and that their core personalities remained unhampered was one of vital conditions for this film to succeed. The Avengers does just that, supplemented with the use of Tom Hiddleston reprising his role as Loki, he stands as the big baddie of the film, with his twisted personality and an intent towards breaking the Avengers apart. This was an appropriate way for the story to be built upon, as each hero must come to their own sense of maturity and work together to take down the threat.

Pacing in this film did have its misgivings though, as some of the story arcs had a tendency to drag before they got interesting – much of the second act of the film felt tedious as it was based entirely in an airborne ship, eventually it begins feeling cramped and it’s a breath of fresh air when the third act begins in an open city.

With roles from Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth and the new addition of Mark Ruffalo, you get lots of on-screen chemistry and back-and-forth between colliding personalities throughout the film. The especially strong performance from Mark Ruffalo felt natural, working narratively with characters like Tony Stark, as they share common interests. Scarlett Johansson and Jeremy Renner work nicely as a unit, as Renner (Hawkeye) is put under the influence of mind control to work against the Avengers this helps add an additional piece of complexity.

This film stands as a giant in terms of visual quality and high scale epic battles, utilising interesting and often breathtaking camerawork alongside its detailed action sequences. Many of the sets felt well-made and when the fighting began it looked damn good with a thoroughly well-made soundtrack to back it up.

While this film is no doubt a joyride of action with relatively consistent pacing, the story itself doesn’t quite bring out many emotional moments for audiences to indulge in. Characters have their moments but they never truly hit that psychological note that allows viewers to really relate with the hero behind the screen. The Avengers was fun, loud, and did its job by entertaining you right till the end.

7.7/10