To give a little history behind how The Avengers came to be, one has to go back a few years to the release of Iron Man in 2008. After the end credits of the first Iron Man movie, there is a scene where Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), the director of a governmental peacekeeping organisation called S.H.I.E.L.D, confronts Tony "Iron Man" Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) about putting together a group of superheroes, called "The Avengers Initiative". So, between 2008 and 2011, several superhero films based on Marvel Comics have hinted at the upcoming film of The Avengers and which superheroes will play a part in the final picture. So, films such as The Incredible Hulk (2008), Thor (2011) and Captain America (2011) introduced us to Bruce Banner and his alter ego, the green, 10-foot rage monster, The Hulk, Steve "Captain America" Rogers and Norse Demigod, Thor; all of whom would become heroes in The Avengers.
With a history as long and drawn out as that, it is good that the plot is fairly simple for a franchise starter. When villainous Loki (Tom Hiddleston), who was banished from his home world of Asgard at the end of Thor, launches an attack on Earth, it is up to S.H.I.E.L.D director Nick Fury to reassemble his ragtag team of superheroes to save the world. Amongst the super-people picked are Captain America (Chris Evans), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Iron Man, Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo, replacing The Incredible Hulk's Edward Norton), whose constant self-loathing keeps the monster within from emerging at an inopportune time.
It should be noted that the main motivation behind the inception of this movie is to milk any last drop of profit out of each of these respective heroes' franchises as possible. However, there is nothing wrong with making a movie intended to make money if it is well handled, which is especially tricky when there is no star to shoulder the responsibilities of a leading man. It is to director Joss Whedon's credit that it is pulled off so well, taking the various threads that made each hero work in their own films and teasing out something witty and charming about each of them. It could have easily centred on Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man, as he is the most famous actor in the film, and plays the most popular character in the group. Thankfully, Whedon is a talented filmmaker and his history as a writer-producer-director for television gives him a good eye for raising particular characters and actors just enough to let that particular performer shine, without letting their presence overwhelm the story. Think for example of Firefly, or its feature-length spin-off Serenty, both of which had a large ensemble cast which Whedon managed to pull off with wit and energy.
Whedon's deft direction and wittily written script and the unselfish ensemble acting do much to bring their characters to life. Each playing their character with all the charm and charisma that they brought to their own films, the only difference being that they now must do so as a supporting-player, as there is no singular lead in the picture. Chris Evans plays Steve Rogers earnestly, with a touch of the "noble war hero" that he had in Captain America. Chris Hemsworth plays Thor with all the swagger he had in Thor, except now he has a greater emotional weight as it is he who banished Loki and made him thirsty for revenge. Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark is just as dry and witty as we remember him, and he gets some great interplay with the overly sincere Captain America, who takes offence to Tony Stark's sarcasm and seeming lack of interest in the fate of the world.
However, the standout, for me, was Mark Ruffalo. In many ways, he has the most difficult task out of the four lead heroes. Firstly, he is the only cast member who has not played the character before, as he was a last minute replacement for Edward Norton. Secondly, whereas Norton played Bruce Banner as a desperate man looking for a cure, Ruffalo plays Banner as a man filled with self-loathing and a grudging realisation that he is in constant danger of turning into a beast. If his anger were to tip-over, he would turn at any point, meaning he has become immune to things which would try the patience of most people, such as being teased or prodded. It is a very subtle performance, and it is arguably the best representation of this character yet, which I believe has been mishandled in his previous incarnations. It is especially impressive as Ruffalo performed not only Banner's scenes, but Hulk's scenes, with the help of a motion-capture suite and some state of the art CGI technology.
Perhaps the best thing about The Avengers is its pace, as it did not feel overlong, even with a two hours and twenty minutes running time. Instead, it seems to zip along, giving each character a fair share of one-liners and character moments. It also creates the giddy, childlike feeling of reading a new comic book, or watching a new episode of a Saturday morning cartoon. It is bright and charming, instead of artificially dark and brooding, which seems to be the way that the majority of comic book adaptations are going these days. That is to say, whereas Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, earned their adult content, many comic book adaptations, like 2009's Watchmen, felt like they were dark simply for the sake of it. Of course, there are adult themes in The Avengers, but they are handled in such a way that a child of 11 or 12 could understand them just as well as the parent accompanying them. On that note, much of the colouring and brightness can attributed to director-of-photography Seamus McGarvey, production designer James Chinlund and the many art directors and members of the visual effects team, who are far too numerous mention by name. I believe it is down to them that the climactic battle seemed, for the most part, exciting and fresh, and not like the same old dull battle scenes we have seen countless times in Michael Bay's Transformers franchise.
However, it is not all good. Most of the plot revolved around a source of energy called The Tesseract, which is a cube shaped objected of seemingly unlimited power. When it is activated, it opens a portal through space, which Loki, and later Loki's army, enter. This, as most people may have figured out, is a MacGuffin, which was a term popularised by Alfred Hitchcock to describe an item which everyone is chasing; and it is not a very good MacGuffin at that. Compare this to, for example, the statue of the falcon in The Maltese Falcon (1941), and you will see how much this pales by comparison. On top of that, I felt that Tom Hiddelston's Loki was fairly limp as a villain, and his CGI army of aliens were pretty indistinguishable and lacked characterisation. I realise that the first film in a franchise, which traditionally has the most easily defeatable baddies, but I really felt that Loki being pummelled into the ground by The Hulk was a fairly weak comeuppance, as hilarious as that scene was. Concerning the heroes, I never felt that Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye or Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow were particularly impressive, in fact they were largely forgettable. This is partly due to the script not giving them enough to do, but mostly, I feel, they were slightly miscast. Although, Johansson did show that she could be more impressive in future instalments, as she was particularly impressive when recruiting The Hulk or interrogating Loki by using reverse psychology. She owned those scenes with intelligence and grace.
Granted, these are minor of imperfections, and for the most part these could be improved upon in future instalments, they were just a little bit distracting. Also, fans of character actors may get a kick out of seeing cameo appearances by Powers Boothe, Harry Dean Stanton and Jenny Agutter; I know I did. I will say that, ultimately, it did not live up to the hype put upon this super-hero mashup, and newcomers to the franchise may be a little lost, but it is an entertaining summer blockbuster which manages to achieves the majority of its objectives. It is a good piece of action entertainment, but little more, and in the end, that is all it is intended to be.
8/10
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