Marvel’s The Avengers (classified under the name Marvel Avengers Assemble in the UK and Ireland) is a 2012 American superhero film produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures,1 based on the Marvel Comics superhero team of the same name. It is the sixth installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film is scripted and directed by Joss Whedon and features an ensemble cast that includes Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Clark Gregg, Cobie Smulders, Stellan Skarsgård and Samuel L. Jackson. In The Avengers, Nick Fury, director of the peacekeeping organization S.H.I.E.L.D., recruits Iron Man, Captain America, the Hulk, and Thor to form a team that must stop Thor’s adoptive brother Loki from subjugating the earth.
Development of The Avengers began when Marvel Studios received a loan from Merrill Lynch in April 2005. After the success of the film Iron Man in May 2008, Marvel announced that The Avengers would be released in July 2011. With the signing of Johansson in March 2009, the film was pushed back for a 2012 release. Whedon was brought on board in April 2010 and rewrote the screenplay originally written by Zak Penn. Production began in April 2011 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, before moving to Cleveland, Ohio, in August and New York City in September. The film was converted to 3D in post-production.
Watch The Avengers online free. Watch full movie online for free. The Avengers premiered on April 11, 2012, at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California. The film received positive reviews from most film critics and set or tied numerous box office records, including the biggest opening weekend in North America and the fastest film to gross $1 billion worldwide. With a worldwide total gross of $1.46 billion, The Avengers ranks as the third-highest-grossing film of all time. The film is scheduled to be released on Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, and DVD on September 25, 2012.
User Reviews:
1) I’m not the biggest fan of the setup movies for The Avengers. I think they’re tremendously hit and miss, and not through some comic book fan need for accuracy but as stand alone films on their own merits. See, I like the odd comic book, but I’m certainly not a comic book fan. What I am a fan of is good, solid storytelling. You know – characters that evolve, logically sound motivations and tensions, good pacing, an antagonist defeated through skill rather than luck – that sort of thing. From this perspective, the setup movies fell mostly flat for me. Iron Man was fabulous fun but it’s sequel was poor. The Hulk was meh. Captain America spent far too long without any actual Captain America in it, and Thor – hmmm was just a bit of an all round mess and lacked even eye candy set pieces to elevate it.
So back a few years ago when it first became whispered in nerd circles that The Avengers was going to surface to tie all these movies together, I didn’t really get much of a sense of excitement. A few years later, as the end credits rolled on Thor, I pretty much made up my mind that The Avengers movie was going to screw up badly. If the industry couldn’t pull off a good movie with just one hero in it, how could they ever pull off one with six?
Then I heard that Joss Whedon was writing and directing and my interest rekindled. After all, I’ve seen him handle symphonies of characters before – with the Scooby Gang and the Serenity crew. If anyone could do it, Whedon could.
But still I was wary. Just didn’t want to let my expectations get too high – superhero movies are notoriously difficult to get right after all. Maybe even Whedon would screw it up.
Boy was I wrong.
I don’t think I’ve had this much fun at the cinema in years. Since the first Matrix movie in fact which was, what? Twelve years ago? (God I’m old). The Avengers had everything a good popcorn flick needs – major action setpieces, beautiful sfx, some neat and effective humor, yada yada yada. But none of that is what left my jaw on the floor. What really blew me away – and what compelled me to come here and write the first review I’ve done on IMDb in quite some time (years probably) – was just how perfectly done the script was. Every character is given their moment to shine, every interaction is perfectly in tune, this whole movie was the audiovisual equivalent of listening to a perfectly wrought symphony. Every moving part clicked into place so well that you couldn’t have taken out one single character – not even the arguably ‘second tier’ characters of Hawkeye and the Black Widow – without the whole thing coming apart.
This is no Batman or Pirates of the Caribbean, or Spider Man movie; because while those multi-protagonist movies were all quite adequate and entertaining, the characters and plots were often an out of focus mess. Not so in The Avengers. Everything clicks so perfectly I can’t even find the words to describe it. You’ll just have to go see it for yourself to see what I mean.
2) After years and years of anticipation, we finally get to see some of our favorite superheroes meet and fight together as a team. Creating a movie like this is difficult, considering that it would be hard to combine the different superheroes’ story lines and merge them into one storyline. However, Marvel pulled that off easily by strategically releasing movies over the past four years about each of the heroes to serve as prologues and create anticipation for this amazing, awesome, action-packed “The Avengers”.
In the first 45 minutes, we see what has happened to our favorite Marvel superheroes in their own respective lives. Iron Man is forced back into action when he was in the middle of a date with Pepper Potts. The star-spangled soldier Captain America has woken up from his 70-year-old frozen sleep and has a lot to explore in his new surroundings. The new fresh revamped Bruce Banner has been helping sick kids in India. Black Widow is taking a day off by taking another mission when a call from Agent Coulson requires her to return to normal business with Nick Fury. Thor comes a bit later on and we meet newcomer master archer Hawkeye.
So what’s the danger this time? It’s none other than Loki from “Thor”. To answer some of your questions, No, he didn’t die (the post-credits scene from “Thor”). So even if he didn’t die, how did he arrive on Earth when the bridge connecting the different universes has been destroyed? Apparently, Loki was saved by another alien race called the Chitauri. He offers a deal with the Chitauri leader; he will command the Chitauri army in an attempt to subjugate Earth in exchange for the Tesseract. So Loki arrives through the Tesseract (which has the ability to build portals) on Earth and starts to execute his plan.
While Loki was doing fine in the early stages of his schemes, the heroes didn’t get along so well in the beginning. As reality would suggest, the members of the team get into some fights (there’s one action-packed scene where Iron Man fights against Thor with Captain America caught in between). There’s a lot of dispute between the superheroes, much to Loki’s favor, all due to either rivalry, jealousy, suspiciousness, or many other reasons. This gives the heroes more humanity and possibly some vulnerability which really make the movie more realistic. This is just one of the highlights of Joss Whedon’s flawless script.
Joss Whedon also successfully blended the different universes of the different superheroes and made it into one film. This is rather difficult considering the natures of the superheroes. World War II to Captain America seems like yesterday and he still has a lot to catch up with (he doesn’t know who Stephen Hawking is). Thor, who is of mythological nature, is still used to Asgardian lifestyle. Joss Whedon successfully pulled this off and so the interaction between the different superheroes seem sensible, not awkward. The dialog is perfect and natural.
Perhaps the best thing about this movie is the action. By giving the characters the sense of vulnerability, the fight scenes seem more risky and more heart-pumping. While it may be heart-racing, the action scenes are also fun to watch, especially when we see the Incredible Hulk in action. The Hulk is just a mindless monster (although he suddenly becomes aware of himself towards the climax) who wrecks havoc at anything that he considers a potential threat. His role in destroying the enemies during the climax was very entertaining. That said, the climax and finale of the film was one of the best and one of the most thrilling I’ve ever seen. It offers brilliant visual effects and conjures up enough awe to satisfy anyone seeking intense sequences of action. By the end of it, you’ll be satisfied but will still be eager for more.
The performances were very convincing. Robert Downey Jr. played the role of the quirky Tony Stark to perfection. His dialog, his performance, everything about him was just perfect. Chris Evans also had a strong performance playing the role of Captain America. He was able to exploit the Captain’s inner feelings. Chris Hemsworth also did justice with Thor, Samuel L. Jackson did a commanding job as Nick Fury, Jeremy Renner played a determined Hawkeye, Scarlett Johansson played a sexy and deadly Black Widow, Tom Hiddleston portrayed a malicious and manipulating Loki. However the main star of the show was Mark Ruffalo as the incredible Hulk. He was able to portray a calm, tranquil Bruce Banner but also showed signs that Bruce Banner can, at any time, become the Hulk.
The humor is heart-warming and very well. Every now and then, there’s always a little bit of humor to cheer up the audience. While one might expect that most of the humor would come from the charismatic Robert Downey Jr., actually the humor is divided equally among the characters including Loki. Why I love this is because every character has a chance to shine and steal the scene.
“The Avengers” is a must-see and a great movie to start the summer movie season. It’s got the interesting premise, the operatic action scenes, the great jokes and many more to offer. This is absolutely one of the best, if not, the best superhero film of all time. It offers a great deal of fun for a broad range of viewers. Just get up from the couch, head to the nearest movie theater and watch “The Avengers”. It’s great and 3D is a viable option. Oh, and once the credits roll, don’t leave yet. There’s two post-credits scenes you don’t want to miss, and one of them involves the Chitauri leader.
Rating: 9/10
Final Verdict: “The Avengers” is undoubtedly one of the best superhero films of all time and is guaranteed to blow audiences away with plenty of action sequences, outstanding visual effects, a powerful script, and solid performances.
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