Loki, he of the golden horns who had earlier made life difficult for Thor in the movie Thor, runs a pact with an unknown race, an alien race, will help him extract his revenge, if he opens a portal for them to attack Earth. Loki does what he is told, and steals the Tessaracat (a McGruber if there ever was one), and opens a portal for the other world to attack Earth. Loki steals the Tessaract, takes a group of scientists and Hawkeye under his command, and opens up a portal that brings the aliens onto Earth.
Because this threat has never been experienced by Nicky Fury and the S.H.I.E.L.D, they come up with a new plan, set up The Avengers, a team which would have Earth’s best superheroes, and in their own words, “If they won’t be able to save it, they would at least be around to avenge it”. How, and whether The Avengers save Earth this around forms the rest of the story.
Given the movie has a wafer thin plot, it is surprising that it runs for a little over two hours, and it is also surprising that there’s not a single moment where you would want to not watch The Avengers do their stuff. There’s Iron Man, there’s The Hulk, there’s Captain America, there’s Thor, there’s Black Widow and Hawkeye.
Some fans would think that Hawk and Black Widow would get less screentime, or their characters would just be space fillers, but that is not the case. Both of them have quite a fleshed out role, when it comes to a movie that has seven protagonists, with four of them having their own movies, the Hawk and Black Widow characters have been used very well.
The best performances and characterizations is a mixed bag between Iron Man, Hulk and Loki. All three characters are so well written, that you would want to either go out and rent all the Marvel movies, just to know what these characters have been doing all this life.The best part of the movie is the dialogues. Each and every character has one dialogue that makes them the best out of the lot. There are several ooh and aah moments, and that moment where Captain America’s shield would be hit by Thor’s Mjolin is also shown in the movie.
The dialogues given to all the characters are top class, and you will certainly not want to bat an eyelid after the interview. The movie does lag a bit before the interval, but we should cut them some slack, as they had to introduce seven superheroes in a single movie. Everyone has their moments, and the movie of course tries to put a reply to some of the oldest questions in comiclore – what would happen if the Mjolnir hits Captain America’s shield, what happens Thor and Iron Man, the two singlemost obnoxious and attitude laden men meet each other – etc, etc, etc.
Loki is pure evil, while Iron Man is still the brash, flamboyant person who just saves the world because there’s nobody else that’d do it. There’s also The Hulk, who would easily fit in as one of the most confused characters in the history of the Marvel Universe. It’s Captain America and Thor with their old school concepts that add some value to the ongoing mayhem on screen.
The action sequences are pure, unadulterated fun. Though we still consider that the sequences in The Incredible Hulk were the best action sequences ever done in a superhero movie, the half an hour long battle sequence in The Avengers comes a very close second.To put it in a capsule, The Avengers is a very strong, well-made superhero movie that promises more bang for your buck than ever. If there could one thing that it suffers from, then it would be the old age discussion about how Marvel Comics characters are more or less popcorn ones, compared to the deeper, darker ones over at DC. And with both the universes being turned into movies now, the Avengers would not be the best bet for people who want some darker, more intense superhero movies.
