Directed by Joss Whedon
Written by Joss Whedon and Zak Penn
The hype was up on this one. Some reviews were calling it the best comic book movie since The Dark Knight. I really didn't think it lived up to its hype. Not to say it was bad, it was very good at points. Just not great. I really wish I was more impressed with this. It just never reached that wow factor that would have made it great. It starts with S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters being destroyed by Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and something called Tesseract being very important. We proceed to see how the superheroes we've come to know over the past 4 years assemble together for the first time. They butt heads at first, which was a nice touch. They come together over the course of a few impressive action sequences and find something to avenge, setting up a massive battle in Manhattan with all the superheroes bringing something to the fight. Captain America (Chris Evans) brings leadership and heart. Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) brings wit, constant humor, and swag. Thor (Chris Hemsworth) brings some godliness (which to be perfectly honest isn't much in this story). And Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), he provides the smash. Various S.H.I.E.L.D. agents make significant contributions to the story and the action including the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg), Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders), and of course Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). The action is great, if that's your thing. The humor is a very pleasant feature of the movie. It is downright hilarious at times. The problem with this movie is the lack of surprise. As with most superhero movies, you never doubt the outcome or the fates of the characters. You know good guys win, bad guys lose but are able to regroup for a sequel. The problem with this movie is that you never really reach that point as an audience where you doubt the ability of the good guys to pull through, which is essential to make a movie like this great instead of just good. Through the whole of the incredible end battle sequence, you never reach that point where hopelessness consumes you as a viewer and you begin to think this is the one comic book movie that will finally see a win for the bad guys. You always know they're going to pull out a victory and it isn't particularly hard to see how they will pull it out. That being said, it's still a good movie with the actors pretty much getting it right, having had at least one movie (with the exception of Ruffalo) to hone their respective characters. A very nice film with incredible action, but having been the culmination of 4 years of Marvel movies, you wish it would blow the others out of the water.
Scores (out of 10)
Acting: 7.5
Directing: 8
Writing: 7.5
Overall: 6.5
