Review No. 50: The Avengers
(Originally reviewed in 2012)
FUCK YES.
You know all those good things you’ve heard about this film, it lives up to the hype and more, this right now is my favourite film of 2012 and for good reason, everything just works fantastically.
The characters are all great, they’re played just as well if not better than they did in their individual films with the exception of Mark Ruffalo who is easily the best Banner and as a result the best Hulk and Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye who just brought a smile on my face whenever he was on-screen. Even Scar-Jo brought more to Black Widow, making her smarter, stronger and able to kick even more ass while looking fantastic doing so. Of course it’ll be no surprise that Tony Stark gets the best lines but don’t worry he doesn’t overshadow anyone.
Speaking of lines this film was written incredibly well, Whedon shows his natural talent for writing and directing here and utilises both to great effect. The natural Whedon dialogue makes the less action-packed scenes great to watch because you can hear that great script at work, listening to every line whether it be funny, bad-ass or dramatic it all works fantastically.
The film strikes a good balance between different emotions, the action scenes are literally action-packed but there’s still enough room for some actually really funny moments and a dramatic part half-way through that just sucker-punches the hell out of you. But Jesus those action scenes made this film, there were a few fight scenes in the first hour or so and they’re all great to watch but the entire last act is just destruction of New York city and it will knock your fuckin socks off, it’s shot incredibly well, there’s tension, there’s explosions and there’s more than a few bits that make you want to cheer. (Hint – Listen out for ‘I am always angry’, that part almost made me punch the air) What makes the film really great is that it is a Team movie, these people are a team and they work together, there’s not just one person doing all the good work with everyone else just getting one good scene, no everyone works well and everyone kicks ass.
I don’t want to give too much away so I want say anymore apart from you need to see this film right now, it is definitely the best super-hero movie (Yes, I am saying it’s a better super-hero film than The Dark Knight) and it’s one of the best action films in years. See it, see it now.
9.5/10
By the way, do stay after the credits for an extra scene because even with the most basic comic book knowledge like I have it’s an exciting scene. You see a certain someone and when I saw them I thought ‘Is that, such-and-such. Wait a minute, holy fuck I know who that is. Oh shit this is going to be good.’
*
(Update - I initially believed Thanos to be Galactus the planet eater, happy to be proven wrong, Thanos proved much better.)