Rating: Country: United States Release Date: May 4, 2012 Distributor: Marvel Studios Director: · Joss Whedon Cast: · Chris Hemsworth · Robert Downey, Jr. · Mark Ruffalo · Chris Evans · Scarlett Johansson · Jeremy Renner · Samuel L. Jackson · Tom Hiddleston · Cobie Smulders Related Sites: · Official Site · IMDb: Marvel's The Avengers Grade: A+

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You know that a movie gets things right when you search madly for another person who was crazy enough to stay up until three in the morning just to see it so you can gush about every aspect about it. For comic book fans, superhero fans, and movie lovers in general, “Marvel's The Avengers” is an absolute fever dream, containing as much awesome as could possibly fit into a single movie. Its release has been perfectly built up through nearly half a dozen other Marvel titles and well-kept information. When it was announced that Joss Whedon would be directing, fans veritably freaked the hell out, and justifiably so. His penchant for character development and snappy, pitch-perfect dialogue made him an excellent choice for bringing together these distinct and distinguished personalities. If you can’t tell already, I’m letting you know that the movie is good. More than, good, in fact; it’s incredible.

The film follows the eponymous Avengers, who, before this point, were mostly separate from each other. Each one was in a previous Marvel film (though Black Widow and Hawkeye were simply minor characters in the adaptations they were in), so it’s incredibly useful to have seen those movies before going into this new superhero-fest (oh, and there’ll be some spoilers for those movies if you haven’t seen them). Anyway, the film starts in a SHIELD base, where Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg), and Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) are studying the Tesseract, a powerful Norse artifact that Captain America retrieved at the end of the film he starred in. Subsequently, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) shows up and pretty much ruins everyone’s day by stealing the Tesseract and allowing a massive intergalactic portal to suck the SHIELD base underground. It’s a flashy start and there’s even something I have to leave out of that description that the previews have been wonderful about not spoiling. Also, you may have noticed this already, but this movie has a pretty phenomenal ensemble cast; I bet that you recognize two or three of the last six names I threw out there, and that’s without any official Avenger. That’s part of the fun of the movie; seeing each member of this substantial cast interact with one another and geeking out over even the smallest inclusions. For any fans of NBC’s Community (which I will be reviewing once this season is finished, and which NBC really needs to renew for a fourth season), there’s literally a 20 or so second long scene in which Lucca (played by Enver Gjokaj, who is probably better known as Victor from Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse, but I’m too big of a Community fan to recognize him from anything else) is a police officer who has exactly one line, and I just freaked out. Jeff hit upon this point in his review, as well; not necessarily with the whole Community angle, but rather regarding the fact that this movie is a piece of pure fan service, and it will keep fans of superheroes giddy with excitement.

Arguably, the greatest thing about this film is its dialogue, and the way that it deftly solves the challenge of bringing all these dissimilar heroes together for the very first time. More than half of the movie is the Avengers (which, by the way, consists of Captain America, played by Chris Evans, Iron Man, played by Robert Downey, Jr., Thor, played by Chris Hemsworth, Hulk, played by Mark Ruffalo, Black Widow, played by Scarlett Johansson, and Hawkeye, played by Jeremy Renner) being split apart or not getting along in the slightest. In fact, some of the best fights in the film are simply Avenger on Avenger, but more on the action scenes later. Whedon’s trademark ability to brilliantly and subtly characterize his characters is at work here, and this makes every single line of dialogue memorable and profound in some way. Thor and Loki’s relationship is sold so well that people who missed “Thor” should be able to pass on it (I wouldn’t recommend that course of action as I think it’s the best Marvel/Avengers lead-in film), which isn’t even taking into account how menacing and downright creepy Loki can be around any other character. This is probably the best incarnation of Bruce Banner/The Hulk in a film both due to the genuinely emotional impetus Bruce has to control the beast within him and due to the fact that his action scenes are the bomb. Captain America and Tony Stark are the most frequent foils to each other, however, and it’s pretty clear from their general demeanors why this might occur. It makes it all the more satisfying in the final battle when each of these characters truly has to depend on one another as well as help each other out. It’s a wordless way of showing that the conflicts that once plagued the group have been overcome, and it’s a delightful thing to see unfold.

Now for the action. HOO BOY. In regular conversation, I might just keep telling someone, “It’s so good. It’s so good. It’s so good,” all while giggling because I’m remembering all the scenes where Hulk smashes (we get three of the best smashes I’ve ever seen from the Hulk, as well as a wonderful Nigel Thornberry .gif that can be found here). The first time I saw the film, I was too shocked by all the crazy awesome stuff on screen to really pay attention to the truly excellent choreography in the two major action set pieces, but on the second viewing, it stood out exactly how well every single bit of action flowed. There was an unbelievably cool one-camera shot during the final battle (which, I should mention, is the one you see in the previews with the alien monsters in Manhattan) which panned one-by-one to each Avenger as they were kicking alien ass throughout the entire city. As I already said, Hulk is probably the standout action-wise, but I was also pretty impressed by Hawkeye and Black Widow, mostly due to the fact that they seem a little underpowered when compared to their teammates, which include a scientifically enhanced super-soldier, a guy with a ridiculously-powerful robot suit, a giant green thing with indestructible underpants, and a demigod, but through the magic of Joss Whedon, even they feel important and entirely crucial in the grand scheme of things.

Most of the time, I can’t tell this early in the year if something is going to be an absolute favorite of mine, but for the time being, nothing is going to beat “The Avengers” in terms of sheer entertainment value and undeniably skillful execution. I don’t have any problem with saying that this movie is as close to perfect as I imagine it can be. “Prometheus,” “The Dark Knight Rises,” and “The Hobbit” have their work cut out for them, and with a team like this, I wouldn’t be surprised if I dub this my Movie of the Year.