So this is what all those movies led to huh? Gotta admit I'm impressed.

An experiment is taking place inside of a S.H.I.E.L.D. base where the scientist are working on harnessing the power to an artifact called the Tesseract on Nick Fury's (Samuel L. Jackson) order. They unknowingly open a dimension that releases the God of Evil, Loki (Tom Hiddleston). After a brief battle, Loki takes the artifact and leaves Nick Fury with no choice but to activate the Avengers Initiative, which gathers a team of super-powered or highly skilled beings. Together they try to put a stop to Loki's plan. -summary

It has been really good to be a comic book fan over the last ten years or so. Being able to watch the superheroes I loved throughout the years finally make that long awaited transition from comic to film has paid off more times than it has let me down; with that said, I really had high hopes for this movie coming in, and it didn't leave me let down at all. We finally got to see the result of 4 years worth of planning through 5 movies; Ironman, Ironman 2, The Incredible Hulk, Captain America, and Thor. These movies set the foundation for The Avengers (2012) directed by Joss Whedon , and I feel this movie was so good I can go back tomorrow and watch it again. Whedon did a spectacular job making this movie which is clearly summer-blockbuster material. It's action-packed fun with comedy that actually hits the mark leaving out the completely mindless bullshit. I hope Michael Bay finds the time to take some notes.

I had one major fear coming into this movie, and it was getting all of these actors who have enjoyed solo success in their own movies leading to this to jell. This could have easily been a problem with huge egos in one small room,  thus, becoming a one man show. Thank the comic book gods it starred no one with the last name Berry. Whedon did a splendid job in making everyone feel important. There was a good amount of character development that allowed the characters to grow on the audience. It was a very smart move to not heavily rely on the solo movies, since I'm sure not everyone has seen them.

The movie doesn't completely rely on its action scenes, but they are too awesome to look over even if they did. There was action galore and the PG-13 limits were pushed to the extreme. The audience will be treated to a little bit of blood here and there, loads of hand to hand action from martial art specialist like Captain America (Chris Evans) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), plus monster-slugging mayhem dished out by Marvel's premier monster Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), along with Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Ironman (Robert Downey Jr). The special effects put together some really cool laser-driven backgrounds with all out superhero vs. supervillain chaos. Everyone gets a chance to shine and you get those obvious superhero vs. superhero match ups. Whedon probably stumbles a tad bit with the fan service in which I will address later, but he delivers well enough. The set pieces had some fantastic moments with the S.H.I.E.L.D. heli-carrier grabbing my attention the most.

These type of movies could easily be damaged with formulaic plots that give off a lackluster feel. The Avengers for the most part does have a formulaic plot, which follows the team working together to prevent Loki from unleashing an army of aliens onto the Earth. However, it's nowhere near lackluster as Whedon knows how to make it fun. The character interactions have numerous stand out moments, and the comedy blends in incredibly well and never feels forced; to include, the movie didn't have to resort to very cheap potty humor jokes nor worthless jive talking characters. This is something Bay couldn't pull off to save his corny-ass life.

Now I know The Avengers is going to be compared to Nolan's 2008 Dark Knight (I already seen reviewers doing it). In the minds of many, that will always be the comic book movie to beat. In my mind, it was never the movie to beat but that's another story. The thing I noticed here was this, Nolan's Batman movies were far too cerebral for comic book movies. They also had long runtimes hitting around the 140 minute mark, with Dark Knight being about 150; they indeed felt that long and on rewatches I can feel every minute passing by. The Avengers clocks in at 143 minutes, and it felt like 90 minutes to me. The reason it had this effect on me is because it was a fun and thrilling ride that did not try to be more than a superhero movie. It did implement thought-provoking content in the form of our world feeling the need to protect itself. However, Whedon didn't forget that these characters wore mask and capes, so he stayed in that realm for the most part forsaking the soapbox politics. While I know for sure I can see this movie again and it more than likely won't become any less appealing, I can't say that about Nolan's Batman movies.

The movie tries hard to deliver to the comic fans. It's pretty much based on the Ultimates story arc Gods and Monsters, and it mainly features elements from the Ultimate Marvel Universe. There are traces to be found in the original Avenger series, such as Loki's actions being pretty much responsible for the formation of the Avengers. The only issue I can think of falls in the characterization and this is actually a small gripe; such as Iron Man taking Hawkeye's (Jeremy Renner) place as the wisecracking guy. But even as a fan of the comic, I can't see this as a major blow against it since it created some fun moments, plus the animated series chose this route as well.

For the most part, Whedon did get the characters down; Captain America displayed that take charge attitude, Thor still felt God-Like, to include he knew Loki had to be taken down yet he wanted to reason with him first. And although Loki wasn't as great as he should have been; he still carried over traces as the God of Mischief and Evil, and his sorcerer abilities were given a decent enough showcase. He also didn't feel like a stock badguy, and he was far more tolerable than Doctor Doom from the Fantastic Four and Red Skull of Captain America. I felt the acting was spot on and everyone delivered in their roles. And this time around, I enjoyed Jackson a lot more than I did in Ironman 2. He felt like Nick Fury this time as opposed to the BMF in just about everything else he has played in.

The Avengers set the bar high for the superhero movie this go around; solid acting, awesome action and special effects all help round out an overall enjoyable ride. Plus the seeds for the sequel were planted. I don't think it's completely necessary to have seen the five movies leading up to it, but it would definitely help. So if you haven't seen this yet and have intentions on doing so, then I highly recommend going into those movies first. The violence and language aren't so over the top where young kids shouldn't be allowed to see it. Therefore, I think parents can loosen up on the leashes a bit.

Pros:
-Action-packed and fun

Cons:
-Small issues with characterization