So this is the film that they've been building up to for what seems like forever. Many complains were thrown at the preceding films stating that they felt more like very long trailers for the Avengers rather than a film about the character at hand, and sometimes those claims were probably partly justified (Captain America I'm looking at you), but sometimes I think the films fif particularly well on their own; I have a weak spot for Thor, which I thought was good fun entertainment. The worst thing this film could do though was be Iron Man 2 - Long and boring. It is long, but I don't think it's boring, thankfully.
The film begins doing exactly what the title suggests, it sets up a situation that Nick Fury & Co. Can't quite handle alone, and he begins getting together the world's most powerful people. These include Captain America (the kind of leader of the gang), Iron Man, Thor, Hawkeye, Black Widow, and Crucially to the success of the film, Hulk. Now Hulk has gone through a troubled series of films. It's never been clear that people really knew what to do with the character. The Ang Lee 'Hulk' was notable for the inventive use of comic book panels in the film, but was ultimately quite a flat and forgettable film. I never saw the Ed Norton Incredible Hulk, and have heard mixed reviews, but it didn't perform as hoped at the box office and HUlk has kind of been shelved ever since; until now.
Once all the characters have aired their grievances with one another and begun fighting amongst themselves, an event happens to unify them. I won't give too much away, but it is orchestrated by Loki (Thor's adopted brother and chief bad man in this film). The build up to this moment I found to be a little slow and it was the middle portion of the film that I felt was the weakest and failed to grab you in the same way that the rest of the film did. However, my friend sitting next to me expressed the opposite opinion, that it was here that he felt genuine threat and where the story really worked; so I could very well be wrong on this one.
Then we get the final battle between good and evil. This is a lot of fun, but it could be argued that it follows fairly conventional Hollywood lines of getting all the action out in one big bang at the end, with big explosions and crazy stuff going on everywhere. However, whilst this is a little bit of a normal occurrence in blockbusters, it isn't always done well. I thought it worked well here, with some very well choreographed action sequences mixed with wonderful one liners and lots of smashing from the aforementioned Hulk.
The humour is a large factor in the success of the film in my opinion, and it is here that Joss Whedon really makes his mark. One of the reasons why I hate Iron Man 2 so much is because it lost a lot of the humour and fun of the first film and ended up being about a self obsessed man with no sense of humour. Similarly, Thor worked really well, because let's face it, Thor is a ludicrous character, because it could laugh at itself and say, yes, this is stupid, but what the hell. Joss Whedon has made a living with great one liners littered throughout otherwise quite serious topics, probably best shown in Firefly. This is no exception, each character getting some wonderful and memorable lines to spout out to break some of the tension. The other area Whedon shines is through the strong women he writes so well, turning Scarlett Johansson's character from unlikeable into one of the essential characters in the film.
The film does have flaws, I've mentioned the slightly sagging mid section, and I would also add that it is too long. I understand that there are a lot of characters to reintroduce and I admire how well a job he did in getting it moving as well as he did, but it was noticeable. Also there were a few moments of cheese such as the closing line, which quite frankly is terrible. But I guess this is a superhero blockbuster, and maybe the cheese just comes with the territory.
This is a strong film, a film that is a lot better than it really has any right to be. It's not groundbreaking, It's not even close, but it is a lot of fun, and a very enjoyable film is really all I wanted from this film. I liked this film, and I think if you're after a blockbuster that isn't shit like transformers, then you couldn't go too wrong with Avengers Assemble.
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