Movie Review: The Avengers

After a couple of Hulk and Iron Man films and a Thor and a Captain America film, Marvel finally put them all together and delivered The Avengers and it's by far the best of them all. Joss Whedon, as was no surprise to any of his fans, was the perfect choice for writer/director. It's a big summer blockbuster and just a lot of fun.

I saw it in 2D and am happy with that. It wasn't filmed in 3D so I felt no need to pay for a conversion process and a need to wear glasses. Unfortunately I saw it in a packed theater with a lot of very young children and one drunk old man sitting two rows behind me snoring loudly. I got up twice to wake him up. My only complaint with the film was that it dragged a little in the middle, but that's could have been the snoring.

There's a good mix of action and humor. This is a fun movie, much less serious than Nolan's Batman films and I'm happy to have both to compare. There's no need for every comic book film to be the same, not everything has to be dark.

Each of the characters gets their own screen time and enough banter. Hawkeye is a little short changed but the Hulk is the obvious winner. Mark Ruffalo makes a great Bruce Banner and this Hulk has a couple of scenes that steal the film. I actually cheered. Robert Downey Jr. also has plenty of fun lines, a few I missed because of laughter.

Our heroes fight bad guys and fight a little amongst themselves, just like in the comics. I was impressed with how well the super-heroics worked. The fights felt like they mattered and were taking place in the real world, much more so than say Transformers. And it worked at different scales. The Black Widow, Hawkeye and Captain America operate a much different scale than Thor or Iron Man or the Hulk but it all worked in the film. I believed a guy shooting arrows could bring down a flying ship and that Thor's hammer and the Hulk's punches could bring down buildings and that Cap's shield could stop them. I suspect that was really hard to get right.

I can't wait to see it again, without a snoring drunk.

There are two bonus scenes, one during the credits and one at the very end. It's worth sticking around for them.