The Avengers The 2012 Film From Marvel Studios / Walt Disney Pictures! |  | | | |
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TODAY'S FEATURE IS BLOG #3642 - We are just back from viewing The Avengers film, from Marvel Studios / Walt Disney Pictures! The three of us, Tina, Vinnie, and myself have our reviews starting here:  Tina: Review: Avengers Assemble for a Box Office Blow-out!
Nick Fury has been showing up after the credits of Marvel movies for years now. In The Avengers, he finally makes the first act. It was weird, but Samuel L. Jackson can make anything work (even those tentacles in The Spirit).
As The Avengers opens all hell is breaking loose at the super-secret Area 51-ish S.H.I.E.L.D. facility. The alien power source of a big glowing cube, the Tesseract, has been activated, Thor’s evil brother, Loki appears and quickly enslaves Hawkeye and the scientist in charge of the Tesseract (Stellan Skarsgård from Thor). They escape as the facility implodes.
From this rousing beginning, the pace slows as each member of the Avengers is enlisted to fight Loki. Fury attempts to assemble the group which only leads to fighting between the members. It becomes a movie version of What If? Comics with Thor fighting Iron Man, and Captain America stepping in. Later we get even more in-fighting as The Hulk goes bonkers after Black Widow (Scarlett Johannson), Thor fights The Hulk, and Scarlett (I couldn't stop seeing Black Widow as Scarlet, my bad) fights Hawkeye. After a key death (which I'm ticked off about), the Avengers truly assemble to fight as one.
The final showdown takes place in my birthplace and the city most victimized by super-hero and disaster films: New York. Fortunately, the Empire State Building and Statue of Liberty are spared, but beautiful Grand Central Station takes a beating and the Chrysler Building gets lit up. This crop of New Yorkers pales compared to the natives in the Spider-Man trilogy, but I was amused to see people still out in the street and seemingly hanging around a hot dog cart more than halfway through the battle. Those must be some dogs!
While the evil alien army looks formidable (and gross - why do movie aliens always look like insects?!), they crumble at any strike by our heroes. They descend in legions, but our team, led by Captain America, destroy them one after another.
What did we love about The Avengers besides The Hulk slamming Loki back and forth like a rag doll? Lots of story and character development especially for the heroes who are new to the franchise. And, the best Hulk I've ever seen, and I've seen them all. I suffered through the Ang Lee version, was turned off by the ginormous Hulk in the Edward Norton movies, and slept through Michael's re-viewing of the tv series. This Hulk was by far the best - expressive and impressive - and Ruffalo does a stellar job as Banner.
Director Whedon does a fine job of balancing the characters and not allowing RDJ to run away with it; however, I could have used more Thor (I'll never get enough of that hunk) and a little less running around the S.H.I.E.L.D. ship/aircraft. Otherwise I'm happy with The Avengers - except for that key death. Still pissed about that.
My rating: 9.0 Very Fine / Near Mint (VF/NM)
 Vinnie: Today my dad, Tina, and I went to see 'The Avengers' in the theater.
The movie, being that it was about super heroes, was quite action packed. When The Avengers weren't fighting baddies, they were constantly quarreling. The only time they ever really fought anyone besides themselves was at the end, which I will not be spoiling.
I didn't actually have a favorite character- they were all played very well by their respective actors, and I think they were perfect for their roles.
The movie was quite humorous, and two scenes really come to mind as perfect example. One of the funny scenes was when Loki was speaking to the Hulk, commanding him to bow down to him, when suddenly the Hulk picks him up and repeatedly thrashes him into the ground.
The other funny scene in mind was near the ending, when Captain America was directing orders to all of the Avengers, when he looks at the Hulk and says, 'Hulk... smash,' and the Hulk gets a big grin on his face and leaps up and grabs onto buildings and throws down the enemies hanging on said buildings.
I really enjoyed the movie, and I would definitely recommend you watch all the Avengers personal movies, seeing as I had no clue what Thor had to do with the story until later on in the plot, considering I haven't seen the movie. Anyway, I give 'The Avengers' a 9.0 out of 10.0 grade scale, a Very Fine / Near Mint, (VF/NM).
 Michael: This film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe was just seen by the three of us! I decided to post what Tina and Vinnie had first.
My thoughts are as follows: The film was a bit long, but it didn't matter to me, as I was captured by the action! This link will take you to the Wikipedia entry for the film. Please note: That link tells a lot about the film, so if you don't want to know, then don't read it before seeing the film! The storyline was pretty good. The dialogue was pretty good. The action, scenery, and CGI were all pretty good. Here's my take on the actors in the major parts: Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark / Iron Man: A little more smart ass in this film than in Iron Man I & II. Which was okay, as in the scenes with 'Pepper Potts' / (Gwyneth Paltrow), it was more lovey dovey. Chris Evans as Steve Rogers / Captain America: I loved the Captain America: First Avenger film. Chris was pretty good in this film also. Mark Ruffalo as Dr. Bruce Banner / Hulk: What... the third actor to play Bruce Banner?! Not that exciting, but the Hulk was toned down a bit for this film, which was okay with me. Chris Hemsworth as Thor: Still totally amazed as to how well Chris plays the Mighty Thor! Great job here! Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow: More film time in this flick. Which kind of showed something a little lacking... but can't put my finger on it at this time... Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton / Hawkeye: I like Hawkeye in the older comic books. I actually like Jeremy as Hawkeye here in this film, after a cameo shot in the Thor film. Good job! Tom Hiddleston as Loki: You know, when Tom transforms to his Loki clothing with the horned helmet... He really looks like the Loki in the older comic books! And he plays the villain very well. Kudos to Tom! Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury: This film really has a lot of Samuel in several scenes. Although I'm not overly pleased with changing Nick from white to black, Samuel does a good job in this role. Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill: Does a more than capable job in this role. Not familar with her though. Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson: You know, I like Clark in the Marvel films... And he a very good role in this film. Stellan Skarsgård as Erik Selvig: I know that this character was needed, but didn't see more than that to the role. Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts: Nice sort of cameo role in the film. Enjoyed seeing her in this film! So... I'm going to give this film a 9.4 Near Mint (NM) comic book grade. It was worthwhile seeing, and I suggest if you liked the other films in this Marvel Cinematic Universe, that you get to the Big Screen near your place to see it! ~Michael
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