“The Avengers” is a “must-see” movie. It is pure fun, light comedy, mixed in with non-stop action for the last 45 minutes. Joss Whedon has injected into the movie his off-beat sense of humor and his affinity for sci-fi/fantasy that he exhibited in his 2002 TV series “Firefly” and the 2005 offshoot movie “Serenity.” There are vignettes in the movie where Black Widow, aka Scarlett Johannson, reminds us of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” Whedon’s highly successful TV series.
From a fiscal standpoint, “The Avengers” is Whedon’s coup de grace, with a first weekend box office return of more than $200 million, an overseas presale of $450 million and expectations that it will exceed $1 billion dollars total at the box office.
Robert Downey, Jr. totally dominates the movie (and possibly saves it from an acting point of view) with his brilliant line delivery and amazing performance. (One can only imagine how much greater his career could have been without all that time in rehab.)
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Samuel Jackson is excellent as Nick Fury, if not exceptional, and Scarlett does her job well in her skin-tight, black outfit, reviving memories of Emma Peel (The Avengers TV series).
Chris Evans defines Captain America, coming to life right out of Marvel Comics.
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Performances by Chris Hemsworth as Thor and Tom Hiddleston as Loki are certainly not Asgard-shaking, but they play their roles well enough. Jeremy Renner makes a fine Hawkeye.
The one hellacious performance in this movie is Dr. Bruce Banner, aka the Hulk.
In past movies, Eric Bana was an acceptable Dr. Banner in his performance as the Hulk, while Edward Norton was outstanding in his portrayal. Norton is a fine actor, who apparently forfeited the part in “The Avengers,” either by his reputation as being difficult to direct or by offending some Hollywood bigwig.
Whatever the reason, the public got cheated with Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk.
In the movie, I found it difficult to discern the intellectual difference between the Mark Ruffalo/Dr. Banner and the Mark Ruffalo/Hulk.
Ruffalo is totally unbelievable as a brilliant scientist, and his acting is genuinely vacuous in the movie. Whedon should discard Ruffalo for the next two Avenger movies and reconsider Norton; the thought of Ruffalo returning is disheartening.
The best performance of the year, as reviewed by my kids, was by Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen, and they agreed that “Hunger Games” was the best movie.
But for pure fun and entertainment, “The Avengers” is a wonderful journey into the world of Marvel.
