Movie Review: 'The Avengers'

Directed by Joss Whedon

Synopsis: The secret agency, SHIELD, has gotten a hold of a powerful device known as the tesseract. Loki (Tom Hiddleston), brother of Thor, steals the tesseract and starts a plan to take over Earth. To save the world and get the tesseract back, SHIELD director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) brings together a team of superheroes (most of whom we've seen in previous Marvel superhero movies), including Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Bruce Banner/The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans), and Thor (Chris Hemsworth), along with two SHIELD agents known as Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johannson).

Review: While the plot of "The Avengers" is admittedly nothing unique–it's typical "bad guy gets a hold of a powerful weapon that will help him take over the world, and our heroes must stop him" stuff–it is still something pretty new among superhero movies. To my knowledge, it's the first one that brings together several different superheroes, making it a simultaneous sequel to several other  movies  from the past couple years ("Iron Man," "Thor," "Captain America," and "The Incredible Hulk") as well as the start to its own franchise. This means that it not only has to live up to the standard of those previous films, most of which were well-reviewed and received, but it also has to balance a large cast of already well-known characters, plus a couple of new ones.

Joss Whedon, who wrote the script as well as directed, has performed this juggling act very well, and delivers an extremely entertaining and action packed movie that makes for a perfect start to the summer movie season. You might know Whedon as the brains behind several cult TV shows, including "Firefly" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," which are known for their good mix of drama, memorable characters, and witty humor, and he brings a lot of the same qualities to "The Avengers." Although the plot of the film is pretty thin and predictable, Whedon makes it work by putting the main emphasis on the characters, and showing us the kind of trouble one would expect from throwing together several super-human characters with very distinct personalities. For example, loyal and obedient soldier Steve Rogers/Captain America initially clashes with the brash and arrogant genius Tony Stark. On the other hand, Stark easily befriends fellow scientist Bruce Banner, and even helps him get over some of his issues. To go along with that great script, this movie boasts a star-studded cast, with each actor playing their character to perfection, as well as working with each other very well.

There were a couple minor issues with the movie. As I mentioned, this is essentially a sequel to several other Marvel films, and while it's not a necessity that you've seen them all before hand, I think you will definitely enjoy the movie more if you have. I also felt that a couple of characters were a little underused. I wouldn't have minded a bit more backstory on the two non-super-powered newcomers–Hawkeye and Black Widow, two SHIELD agents who are the only characters who haven't had a previous movie to themselves. However, the running time is already pretty long (nearly two and half hours), so I can't really blame them for this. Overall, however, there's definitely way more to like about this film than there is to complain about. I highly recommend it if you're a fan of super hero movies!

Conclusion: If you're looking for a fun, fast paced movie full of well written characters to kick off your summer, "The Avengers" couldn't be a better option. This one is definitely worth seeing in theaters for the action scenes, however, I'd advise that you don't waste money on the 3D, which wasn't really noticeable to me.

P.S. There are two extra scenes during and after the credits, so make sure you stick around!

Now that you've heard my thoughts, I want to hear yours! If you saw The Avengers this weekend, what did you think of it?