Film Review: AVENGERS ASSEMBLE (2012)

[A.K.A.: MARVEL’S AVENGERS ASSEMBLE]

Director: Joss Whedon
Writers: Zak Penn (story), Joss Whedon (story/screenplay), Stan Lee (comic book), Jack Kirby (comic book)
Running time: 142 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 12A

Genre: Action/Adventure/Sci-Fi
UK Release date: 26^th April 2012

Watched at the cinema Saturday 5^th May 2012.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

Having successfully avoided the opening week I decided it was probably safe to go and see this one in its second week of showing at the local. Not too busy but the accountants would have been pleased with the turnout for the tea-time showing on FA Cup final day. Did it live up to the critical acclaim it’s had? Well I cannot lie, the critics are right! I have been a fan of the work of Joss Whedon since Firefly and I must say he hasn’t let me down. It’s clever, witty and never drops the ball as far as the Marvel universe goes… Great stuff! But I digress, here’s a brief summary before I give you more of my thoughts.

S.H.I.E.L.D. has possession of the Tesseract, an artefact of great power taken from Thor’s realm, Asgard. They don’t realise it can be used as a door and Loki, Thor’s brother, is using it to bring himself to Earth. He has assembled an army and needs the Tesseract to bring them down and conquer the planet. To help him he turns several humans to his side, including Hawkeye (Clint Barton). Nick Fury recognises the threat and sets his agents in motion to assemble a team capable of defeating it. They are; Iron Man (Tony Stark), Captain America (Steve Rogers), The Hulk (Bruce Banner) and Black Widow (Natasha Romanoff). Latterly Thor arrives from Asgard and pledges to fight alongside them. With the scene set Loki unexpectedly allows himself to be captured. He’s taken to the S.H.I.E.L.D. fortress in the sky… but does he have an ulterior motive? Well I’ll leave it there or the Spoiler Police (Marvel Division) will be revoking my Avengers fan club membership (again).

I first have to say I saw the film in 2D (none of this 3D nonsense for me) and even so I did find some of the scenes very dark. Also, the aspect ratio at 1.78:1 seemed totally wrong to me, most films these days are shot in a ratio of 2.35:1 and I can’t see why this one had to be different (it may be a 3D thing, but it niggled me slightly). As far as performances go, well everyone did a great job; Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man, Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/The Hulk, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow, Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton/Hawkeye, Tom Hiddleston who was particularly good as Loki and not forgetting Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury.

Of course there are plot holes here, as there are in all superhero films and I’m not going to chime on about them now, I’m sure there are many out there that are better qualified than me so I’ll leave it to them. What I took away from it was a very entertaining film with a lot of (sometimes subtle) humour and I really enjoyed it. The narrative did seem to get a little stuck in a couple of places though, like when Thor arrived and ended up having a fight with Iron Man, but I can forgive these because as a whole it all worked pretty well. I was a little disappointed with the back-story to Black Widow and Hawkeye, it was only alluded to quite briefly and, I guess because they are more minor characters, I wanted to know a little more about them. But over all I must say it’s well worth the admission fee!... Highly Recommended.

My score: 8.9/10.

IMDb Score: 8.8/10 (based on 65,676 votes when this review was written).
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0848228/

MetaScore: 69/100: (Based on 40 critic reviews provided by Metacritic.com at the time of going to press).

Rotten Tomatoes ‘Tomatometer’ Score: 93/100 (based on 230 reviews counted at the time of going to press).

Rotten Tomatoes ‘Audience’ Score: 96/100 (based on 199,821 user ratings counted at the time of going to press).
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/marvels_the_avengers/

If you’re crazy enough… You can find me on Facebook at:
http://facebook.com/andy.steel3

FAVOURITE QUOTES:
Nick Fury: There was an idea to bring together a group of remarkable people, so when we needed them, they could fight the battles that we never could..

Tony Stark: [to Thor] No hard feelings Point Break, you've got a mean swing.
[Referencing their recent battle]

Nick Fury: Gentlemen, you're up!

Tony Stark: Dr. Banner, your work is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster.
Bruce Banner: Thanks.

Tony Stark: Let's do a headcount: Your brother, the demigod; a super-soldier, a living legend who actually lives up to the legend; a man with breathtaking anger management issues; a couple of master assassins; and you've managed to piss off every single one of us.
Loki: That was the plan.
Tony Stark: Not a great plan.

Tony Stark: [to Loki] There is no throne, there is no version of this where you come out on top! Maybe your army will come, maybe it's too much for us, but it's all on you! Because if we can't protect the Earth, you can be damn sure we'll avenge it!

LINKS:
(Note: All were working at the time of going to press)
Official Site: http://marvel.com/avengers_movie
Official Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AvengersUK
Trailer:

Film Review: CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER (2011)

Director: Joe Johnston
Writers (Screenplay): Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely
Writers (Comic Books): Joe Simon, Jack Kirby
Running time: 120 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 12

Genre: Action/Adventure/Sci-Fi
UK Release date: 29^th July 2011

Watched on Sky+ Saturday 28^th April 2012.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

I deliberately avoided this film when it came out last year because it didn’t really interest me. I don’t mind anyone using mythology or fictitious events as a background to their stories, but when they start playing with events that are still within human memory then I begin to feel uncomfortable. I guess it’s because the fiction can so easily be confused with the facts and a new version of events becomes accepted. However, I put my prejudices aside and decided to give it a look anyway and I must say it’s not all that bad a film; certainly better than I was expecting. But more of my thoughts after this brief summary.

Steve Rogers is a weakling, he has many medical problems but he more than makes up for that in spirit. When America joins the Second World War he is one of the first in line to enlist but he is turned down at every attempt. His best friend, James Buchanan ‘Bucky’ Barnes has got in and is about to deploy. They go out for one final night where Steve meets Dr. Abraham Erskine who enlists him into a special unit led by Colonel Chester Phillips. The training is conducted by British officer, Peggy Carter, and she takes a special interest in Steve. Meanwhile, in Europe, a rogue scientist, Johann Schmidt (aka the Red Skull) and his assistant, Dr. Arnim Zola, are drawing up their own plans having successfully retrieved a very powerful artefact. With training completed, Steve is chosen to be the first of the recruits to be ‘enhanced’ using Dr. Erskine’s procedure. It’s a success but one of the Red Skull’s agents, Heinz Kruger, destroys the equipment before Steve chases him half way across the city in an effort to capture him. He is seen as a hero and a Senator asks him to go on the road to promote war bonds. He becomes very well known for his costume and his new title, ‘Captain America’. But when his friend is captured by the Red Skull, he decides to go into action for real. I won’t say any more or the Spoiler Police will be performing a ‘procedure’ on me… not a pleasant one either.

As with all of these films the effects are first rate, I particularly like the way the character of Steve was made to look really weak and scrawny in the early scenes. All the performances were pretty good; Chris Evans did a decent job as Captain America/Steve Rogers, as did Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter. I really enjoyed Tommy Lee Jones as Colonel Chester Phillips, Stanley Tucci as Dr. Abraham Erskine and Toby Jones as Dr. Arnim Zola. I’m afraid I was a little disappointed by Hugo Weaving as Johann Schmidt/Red Skull, but I think that had more to do with the character than his performance. Also worthy of note were; Sebastian Stan as James Buchanan ‘Bucky’ Barnes, Dominic Cooper as Howard Stark (doing a great impression of Howard Hughes by the way), Richard Armitage as Heinz Kruger and last but not least, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury.

Although I did enjoy this film up to a point, I did find the focus on America a little off-putting. Yes I know they did try to make it look a little international by drawing in a team made up from other nations that were also involved in WWII, but that didn’t quite cut it for me. The bad guy didn’t work either I’m afraid; he didn’t offer enough threat and so turned out to be a bit of a damp squib. Now I know this is just another stepping stone towards the ‘Avengers’ movie, but I expected a lot better.

My Score: 6.7/10

IMDb Score: 6.8/10 (based on 131,716 votes at the time of going to press).
http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0458339/

MetaScore: 66/100: (Based on 36 critic reviews provided by Metacritic.com at the time of going to press).

Rotten Tomatoes ‘Tomatometer’ Score: 79/100 (based on 216 reviews counted at the time of going to press).

Rotten Tomatoes ‘Audience’ Score: 75/100 (based on 126,843 user ratings counted at the time of going to press).
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/captain-america/

If you’re crazy enough… You can find me on Facebook at:
http://facebook.com/andy.steel3

FAVOURITE QUOTES:
[a body is discovered in the Arctic]
Search Team Leader: Get me the Colonel! I don't care what time it is! This one's waited long enough...

Abraham Erskine: Do you want to kill Nazis?
Steve Rogers: I don't want to kill anybody. I don't like bullies; I don't care where they're from.

Col. Chester Phillips: General Patton has said that wars are fought with weapons but are won by men. Our goal is to create the greatest army in history. But every army begins with one man. He will be the first in a new breed of super-soldier. We are going to win this war because we have the best men. And they, personally, will escort Adolf Hitler to the gates of Hell.

Timothy 'Dum Dum' Dugan: Are you sure you know what you're doing?
Steve Rogers: Yeah. I punched out Adolf Hitler 200 times.

Howard Stark: Once you think you have figured out a dame, you sir are... boned.

Peggy Carter: Wait!
[she kisses Steve]
Peggy Carter: Go get him.
[surprised by the kiss, Steve looks at Colonel Phillips]
Col. Chester Phillips: I'm not kissing you.

LINKS:
(Note: All were working at the time of going to press)
Official Site: http://captainamerica.marvel.com/
Trailer: