Earth's mightiest heroes must come together and learn to fight as a team if they are to stop the mischievous Loki and his alien army from enslaving humanity.
Director: Joss Whedon
Writers: Joss Whedon (screenplay), Zak Penn (story)
Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson
Storyline
Nick Fury is director of S.H.I.E.L.D, an international peace keeping agency. The agency is a who's who of Marvel Super Heroes, with Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow. When global security is threatened by Loki and his cohorts, Nick Fury and his team will need all their powers to save the world from disaster.
The only word I can think of to describe this movie is AWESOME. It's amazing work and everything I had hoped for and more. It's exceptional entertainment for the uninitiated but it has everything a fanboy could want to be sure. It has every little nuance of what a fanboy wants to see. One of the MANY things I loved was the tension and flat out conflict that arises between team members. It's not a two dimensional "team wonderful that bands together to fight crime ho ho ho." Most don't like each other at fist and there is so much texture to be played. That is great because so many of these characters are larger than life. They have egos and the big guns aren't used to working with other people or even playing by the rules. Stark, Thor and Banner all work "the other side of the fence" so to speak. Then there's the Widow, Hawkeye and Captain America who are used to following orders and playing within a command structure. They are all thrown together in a wonderful and, best of all, believable fashion. Again, more than I ever dreamed possible.
The entire cast really delivered. You needed more than just action actors or stunt doubles to play all these parts. The pathos is there but so are the timing and true deep performances. Look, I was missing Ed Norton as much as anyone on that hype train I talked about but I'm so happy to say that Mark Ruffalo won me over. I hope he's locked up for the long haul because we don't need any more changes. Three was the lucky number for movie Banners. Every other actor in Avnegers that we've seen before is BETTER than their previous incarnation (EVERY single one) with the possible exception of RDJ as Stark. He's great but it's hard to top his take on the character from the original Iron Man in an ensemble movie. I also have to fully disclose that I'm insanely attracted to Scarlett Johansson. I thought her Widow character was amazing but I'm definitely judging that through rose colored glasses. The character arcs that run there course during this film will surprise a lot of general audiences expecting nothing more than a Transformers type popcorn scarfdown.
I honestly don't want to give away ANY of the movie with this review because this is one film that needs every scene to be savored. Do yourself a favor and remain unspoiled. It's how I saw the movie (apart from what the trailers showed) and even though you're obviously reading this review, read no others with any kind of spoilers whatsoever. Experience the awesomeness for yourself. Avengers as a movie and as a team on screen is an unstoppable force. I'm just going to say, Hulk & Thor combination equals AWESOME and leave it at that. This movie defines MUST SEE.