The Avengers: Movie Review

"The Avengers" is one phenomenal film in a lot of ways. It be able to accomplish the balancing act of its superhero ensemble is a feat in itself. But in reality, "The Avengers" does way more than that. It is a spectacle to behold full of action, wit, humor and set pieces that are to die for. Simply put, to miss "The Avengers" is to miss half of your life figuratively. This is one of the best superhero film ever made and we are not even exaggerating. The seven year wait and the countless films that were made to lead to "The Avengers" were all worth it.

After the events from the film "Thor", humanity realized that they need more powerful weapons to counter-attack alien invading forces. Coincidentally, they find the tesseract, a cube-like structure with vast power, that they hope they can harness to these weapons. Unfortunately, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) gains possession of the tesseract and has a plan to takeover as king of Earth. Now, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) has decided that the only hope that humanity has is to rekindle the now-defunct Avenger Initiative and assemble a group of extraordinary men namely: Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson). The group must find Loki and the tesseract before he is able to use its power to gain access to an alien army.

While "The Avengers" might not have a unique superhero plot (aliens invading Earth), it does so many things so well that the film feels fresh and never ever having a dull moment. This is probably because the film takes the approach of actually featuring the differences of each superhero and how it affects there relationships with each other. Scenes like how Iron Man and Captain America are complete opposites (one being humorous while the other being too serious) are just gold. If we could choose one superhero who truly led the whole film then it would be Iron Man with his snobbish sense of humor that never fails to bring out laughter. But honestly, all of the superheroes featured, major or minor, had equal screening time. And this is probably the best asset of "The Avengers" more than anything else. Akin to the actual Avengers team on-screen and as we had said before, Joss Whedon was able to masterfully craft and balance out each nuance that the characters had. Surely it was no simple feat and how Whedon did it was downright perfect. Even at almost 2 and a half hours long, the movie actually felt fast. The downside is that meaty character and plot development takes a slight dip and while watching the previous films is not a prerequisite, it would greatly help first-time viewers understand what's really happening. In reality though, the action-packed set pieces and the no-holds-barred approach will make anyone forget about those minor problems.

"The Avengers" is a visual and aural feast and it's one of the best superhero films we have seen ever and there's really no reason to not watch it.

Rating: 5 reels

Why you should watch it:
- huge action set pieces that feature each character equally and fairly
- one of the best graphics we have seen in a superhero film
- while the story may not be new, the character-based approach is something that caught our attention

Why you shouldn't watch it:
- there's no reason not to watch "The Avengers"