THE AVENGERS (2012)

The Avengers is essentially one movie but four sequels for the films: Thor, Captain America, The Incredible Hulk, and Iron Man 2.

            The Avengers starts off with Loki encountering the Other, leader of the Chitauris, who offers him an army to raid earth for obtaining the Tesseract. The Tesseract is a cube with infinite self-sustaining pure energy (which is held by S.H.I.E.L.D.). As Loki uses the Tesseract on Earth to teleport, it creates the levels of energy to spike, forcing Nick Fury (director of S.H.I.E.L.D.) to call for an evacuation. Loki uses his scepter to escape and enslave a few people, most prominently Hawk Eye. In response to Loki, Fury reactivated the “Avengers Initiative” although it was disbanded and considered untested. The initiative begins with Agent Romanoff (Black Widow) to visit Dr. Bruce Banner (The Hulk) for his assistance in locating the Tesseract due to its emission of gamma radiation. Agent Phil Coulson (of S.H.I.E.L.D.) recruits Tony Stark (Iron Man) by letting him review the Tesseract research. Fury then goes and recruits Steve Rogers (Captain America) asking him to retrieve the Tesseract.

While Loki’s minions attempt to steal iridium, he shows up in France to distract the Avengers. However this leads to Loki’s surrender and placement into S.H.I.E.L.D.’s custody. While being escorted, Thor comes and frees Loki pleading him to come back to Asgard. Thor then decided to bring Loki to S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Helicopter in which Loki is imprisoned. Banner and Stark start to locate the Tesseract. The Avengers become divided after learning S.H.I.E.L.D.’s intentions of the Tesseract, and Loki brakes out of prison. This leads to Hawk Eye losing his mind control state. Loki kills Agent Coulson in the process of braking out, forcing the Avengers to come together. Loki builds the Tesseract portal in NYC, on top of Stark’s tower. After fighting some Chitauri, the Hulk knocks Loki unconscious and takes his scepter giving it to Romanoff who closes the portal just as Iron Man forces a nuke launched by the government to end the Chitauri’s attack, through the portal. Iron Man falls through a tiny hole as the portal closes and the Avengers disband on good terms.

            For a 143 minute long movie, it doesn’t feel that lengthy at all (although it created a long summary above!). The movie flies by no matter the ’nth time watching and for an action movie, the film has several hilarious moments. The length of some action shots scenes creates a smooth fight rather than a constant cutted action scene. Applause and praise always goes to Robert Downey Jr. for his portrayal of Tony Stark / Iron Man as well as Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury. Mark Ruffalo, as Bruce Banner also was praise worthy with a cool and calm presence when on camera. With a storyline that doesn’t bore, interest is never lost in the movie. The visual effects are also very stellar, particularly the Tesseract portal and the Chitauri minions. Joss Whedon undoubtedly deserves recognition for a beautifully directed film. To cap off this lengthy review, I would easily give it five out of five stars.