Author: Toh Chen Ying
About The Avengers
The Avengers is a superhero action film released at United States in 2012 based on Marvel Comics. It was produced by Marvel Studios and released by Walt Disney Studios. Directed and written by Joss Whedon, The Avengers features a crossover assembled team of multiple Marvel superheroes coming from previous individual superhero films. Main casts include Robert Downey Jr. as Ironman/Tony Stark, Chris Evans as Captain America/Steve Rogers, Mark Ruffalo as Hulk/Bruce Banner, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff, and Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye/Clint Barton. Also stars Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, the director of S.H.I.E.L.D., and Tom Hiddleston as Loki, the main antagonist of 2011’s Thor as well as this film.
The film has received overwhelmingly positive review from critics as well as earning one of highest grossing films in Hollywood history. It even got nominated with several awards, one being Academy Award. A sequel titled The Avengers: Age of Ultron was subsequently released in 2015, which also pars the same successful title like this one. The Avengers has brought up the idea of how movies can be made crossovers in the sense to form a team to unite individual protagonists.
Plot
Loki, who is Thor’s stepbrother from Asgard world, met with the powerful Chitauri race leader called Other. An agreement was reached in which Loki would retrieve the Tesseract power for the Chitauri army to invade Earth.
S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury learnt that as the research facility was conducting experiment on the Tesseract power, they have noticed that the cube object was “behaving” itself, thereby self-radiating a potentially powerful energy that opens a portal gateway from the other side of universe. Loki then enters Earth via the portal, battles the agents and grabs the Tesseract, while using his scepter to mind slave Erik Selvig and Hawkeye in order to help facilitate his escape and builds the Tesseract portal device.
Believing that Loki is set to declare war on Earth, Nick Fury recruits Black Widow and Agent Phil Coulson in attempt to assemble the Avengers Initiative team, the supposedly Earth mightiest heroes. Meanwhile, the “possessed” Hawkeye led his team in Germany to steal the iridium that needed to stabilize Tesseract power. Loki uses his sceptic power to cause distraction in public before he surrenders after confrontations with Ironman, Captain America, and Black Widow. While taking Loki into S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Helicarrier for custody, Thor interferes by capturing Loki, telling him to abandon his war plan and returns to Asgard. After fighting with Ironman, Thor agrees to take Loki back to Helicarrier and imprison him there.
Although Ironman, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, and Black Widow finally met each other, the distrustful superheroes were arguing themselves over how to deal with upcoming alien army. Hawkeye and his mind-possessed agents then attack & breach the Helicarrier, freeing Loki at process. Hulk fell down from sky after angrily took out the jet fighter that shoots him while confronting Thor. Loki killed Agent Coulson, lures Thor inside the glass cell before ejecting Thor from the carrier. Black Widow knocks Hawkeye into unconscious state, freeing him from Loki’s possession.
Saddened by Agent Coulson’s death, Ironman and Captain America are determined to work as a serious superhero team to stop Loki. The new team quickly travels to Stark Tower in New York city after realizing that Loki wants to open the portal there to summon the Chitauris. As the outnumbered Chitauri army invasion begins, Ironman, Captain America, Black Widow, Thor, and the redeemed Hawkeye fought hard to resist their invasion, in which Hulk later also joins alongside the Avengers.
After long battle against the outnumbered Chitauris, Hulk managed to defeat Loki, while Black Widow finds the scepter which can be used to stop the portal device. S.H.I.E.L.D. launches a nuclear missile in attempt to nuke the entire city, although Nick Fury protested this. Ironman managed to catch up with the missile and displace it towards the portal, thereby nuking the Chitauri fleet and killing every living Chitauri creatures in and out of Earth. Black Widow managed to shut down the device, closing the portal.
In the aftermath, Thor teleported Loki back to Asgard for the latter to stand justice. Nick Fury believes that Avengers will return one day when in needed. In a mid-credits scene, Chitauri leader Other told his master Thanos that humans are difficult to be defeated. Finally in post-credits scene, the tired Avengers were eating at a shawarma restaurant in a destroyed New York city.
Main Cast
- Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark/Ironman
Son of Edward Stark, Tony Stark is a self-described genius, billionaire, playboy, and philanthropist with an electro-mechanical flying armor suit of his own invention. Stark is considered one of the most comical relief character that often jokes with his words, even when dealing with deadly enemies like Loki.
Robert Downey Jr. also stars Ironman in his three Iron Man films.
- Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America
World War II veteran who was transformed into a flexible superhuman by an experimental serum and was cryogenic-frozen for decades before waking up in the 21st century. Unlike Stark, Steve Rogers is the opposite in the sense he was strict about following his mission careers, partly due to his own military nature. He can be seen quarreling with Tony Stark often. Nonetheless, Rogers lead the Avengers to fight the Chitauri army.
Chris Evans casts Captain America in 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger as well as 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier. He was also the main cast for Johnny Storm in Fantastic Four franchise films.
- Chris Hemsworth as Thor Odinson
Based on the Norse pagan mythological deity, Thor is the crown prince of Asgard. Known as God of Thunder, Thor possesses the enchanted hammer Mjolnir which grants him the ability of flight and weather manipulation amongst his other superhuman attributes, one being lightning strike. Because he’s the only Avengers superhero who is not from Earth and nobody, not even Hulk, can touches his Mjolnir hammer, Thor can be considered one of the most powerful character in Marvel universe.
Chris Hemsworth is the main cast in his individual Thor films. He is the only main Avengers actor who is from outside US, whom Hemsworth is Australian.
- Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk
A genius scientist who transforms into a monster when enraged or irritated, after his exposure to gamma radiation during a test experiment. Hulk’s famous wording is “Smash” as smashing things is his trademark superhero ability. He is invulnerable to bullets, bombs, and hard to suffer pain, although he can suffer irritation. Hulk is said to be second most powerful Avengers character just behind Thor.
Hulk was originally starred by Edward Norton in the 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, but this was later replaced by Mark Ruffalo after negotiations between Marvel and Norton failed. The Hulk body was modeled after Long Island bodybuilder Steve Romm, while Ruffalo provided the CGI face. Hulk’s voice was blended with both Ruffalo and Lou Ferrigno voices in order to make it sounds more mutant.
- Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow
A Russian spy working for S.H.I.E.L.D., Natasha Romanoff is a tactician expert as well as being a martial artist. She is the only female character in The Avengers. Her relationship with Hawkeye is rather complicated, although they usually fought together in previous missions. Alongside with Hawkeye, Natasha is one of those superheroes who doesn’t possess superpower capabilities.
Scarlett Johansson, who casts Black Widow in The Avengers, also made appearances in both Ironman and Captain America films.
- Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton / Hawkeye
An agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., Barton is a professional archer who never misses his shot when targeting someone. He was being mind possessed by Loki for a moment until he regained his control after having knocked out by Romanoff. Like Black Widow, the Hawkeye also doesn’t have superpower ability.
Renner only first starred Hawkeye as uncredited cameo appearance in Thor film. Other than that, he never appears in any individual Marvel films nor had his standalone appearance until he was officially introduced in The Avengers, as well as sequels like The Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War.
- Tom Hiddleston as Loki
The main antagonist in The Avengers, Loki is Thor’s adoptive brother and archrivals at the same time. Like Thor, Loki was based on the Norse pagan mythological deity. Aiming to avenge on Thor over what happened in 2011’s Thor film, Loki travels to Earth in an attempt to open the portal using Tesseract power to incite a Chitauri invasion, ambitiously planning to subjugate Earth and rule the humans as their new king.
Tom Hiddleston only made appearances in all Thor films. He is of British.
- Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury
Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury is a military strategist responsible for establishing the “Avengers Initiative” which would unite the Marvel superheroes into a team. Fury wears his eyepatch after losing one of his eyes during a battle as CIA agent.
Samuel L. Jackson made his first full appearance in The Avengers. Previously, he only made cameo appearances in every individual Avengers superhero’s end-credits scenes, foreshadowing the formation of Avengers team.
- Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson, S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who oversees many of the division’s field operations. Coulson was killed during a fight with Loki. Gregg previously made brief appearances in Ironman, Ironman 2, and Thor.
- Stellan Skarsgård as Dr. Erik Selvig, an astrophysicist and Thor’s Earth partner who was later mind possessed by Loki to build the Tesseract portal device for him. Skarsgård, a Swede, also stars in Thor.
- Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill, a high-ranking S.H.I.E.L.D. agent loyal to Nick Fury. Smulders also appeared in later Avengers films like Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War.
Movie Review
If there is one major reason I like about this blockbuster superhero film, it is that The Avengers offer itself as one of the most successful crossover movie from different standalone protagonist films. Perhaps this can be partly due to my liking of crossover movie. When I used to watch movies that stars individual characters, I always like to imagine myself seeing these different protagonists or antagonists finally meet each other in the same universe. Personally, I find this crossover theme much more interesting. It would be cool to see how different characters with different personalities and abilities interact with each other.
The Avengers is the first Marvel film in 21st century to offer this crossover theme. For example, it reveals how Tony Stark and Steve Rogers had love and hate relationship, but Stark is much more friendlier towards Bruce Banner. This is more or less already speculated by fans when comparing both characters’ behaviour in their previous individual films: that Stark is a comical relief philanthropist while Rogers came from strict military background. For Stark and Banner, both already have their own scientific study interests which makes their common characteristic bringing them closer.
While the interactions can be cliche, but its still overall realistic. The Avengers had arguments and disagreements on how to deal with alien forces, but only realized the need to work together as a team after losing Agent Phil Coulson. This is how real life works when dealing as a teammate or in a group. You are in doubt with others in the first place, but later came together when in needed for desperate times.
Then finally, long came the truly first Avengers assembled scene which can be seen after Hulk and Ironman brought down the Chitauri Leviathan. This is one of the most powerful scene I’ve ever seen. It depicts one thing: that unity is strength. I came to agreement with many Marvel fans that this will be a memorial team-up scene, something DC counterparts yet to achieve this level.
Besides that, The Avengers also managed to portray most of the characters as realistically true to their own characteristics. Loki for example can proven himself to be as vile dangerous villain as he wants to be. When I saw him, it makes me think that this is not some ordinary super-villain who can be easily dealt with. He has strategies, and he being Asgardian gives the same advantage as Thor. But he underestimate the Avengers. He didn’t know they can regroup together despite them being scattered and had infighting.
The only thing they did not portray much was on Hawkeye. I feel like little has been done to tell about his own background as Hawkeye did not appear in his own standalone film. The film could have expanded more about him. But this is just first Avengers series, so perhaps they might explain his own story in further sequels. Black Widow on the other hand proves that she is capable of handling many situations herself when fighting possessed S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and Chitauri troops, making her as dangerous as other superheroes despite not having any superpower abilities.
When it comes to action, The Avengers has executed perfectly about what needs to be revealed in the introduction and middle part, before going for more exciting climatic part during the teammate battle. As all six members of The Avengers are really in the mode of fighting alongside each other, it is hard to get too bored or disappointed watching this scene over and over again.
Hilariously, the film purposely shows the Shawarma scene in the end-credits. This was after most people thought that Tony Stark was merely joking about going for Shawarma restaurant after fought hard the aliens. Notice that they just sit there silently while eating. There’s no doubt that such silent dialogue itself already renders one of funniest scene we’ve seen in this film. It shows how superheroes can live in their normal lives once finish their main tasks.
Its quite certain that this film also gets heavily loaded with Michael Bay-style explosive scenes when they set the battleground at New York City. I kind of like it, as long as they don’t make things exaggerating. As for the music theme, one cannot deny that Marvel have certainly created such as memorable theme solely for Avengers. In fact, its sequel film Avengers: Age of Ultron composer Danny Elfman also decided to use Alan Silvestri’s remix style. This would also be used back in the upcoming Infinity War themes when they release it on 2018.
Bottomline, this is a film that one will worth keep repeatedly watching it and one won’t get even bored following the entire two hours movie. It also provides one important moral story for old saying goes: that real strength can only comes through unity. No one can fight a battle alone.
Conclusion
The Avengers has proven itself to be an utterly unique film as both the payoff to something being set up by five previous standalone Marvel films, yet also the launching point for its own first successful crossover blockbuster series.
Dealing with many characters can get a bit messy in most movies. But fortunately, the director Joss Whedon does an excellent job of balancing everyone’s role, mixing and fitting these amazing characters in several different ways, bouncing them off each other both physically and mentally as what these heroes have to go through to find their own path as a team.
All in all, there is no question that The Avengers is very worth watching regardless of demographic ages, especially someone who is a long time Marvel Comics reader. Even many DC fans also cannot deny how successful The Avengers is. What’s for sure, the word “regret” is something that its hard to input for most movie critics dictionary.
Rating Score
9.5/10
UTAR Movie Review 