If you happened to catch the premiere of The Avengers on Saturday, then you were probably very disappointed to find a sold out theater hours before the movie. The city of Nairobi turned up in droves to watch the highly anticipated release of the movie and they knew just how to do it.
When word first got out that Marvel would be daring to allow Hollywood to take a run at The Avengers franchise, I was heavily skeptical. I was impressed by the first Iron Man movie, annoyed by the second one, depressed by Thor and when all seemed bleak, they released Captain America and they were back on the right track. Perhaps Marvel are now ready to take comic books a little more seriously. The Avengers combines all of the mentioned movies, plus The Hulk and SHIELD affiliates like Hawkeye and Black Widow to create a super team of high octane heroes with inappropriately delightful senses of humor.
The Avengers picks up where Thor left off. Loki (Tom Hiddleston) is skulking about in the parallel universe where he is exiled making friends with the mysterious alien race known as The Chitari. In addition to sounding like an Indian confectionery treat, The Chitari have access to advanced weaponry which Loki requires to take revenge on his brother and enslave the human race. He escapes his exile and returns to earth, steals a glowing cube and hi-jacks Nick Fury's (Samuel L. Jackson) team.
After a series of attacks, Fury begins to sow the seeds for the assembly of The Avenger Initiative which combines the super heroes into a high powered defense unit. Since Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) has been "mind-napped" by Loki, Fury sends his next best agent Black Widow (Scarlette Johanasson) to entice Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) and his alter ego to join the team. He also approaches Captain America (Chris Evans) and Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr). Thor (Chris Hemsworth) shows up of his own free will randomly to help stop his half brother from making a mess of things.
There are four glorious things about this movie. The first is the non-stop witty dialogue between the heroes. It helps to sell the idea that they all believe themselves to be somewhat invincible thus selling the "we are super heroes" feeling. The second is the high flying action which is INTENSELY heightened by excellent animation and the IMAX effect. From Iron Man's up in the sky battles to Black Widow's flips and turns, everything is shot at a clever angle allowing the audience to feel wowed by the sequences. The third is the excellent utilization of time to tell a continuous linear story from the vantage of multiple junctures. But the final one is the most glorious. This is the appearance and take off of the heli-carrier. For years, comic book fans have been waiting to get a glimpse of a "real one" and IMAX did not fail to deliver.
However, even a well thought out movie like this one was not without its weaknesses. The first one was in the casting of Cobie Smulders as Agent Hill. Looking away from the fact that Nick Fury's annoying, bossy, know-it-all second in command was completely unnecessary in the movie, Smulders appearance in the feature was in short bursts of close ups as if the director was trying to say, "Yeah, she's here, deal with it".
In addition to an unnecessary appearance by Smulders, Mark Ruffalo has no place in this movie. I would have seen the return of Edward Norton, whose skinny to smart ratio was JUST perfect for Bruce Banner. Ruffalo is too buff for the role of the hulk. The big green guy had no issues whatsoever. In fact, even the addition of a little beard was OK but his human form is in my opinion not befitting of the role.
Other than those two criticisms which are basically personal peeves, The Avengers is a movie which will leave you craving a second viewing in spectacular 3D glory.