Why So Blu?

The Avengers (Movie Review)

As a non-comic book reader, my history and knowledge about The Avengers and its characters isn’t that great and often consists of only one viewing of each of their individual movies.  On the way to the theater my husband was quizzing me about the other movies so he could make sure I understood what had happened before so I would understand what was going on in The Avengers.  My recollection was hit and miss as I really liked Iron Man, but didn’t really recall much of Iron Man 2 at all.  As he explained the plot of Captain America I wondered if I fell asleep at the end since the only thing I could really remember about the movie was his suit and that Chris Evans is a very cute guy.  I never cared much for The Hulk movies but I did enjoy Thor.  The more my husband talked about the history of these characters, the more I thought that I don’t care who did what and when since I just wanted to be entertained for two hours.

Film  

Luckily for me, The Avengers did an excellent job telling you everything you need to know.  For the most part, my basic knowledge (being able to recognize and name the characters) was more than sufficient.  For the real comic buffs like my husband I’m sure there were numerous subtleties that went right over my head, and that’s fine.  I got all the information I needed from the movie, without it having to over explain things.

Having just seen (and loved) Cabin in the Woods, which Joss Whedon co-wrote and produced, I was for the first time excited about a movie based who directed it.  The Avengers is very well written by Whedon and it has the same witty humor that made me love Cabin in the Woods.  Each of the characters is showcased in different ways, but I especially enjoyed all of Iron Man’s banter and I now have a new appreciation for The Hulk.

As I said, I’m not into details with this kind of film, but I’ll do my best to summarize.  The Avengers stars Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, the head of S.H.I.E.L.D who has been looking into harnessing the power of the Tessaract, an energy cube.  Loki (Tom Hiddleston) he plans to steal the Tesseract to give it to some bad guys waiting to wipe out the Earth.  Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) reluctantly team up to save the world.  At first they spend more time fighting each other than anyone else but once united, they are an unstoppable force.

One of the most amazing things about The Avengers was the 3-D, which I actually enjoyed it.   I complain profusely about all 3-D movies being full of cheap gags where you could spot in the 2D version every stupid thing that was flying at your face for the benefit of the 3-D audience.  If given the choice, I will almost always take the 2D version in the theater over the 3-D version since most of the time I feel as though the 3-D effects take away from the film.  In The Avengers, that was not the case.  The 3-D action complimented the film and helped immerse the viewer in the action.   I forgot I was sitting there in those 3-D glasses and didn’t notice the two hour film fly by.  This is definitely the first time I have praised a 3-D movie and will recommend that everyone see it that way.

The hype surrounding this film is justified and Marvel’s The Avengers lives up to every bit of it.  Even for a non-comic book person and someone who clearly didn’t pay attention to the individual movies that occurred before this, it was an amazing movie.  I can only imagine what a true fan would take from it.   As expected, don’t get up and leave when the credits start or you will miss an additional scene – one for the true comic junkies, because I couldn’t recognize the character I was looking at.