Avengers’ Assemble Review *SPOILER ALERT*

Or: ‘The one where Nick Fury plays with loose cannons!’

Well, anyone who has hung around during the credits of almost every Marvel film made in the past three and a half years has been hotly anticipating this film, but does it meet with those lofty expectations?

The biggest question this film threw up for me was, ‘Why was it called ‘Avengers Assemble’ in the UK?’ Seriously, this has bothered me for weeks. Did the film executive powers-that-be consider ‘The Avengers’ too confusing because there was a popular cult TV show in the Sixties with the same name? A quick check on Google suggests this is the case – despite the 1998 US-produced ‘The Avengers’ not triggering a rename over in the States.  Anyway, I somehow think that the ad campaign that has effectively been brewing since 2008 would have put paid to any such misunderstanding.

Avengers. Assembling.

Fortunately, this is one awesome comic-book action film, so the debate concerning the title will be all but forgotten once you sit down and watch it. Directed and written by Joss Whedon, it has his signature stamped all over it. From the introduction scene of the Black Widow where she is seemingly at the mercy of some angry Russian crime lords, to the epic (yet wholly amusing) Loki and Hulk smackdown; if you’ve ever seen an episode of ‘Buffy’, ‘Angel’ or ‘Firefly’, you won’t be surprised who’s at the helm of this celluloid ship. In fact, a quick look at the cast credits will show you that Whedon has done his usual trick of finding a member of the aforementioned shows to shoe-horn in as a cameo.

The plot is simple: Loki is using aliens to take over the world, the Avengers must stop them. That’s it. What places this film above your average scrap-a-thon is how the relationships between the very different – and very damaged – Avengers are at the heart of the whole story. The arrogant Tony Stark both gravitates to fellow scientific innovator Bruce Banner, yet cannot comprehend his sense of guilt and self-loathing. Captain America is out of place surrounded by all these young whippersnappers, and Thor wants to protect his wayward brother as much as he wants to protect the world. Couple this with the way that Nick Fury and his key agents subtly manipulate their untrusting heroes into action, and it’s clear this film would have been a joy to watch even if it had been set in a single room with no special effects. My only criticism is that we see very little of Captain America trying to adjust to a world that had moved on seventy years while he hasn’t, but as this film isn’t titled ‘Captain America: Healing the Scars of the Past’, you can forgive them for this. Loki could presumably have been replaced with any villain you felt like, but his filial ties with Avenger Thor add a layer of complexity to the plot. Plus, when the trickster god Loki turns out to be at the mercy of beings more powerful than him, he becomes almost sympathetic. Well, until he massacres eighty people in the space of two days.  

'Hmm. Can't Loki and I just go on the Jeremy Kyle show?'

Overall, the tone of the film is nicely balanced. With an ensemble of characters carrying more baggage than a passenger plane, it would have been easy for the film to sway too far into the depths of heavy angst, or to disregard it completely and create a shallow knockabout. Instead, the film successfully balances these elements without letting any aspect take over. Bruce Banner’s fear of his own rage and its consequences is taken seriously when needed, but played for laughs when the other characters (okay, Stark) tries to needle him. When Loki’s rage and insanity is met with Thor’s pleading for him to come home, it could almost be a serious family drama – until Thor’s flippant response when he learns the true extent of Loki’s actions. Steve Rogers’ loss of the last seventy years is hinted at when he’s ridiculously proud of finally recognising a pop-culture reference – from ‘The Wizard of Oz’. At the same time, when a key Agent is killed by Loki, the characters are not only deeply affected, but in a way that drives the plot.

'I thought I was a shoe-in for that 'Nightwish' music video! I even brought my own dry ice!'

The acting is naturally top-notch; with a cast of five Academy nominees, you’d expect nothing less. Samuel L. Jackson is his usual badass self, Robert Downey Jnr camps it up as the arrogant Tony Stark, and Mark Ruffalo somehow manages to convey a man permanently on the edge of losing it, despite his meek demeanour. Scarlett Johansson has arguably got one of the plum comic-book heroine roles with the wonderfully-written Black Widow, and doesn’t waste a second of it. Jeremy Renner (who can be in as many iconic films as he likes, but will always be known to me as ‘You know, that bloke out of ‘The Hurt Locker’) keeps Hawkeye’s personality intentionally similar when he’s on the side of evil or good. Tom Hiddleston manages to keep Loki both crazy and threatening, and even Chris Hemsworth is joyfully over-the top as Thor. I could go through every cast member, but it would quickly get very boring – the cast work well together and there isn’t a glaringly bad performance amongst them.

'Okay, give it to me straight - did I vomit into my pint glass, drink it and then do my impression of Carmen Miranda?'
'No, but you'll wish you had.'

The Black Widow. I want to bring this up, because it happens so rarely in comic-book films; she is written amazingly. There aren’t enough women to successfully apply the Bechdel test*, but the Black Widow is sassy, cool, and gets the job done. She has a comrade with whom she has no romantic relationship, and even gets to play on the notion that women are always suckers for love and romance by using this to manipulate Loki into giving her key information. Yes, she tricks the universe’s most legendary trickster.  Agent Maria Hill is never anything other than the consummate professional, able to verbally spar with Nick Fury and hold her own when she knows she is right. For a film that is sadly sparse in female speaking roles, the ones that are there are fantastic.

Thor and Captain America are introduced to the modern-day concept of 'Reality TV'.

The action sequences look amazing; grimy and violent whilst still retaining a fantastical charm. The Hulk looks realistically animated (no doubt because Mark Ruffalo played him in a full motion-capture suit) and all the effects and CGI are used well – everything fits together seamlessly, or it’s used so fleetingly that you don’t get chance to see when it doesn't. The aliens Loki works for are suitably shrouded in darkness and atmospheric lighting, which serves to make the prosthetic work appear as menacing as possible. But the real high-point of this film is that the effects and explosions aren't the thing you start talking about with your friends once you leave the cinema. I've said similar things about ‘X-Men: First Class’, and it’s great to see comic-book adaptations that are trying to capture the drama and emotion behind the battles. It’s often been said that comic-books are far more grown up that people will give them credit for, and it seems that film-makers are starting to catch onto this.

Overall, ‘Avengers Assemble’ is a fun, fast-paced film that balances the action with humour and dramatic tension without letting any element overpower the other. Oh, and I have to salute the film-makers for getting the phrase ‘mewling quim’ past the censors. 

*where two named women must talk to each other about something other than a man.