The Avengers (2012)

A fanboy’s wet-dream. I guess that’s the perfect way to sum up Marvel’s The Avengers. I’ve grown up reading comics, watching these characters on the television in animated form, have even seen their individual live-action films, but seeing all these characters in one movie is simply beyond incredible. I’m not a Marvel fan, more of a DC guy, but I will hand it to Marvel as well as Disney for doing a mind-blowing job with a blockbuster of a movie.

The movie begins with Nick Fury (Played by Samuel L. Jackson) conducting some tests on the tesseract. The tesseract is how the story writers have managed to link all the characters to each other, as well as their individual films. The tesseract opens up a portal and cue entry: Loki (Played by Tom Hiddleston). Loki has always had a grudge against Earth and was always monomaniacal about power. He destroys the S.H.I.E.L.D. facility, almost kills Fury and escapes with the Tesseract. He manages to ‘hypnotize’ Hawkeye or Agent Barton (Played by Jeremy Renner) and Professor Selvig (Played by Stellan Skarsgard) and is now able to control their minds and make them his personal flying monkeys. 

Jackson recognises the threat Loki is to Earth and calls for the assembling of the Avengers. Agent Saranoff or Black Widow (Played by Scarlett Johanson *.*) is in the middle of an unusual interrogation where in the beginning it seems she is a captured, compromised agent, but then she gets a call and by the end of it, she is walking out of the building without a scratch and there are 3 men badly injured fallen down on the ground or hanging in weird and painful positions. Black Widow is asked to go convince Dr. Bruce Banner who turns into the Hulk (Played by Mark Ruffalo) to come help S.H.I.E.L.D. locate the tesseract. With a lot of hesitation and guns, Banner agrees. Agent Phil Coulson (Played by Clark Gregg) is sent to get Tony Stark/Iron Man and without much difficulty and a little help from the Pepper Potts (Played by Gywneth Paltrow) manages to convince him. Nick Fury himself approaches Captain Roger, popularly known as Captain America (Played by Chris Evans) with the project. They all convene over a hover military station kind of thing, which can even become invisible. The writers have tried to keep the story as practical as possible, but after a while the concept of realism seizes to exist in the film. Which is not a bad thing, but honestly, beats the point of trying to put that concept in, in the first place.

Thor has a dynamic entry, when Iron Man and Captain America manage to capture Loki in Stuttgart, Germany and they’re taking him back for interrogation. Thor lands on the roof of the jet, comes in from the bay door, bashes Iron Man with his hammer once, grabs Loki and flies off. Iron Man is pissed and his animosity for the god is visible from their first meeting itself. Iron man followed by Captain America go in pursuit of Loki and Thor. With a Forest-Destroying  fight sequence, with a few hilarious tit-bits from Tony’s sarcastic personality, the Avengers gives us the first Superhero vs Superhero action fight in the movie. After a short a fight, the fight between Captain America, Thor and Iron Man ends with no one winning. They all agree to take Loki to S.H.I.E.L.D. and think about the future course of action over there. Loki’s presence on the hovercraft changes the dynamics of the entire ship. It results in utter-chaos. Loki’s men along with a hypnotised Hawkeye damage one of the motors of the craft. Iron Man and Captain America, start working on the motor. Bruce Banner turns into the Hulk without his volition and starts fighting Thor. Black Widow works on Hawkeye and manages to recalibrate his mind. By the end of this, Loki manages to escape. Every one is scattered and de-moralised and Phil Coulson is dead.

This part of the movie, I specifically like because it shows the vulnerability in each character, but also acts as the impetus for them join forces. Tony and Rogers manage to deduce that Loki is planning on opening a portal in New York to unleash his army on Earth. The Avengers assemble there once again, but this time in complete co-ordination and consummate skill manage to fend off each attack of Loki’s war. The Hulk is by far the fan-favorite during this end fight-sequence, with his aggression being unleashed on Loki’s army, with his weird adorable-ness in instances like when he punches Thor, thrashes Loki or saves Iron Man. A nuclear missile is sent flying towards New York, when with the help of Fury, Iron Man uses to destroy the mother ship of the enemy forces. All in all this fight sequence, is beyond epic. There is possibly no epithet to describe it.

Loki returns with Thor to Asgard along with the Tesseract, and the Avengers go their way. The Avengers is an epic movie, which opened doors to a new way to write comic-inspired movies. The movie is very laggy for around 3/4th of its course, but the last fight sequence makes up for all of it. All actors having performed their roles on numerous occasions have easily settled into their characters and these characters have actually started to define them. If you’ve watched the trailer for Avengers 2, you must have seen that all characters try to pick up Thor’s hammer, but fail to, Captain America comes close, but Black Widow refuses to give it a try. The condition to have the ability to pick up Thor’s hammer is that you must be worthy. Now we know that Loki’s staff is of the same kind of weapon like Thor’s hammer. Loki’s staff has the ability to manipulate one’s mind. I believe Black Widow is actually worthy of picking up the hammer. Why?

1. Loki used the staff to manipulate Hawkeye and Selvig, successfully and for some unclear reason unsuccessfully couldn’t do it to Stark.
2. When Banner picked up the staff, it filled him with rage and anger, that you could see his skin turning green.
3. But when Black Widow picks up the staff to close the portal, it doesn’t affect her. At all.

If you put the concept of Staff and Hammer being of the same kind vis-a-vis this explanation, you’ll only reach one conclusion, Black Widow is worthy.

Okay, I see if I’ve gone too long with this in my excitement, so I’ll hurry up. The animation was mind-blowing. Cinematography and direction is excellent. I simply cannot wait for Avengers 2, which releases this May.

But we all know, Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice, is gonna make all this look like a baby’s show so, DC for life.