Movie Review: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes Indeed
You may not know this but ‘The Avengers’ director and writer, Joss Whedon, is also responsible for other amazing adaptations such as the Television series ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ as well as ‘Angel’. He is also behind the action flick ‘Serenity’ which sadly didn’t make much of a footprint on the global box office, but nonetheless lives on to be a great work of art that Whedon should be proud of.
Other titles that can be accredited to Joss Whedon include Dollhouse (TV series), Toy Story, Firefly (TV series) and the 2011 film ‘The Cabin in the Woods’, alongside a plethora of other films and series.
His latest offering though, Marvel’s ‘The Avengers’ is what has got appetites whet with anticipation of just what an amalgamation of the Marvel superheroes Iron Man, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, Hawk Guy and Captain America would be like.
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In the opening scene, Loki (Tom Hiddleston), who has been banished from Assgard for his insatiable thirst for power, is in cohoots with the leader of the Chitauri, a forgotten but mystically powerful race of not so good looking aliens (come to think of it, which aliens as depicted really are?), bent on conquering earth and retrieving the Tesseract: a vital energy source that would be instrumental in linking the realms of Earth and that of the Chitauri.
What was worrying however was how exactly the director would succeed in fusing the strong personalities particularly of Iron Man, Thor and the Hulk, maintaining them on the same side of what would nonetheless be an epic battle in all proportions. Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man) does not disappoint with his effortless sarcasm and self assurance, as does Chris Hemsworth (Thor) with enchanting early century prose, gallantry and a perfunctory stamp on duty and chivalry.
Romance was virtually non-existent in the film, aside from the chemistry that Downey and Paltrow (Pepper Potts) clearly maintain. The affection that drew Thor to Earth in the first place, in the embodiment of human Jane Foster is notably absent, but I assume that is because the god of Thunder had other pressing matters, such as the rebellion of his borther Loki, to attend to. There are brief references to her though, but not as strikingly evident as Mr. and Mrs. Stark.
Humour with a tad bit of both dry and hearty laughs placed the icing on the Avenger cake, particularly with the Incredible Hulk and his abandon love for destruction and ‘smashing things’ minced with an array of the other characters having their moments. Although Johansson (Black Widow) was a late and final casting, the feminine and sensual touch she adds to the power team did not go un-noticed, as she whimsically obtained the necessary information for S.H.I.E.L.D and associates.
Now, S.H.I.E.L.D is like some super duper FBI agency that has a firm grip on world intelligence coupled with a flying machine called the Hellicarrier. The leader of this agency, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) is according to Whedon’s adaptation, responsible for the assembly of the Avengers to help foil Loki’s dasterdly deeds.
If there’s a next level of ‘action’, then that’s what should be slapped on to ‘The Avengers’, as we’re altruistically taken through belt-buckling and titanic confrontations, battles and escapes as the war between Loki’s ‘possessed’ henchmen together with the Chitauri, team up against Earth’s mightiest heroes as they seek to destroy and colonize.
The Avengers is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America
The film opened on Friday and is showing at IMAX XX Century and Fox Cineplex Sarit Centre.
