The film is a crowd pleaser that will have both fans and novices cheering....Well worth the wait and then some...
Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), director of the secret government agency S.H.I.E.L.D., arrives at a remote research facility during an evacuation. The Tesseract, an energy source of unknown power, has activated and opened a portal through space, allowing the exiled Asgardian Loki (Tom Hiddleston) to arrive on Earth. During his exile, Loki teamed up with the Other (Alexis Denisof), an alien conqueror who, in exchange for the Tesseract, offers Loki an army of Chitauri in order for him to subjugate our world's people.
Loki takes the Tesseract, and uses his abilities to control the minds of several S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel including agent Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner), and physicist consultant Dr. Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård) in order to aid in his getaway.
In response to the attack, Fury reactivates the Avengers Initiative. Agent Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) is sent to India to recruit Dr. Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), while Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg), visits Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr. ) interrupting his date with Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) and requests that he review Selvig's research. Fury approaches Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) to go retrieve the Tesseract from Loki.
Rogers, Stark and Romanoff travel to Germany to capture Loki, who is seeing the iridium needed to stabilize the Tesseract's power. After a battle with Captain America and Iron Man, Loki surrenders and is escorted back to a S.H.I.E.L.D. plane. However, Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Loki's adoptive brother, arrives and attempts to free Loki in order to reason with him...
As regular readers of this blog are well aware--I have been a fan of Wheddon's since the start of the 1996-2003 Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series--this time though he has a much bigger canvas to work with and is certainly up to the challenge of bringing these characters together.
One of the complaints that I had about Iron Man 2 was that it spent way to much time as a set up to The Avengers and not on the threat at hand--It's nice to know that the tactic was not for naught--Unlike a lot of comic book movies that have a lot of character and plot to service Wheddon does a fine balancing act--The film is perfectly paced with the proper amount of spectacle and character interplay/development. I was surprised at just how well the film zipped along while never feeling rushed--With a lot of ground to cover, Wheddon made sure to include his signature moves: Witty dialogue easy to understand exposition, sentimentality, and humor.
Each of our heroes are given more than one chance to shine and each one has purpose to advance the story--no one sits idle for long. Wheddon makes sure that the characters behave consistently to reflect the earlier films
Anyone making a comic book film with a lot of characters should have to study this film to know how to make it work.
I could get into some of my favorite sequences but I would rather not get all spoilery--Let's just say that the heroes, villains and everyone in between are put through their paces, with great results. The confrontation between Loki and the Hulk...priceless.
I do have a few minor nit picks: Just how did Thor make it back to Earth after the end of his film made it clear he was stuck at home on Asgaurd; The motive of the other is glossed over and never fully explained; And Fury's superperiors seem random and out of place since they were never seen before...
Some have called The Avengers the "BEST" comic book movie ever--I would not go quite that far--but it certainly is a hell of lot of fun!
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