Movie Review: Marvel's The Avengers

Story: The Earth's Mightiest Heroes joined forces to fight the alien armada lead by Loki, the Norse god of mischief. Based on the comic books from Marvel Comics.

Review: After the series of movies that leads to the prelude to Avengers, the cycle is now complete. The first movie that will lead to the Avengers was in Iron Man. When Nick Fury, played by Samuel L. Jackson, revealed himself to Tony Stark aka Iron Man, played by Robert Downey, Jr. and mentioned the Avenger Initiative in an extra scene. The second extra scene was in the movie, The Incredible Hulk when Robert Downey, Jr. made a surprise appearance as Tony Stark and was talking to General Ross about Stark forming a team. This movie marked the first crossover that happened in the movies. The crossover continued in Iron Man 2 when Agent Coulson, played by Clark Gregg went to New Mexico and found Thor's hammer, Mjolnir, stuck on the ground which is also part of the movie, Thor. The movie also introduced Black Widow, played by Scarlett Johannson. In Thor, a revelation the extra last scene was Nick Fury was consulting Dr. Erik Selvig, played by Stellan Skarsgard, about the Tesseract. Jeremy Renner also made a cameo appearance as Hawkeye in Thor. Lastly, was Captain America, played by Chris Evans when he was awakened by Nick Fury after they freed him from suspended animation decades later.

The Avengers first comic book appearance

The Avengers first appeared in the first issue of the Avengers. The founding members were Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Ant-Man, and the Wasp. Just like the movie, the five joined forces to fight Loki. After the founding members, the Avengers has new members that come and go including Spider-Man and Wolverine to name a few. The different variety of abilities and powers makes the Avengers conquer almost any threat they encounter. These abilities ranges from the powerful likes of Hulk and Thor to the non-powered fighting skills of Black Widow and Hawkeye.

The movie deviated from the Avengers origin story in the comics to make it more appealing and realistic in a modern sense. Even though Captain America later joined the Avengers after revived him from suspended animation, they included him in the movie for a good reason. Captain America is a charismatic character and he is a good candidate for leadership to balance the different conflict of personalities that may exist among them. To many, he is the most iconic character, a living symbol not just for the country that he represents in his costume.

For the production, the movie did well in casting all the actors in most of the Marvel movies that has connection with the Avengers with exception of Mark Ruffalo, who replaced Edward Norton as Dr. Bruce Banner, the alter ego of the Hulk. What impressed me about Mark Ruffalo that he looks like Bill Bixby, the first actor to play Bruce Banner in the Incredible Hulk TV series back in the the 70's. Chris Evan is no stranger to super hero comics since he first did another Marvel Comics superhero, the Human Torch of the Fantastic Four movies.

For director Joss Whedon,  he outdid himself. I first saw heard about him as creator of Buffy The Vampire Slayer TV series and surprised me when he was writing The Astonishing X-Men for Marvel which gave positive reviews that I always knew he can pull the same stunt with the Avengers. For now, I am fully satisfied with the movie and I won't mind if there will be a sequel since the I can now consider this Marvel franchise as ongoing like in the comics. Just like the previous movies, don't leave yet during the end credits for the extra scene. Marvel's The Avengers is now showing in cinemas nationwide in 2D, 3D or IMAX format. Just a tip. Be sure to make your reservations ahead to get the seats desired. There were already advance booking and block screening for the first two weeks. Marvel's The Avengers is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Phils. Thanks to Walt Disney Studios Phils. for the pass last April 26 at SM Megamall Cinema 6.

Avengers Assemble!