Jasonic's Favorites: The Avengers
Hello, and good evening, Internet!
Of all my reviews, I feel like this is the one that's most overdue. I once reviewed the first Captain America and Iron Man both on my old blog, "Jasonic Reviews Favorite Movies" -- the first Cap also on this one -- but never got around to this movie prior to me abandoning it. Now I might say my time as come to review my favorite, if not the BEST, MCU Phase 1 movie!
Released in 2012, The Avengers was the first big superhero crossover movie that really committed to the idea of bringing several big and some lesser known superheroes together on one screen -- at least the ones that Marvel could have the rights to at the time. The hype surrounded this idea was huge since, at the time, almost nothing like a shared movie universe existed between various properties with films like X-Men and Spider-Man off in their own universes owned by 20th Century Fox and Sony respectively. Upon its release, box office and critical performance really demonstrated that this was, at the time, a novel idea and, boy did it take the world by storm! The first Iron Man, no doubt, laid the foundation for this film and its cinematic universe ahead, but since nothing like that had ever been done yet, there were some skeptics who doubted that the execs at Marvel Studios had what it took to pull this off. If Iron Man was what laid the foundation for the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), The Avengers was what cemented these movies as a cultural phenomenon that drew in many hardcore Marvel Comics nerds and casual moviegoers alike and paved the way for the franchise's astonishing success throughout the 2010s. I was barely a Marvel person when this movie came out so when it was released and everyone was talking about it, I had barely an idea of why it was such a big deal nor did I fully recognize about how awesome the idea was. Once my dad took me, my sister, and some friends to the theater to see it the summer prior to my high school senior year, I realized how wrong I was about superheroes -- assuming before that their classic cartoons were an indication that they were "boring" -- and became invested in the characters to a point where I wanted to just keep watching these movies play out until whenever they ended up coming to an end. While the MCU is now passed its prime and peak this day and age, I will still watch the ones that people say are great as long as I agree. That said, is The Avengers truly all it's cracked up to be even in this day and age? Let's take a closer look and examine why everyone loved -- and still loves -- this movie and its characters.
*SPOILERS* (although I'm sure everyone has seen this and much of the MCU by now)
12 years ago, the Avengers would have needed an introduction to the general public, but nowadays they basically don't. The film follows several prior MCU movies -- the first two Iron Mans, Captain America: The First Avenger, Thor, and, depending who you ask, The Incredible Hulk, to be exact -- as the mysterious alien race known as the Chitaruri plan to conquer Earth with help from Loki the god of mischief (Tom Hiddleston). As Loki one man infiltrates Earth and steals the Tesseract from S.H.I.E.L.D. custody, he utilizes his scepter to mind control Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Dr. Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård), getting the attention of Director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) who reactivates the "Avenger Initiative" teased initially at the end of Iron Man. While on a mission, Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johanssen) gets in contact with Dr. Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) who's in hiding to protect the world from "the other guy" -- the Hulk. While reluctant, Banner agrees to locate the Tesseract through the amount of gamma radiation it generates; meanwhile, Fury approaches a recently thawed out Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans) about the mission since Cap had a previous encounter with the Tesseract in The First Avenger after it was previously thought to be lost. Finally, Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) visits Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) at Stark Tower -- Stark having just provided a clean source of sustainable energy for the tower -- in order to fact check Dr. Selvig's research and for Coulson to recruit Stark for their cause. While the superhero team members have their disagreements about each other and their strategies, Loki's adoptive brother, Thor (Chris Hemsworth), attempts to reason with Loki in order to convince him to return to Asgard. What follows is the team becoming argumentative about the situation, which factors into Loki's plan to use the Tesseract to open a portal for the Chitauri to invade Earth starting with New York. With the superheroes being forced to team up and form the titular Avengers, the resulting battle will find their version of Earth never being the same again.
Plotwise, there's certainly a lot at play here, but with an ensemble director like Joss Whedon at the helm, he manages to create amazing character dynamics and make everyone feel relevant on top of that. The film goes a different direction than you'd expect from a teamup movie and has our characters of strong personalities at odds with each other, which makes the stakes at hand feel way less hunky dory and more real and tangible. For example, something I never noticed prior to Captain America: Civil War was that Tony and Steve weren't particularly fond of each other with Tony mentioning how his father, Howard Stark, spoke highly of Cap all the time, but never supported him (Tony). In addition to that, Steve, having been the one to make the "sacrifice play" in his first outing, calls out Tony for fighting only for himself and not being the one who would ever make that call -- something that ultimately concludes Tony's character years later in Endgame. It's a dynamic that is pretty much the basis for the first three phases of the MCU happening the way they did and I'm very glad I rewatched this movie to notice the seeds of what became years later. Although they don't get much screentime together this time around, this also shows the believable friendly dynamic between Black Widow and Hawkeye, the two having been great friends in S.H.I.E.L.D. for years despite the latter being mentioned to have been sent on a mission to kill the former when they first met. That there was a detail I never caught before and it's told at an underrated moment where Black Widow is interrogating Loki on what his plan is -- Loki using Natasha's history to emotionally compromise her, eventually revealing that he will use their "monster" -- the Hulk -- against them. As far as Clint and Nat's dynamic, this movie was also the first mention of the famous unanswered MCU plot point known as Budapest, the question of which was answered in Phase 4's first film, Black Widow. The setup for so many significant MCU moments in this one film is astonishing and it succeeded in its own payoffs by both bringing all established heroes together and even including several supporting roles such as Agent Coulson and Dr. Selvig and giving them important roles.
The acting is also stellar as well; Robert Downey Jr. maintains his usual Tony Stark arrogant charm and witty charisma he had established in the first two Iron Man films, even improvising certain gags like him eating blueberries while talking about serious topics with Steve and Dr. Banner. As with the first Captain America film, Chris Evans continues to be one of my favorite parts of the MCU, exuberating that charisma of a soldier with a sense of duty who doesn't play around and puts the safety of others first -- the antithesis of what he suggests to Tony as I mentioned before. Like most Marvel movies, Cap also has some of the best quotes like when Romanoff suggests that Cap is dealing with gods to which Cap says, "There's only one God, ma'am, and I'm pretty sure He doesn't dress like that" -- a nice nod to comic book Captain America's Christianity. Up to this point, Chris Hemsworth has also been an exceptional Thor, demonstrating a more humble attitude toward Earth than he did in the first Thor movie while also acting vengeful like when he fights with Iron Man for getting in the way of him dealing with Loki. Being his first round as the Incredible Hulk, Mark Ruffalo does a pretty good job acting as Bruce Banner, maintaining a bashful, level headed demeanor when, secretly, he's "always angry", which allows him to control the Hulk persona a little more easily -- save for when he Hulks out due to the stress of the Helicarrier attack. Jeremy Renner wasn't given much to do in his small cameo in Thor, but he has more significant presence and character here with his dynamic with Natasha, as I mentioned, being the best part. As far as Natasha herself, Scarlett Johanssen shows much more acting ability here than her debut in Iron Man 2, showing she is much more prone to emotional breakdowns like when she acts emotionally compromised due to Loki taunting her about her past and later when she distresses over Bruce Banner Hulking out while she's stuck under debris. It was moments like this that turned Black Widow into more than just a badass beauty for me with her now being one of my favorite women in the MCU. And, of course, who could go without mentioning Loki? Tom Hiddleston's iconic performance showcases Loki's evil charm and cunning demeanor so effectively that, at this point in time, he was the best, most effective villain in the franchise -- also was the only one to survive is first appearance then. Smaller roles like Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson and Colbie Smulders as Maria Hill are what you expect from those characters with Agent Coulson getting the most emotional moment in the film by being the one to die -- he comes back in the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV show, but at the time, this was the most emotional Marvel movie death apart from Uncle Ben in Raimi's Spider-Man. The acting of this movie would ultimately form the basis of these characters for their remaining MCU tenure and they would act very consistently for many movies to come.
Something that current movies in the MCU lack is good CGI and this movie has a lot of that, but it's very impressive CGI for that matter. With a whopping 2,200+ VFX shots, this film pretty much gave James Cameron's Avatar a run for its money (quite literally in terms of how fast it achieved $1 billion). The Iron Man suit CG is still a sight to behold with the contraption that removes his armor along the Stark Tower walkway being an impressive showcasing of digital effects as well as the evolution of Tony's technology. The Hulk CGI is also done well in how it captures Mark Ruffalo's face on the beast, which is something all Hulk actors have done, but, in my honest opinion, Ruffalo's facial capture looks the most natural; upon looking into the VFX shots of the movie, I discovered that Ruffalo also wore a motion capture suit with prosthetics on his upper body to emulate the Hulk's size. This was particularly useful in closeup shots such as when Thor and Hulk are fighting in the Helicarrier and made their interactions look more natural compared to the CGI dolls that have been used frequently in later Marvel projects. The look of the Helicarrier is also rather impressive with the ship being the largest ship put to screen in a Marvel project at that point and even the wideshots of it rising from the ocean present some clean, detailed CGI, making it look very lived in and used. Perhaps the most impressive use of CGI in the film is, surprisingly, the New York skyline during the final battle; potentially to avoid filming costs, ILM (Industrial Lighting and Magic) recreated the New York skyline in great detail and did an excellent job making it look like the real Manhattan with fictional landmarks (i.e.: Stark Tower). A well-known fact among Marvel superfans such as myself is that this film was almost canonical to The Amazing Spider-Man because Disney and Sony agreed to implement the Oscorp Tower from said film into the background somewhere in the final act. This idea was unfortunately abandoned, but it would have been an impressive connection between those franchises and, as of the present day, I am glad that Disney and Sony worked out a deal to implement a new version of Spider-Man into the MCU. That aside, the lengths to which this film went to make the CGI look natural was astounding and makes for some of the best VFX in Marvel before and since.
Shockingly for an MCU film, this soundtrack is actually decent as many sequences present what is perhaps the most iconic MCU theme song and superhero theme song in general, "The Avengers" by Alan Silvestri. Silvestri was previously in charge of the Captain America: The First Avenger soundtrack and, while his work wasn't too standout in that film, he more than exceled at giving the world the one theme song that most people besides Marvel superfans would associate with the Avengers. The swelling horns and heroic strings that display the triumph of the Avengers forming for the first time to save the world is so iconic, I am picturing the moment where it plays in the film as the camera circles around them forming up to take on the Chitauri invasion -- a very iconic group shot of the Avengers, for that matter. The formation of this team was not only a triumphant moment in-universe, but the fact that the theme is repeatedly used and reused for Avengers promotional material and in the following three sequels for that matter is a testament to its iconography and the impact the Avengers and other Marvel heroes have had on pop culture for the last decade and a half. I, personally, haven't listened to the rest of the soundtrack as I don't typically do that for film soundtracks, but the film score I could make out sounded pretty epic and befitting of the situations they were in, even the non-superhero action sequences such as the opening chase scene with Loki and co. running from Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. forces. As with most of my reviews, I am often one to point out the vocal theme song made for the credits and in this case it's "Live to Rise" by Soundgarden. With the band having reformed around the time of this movie, this song was a hit upon release and, in my opinion, captivates the Avengers in their moment of triumph against Loki and the Chitauri. Rock songs have often been included at the end of superhero movies, even the 1990s Batman movies, and the Avengers has no shortage of music from and inspired by it on its aptly titled Avengers Assemble: Music from and Inspired by the Motion Picture soundtrack -- I even listen to the Shinedown song, "I'm Alive" while working out. Of all the MCU movies, this is by far the one in which I can say the most about the music and that shows just how relevant the team has become both in culture and musically.
With all that's become of superhero pop culture in this day and age, it's only fitting to say that The Avengers has played a significant part in that in more ways than one. With its familiar plotline full of excellent character relationships and dynamics, its great acting talents, impressive VFX, and actually competent music -- for an MCU movie that is -- it's no wonder that the Avengers superhero team and its characters have become one of the newest pop culture staples in recent memory. While sadly the former passion and talent of the MCU has mostly gone away, lest we not forget how this movie brought to the limelight the concept of an interconnected movie universe with shared characters that have strong enough personalities to expand into a mega multi-billion dollar franchise. If this film serves as a testament to me personally, it was the beginning of my superhero nerd culture with both the then-upcoming and already existing Spider-Man projects I invested in cementing the reasons why I love superheroes so much nowadays. To me and many others, they may have larger than life personas, but with actors and aspects of their characters portraying well the humanity of the heroes showcases why we more often than not return to see these characters go on new escapades and take on new challenges no matter how formulaic the movies might get with time. All that said, I give The Avengers a solid A and recommend it to anyone, comic book nerd and casual moviegoer alike.
Thank you all for reading and I will see you in the next review!
Of all my reviews, I feel like this is the one that's most overdue. I once reviewed the first Captain America and Iron Man both on my old blog, "Jasonic Reviews Favorite Movies" -- the first Cap also on this one -- but never got around to this movie prior to me abandoning it. Now I might say my time as come to review my favorite, if not the BEST, MCU Phase 1 movie!
Released in 2012, The Avengers was the first big superhero crossover movie that really committed to the idea of bringing several big and some lesser known superheroes together on one screen -- at least the ones that Marvel could have the rights to at the time. The hype surrounded this idea was huge since, at the time, almost nothing like a shared movie universe existed between various properties with films like X-Men and Spider-Man off in their own universes owned by 20th Century Fox and Sony respectively. Upon its release, box office and critical performance really demonstrated that this was, at the time, a novel idea and, boy did it take the world by storm! The first Iron Man, no doubt, laid the foundation for this film and its cinematic universe ahead, but since nothing like that had ever been done yet, there were some skeptics who doubted that the execs at Marvel Studios had what it took to pull this off. If Iron Man was what laid the foundation for the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), The Avengers was what cemented these movies as a cultural phenomenon that drew in many hardcore Marvel Comics nerds and casual moviegoers alike and paved the way for the franchise's astonishing success throughout the 2010s. I was barely a Marvel person when this movie came out so when it was released and everyone was talking about it, I had barely an idea of why it was such a big deal nor did I fully recognize about how awesome the idea was. Once my dad took me, my sister, and some friends to the theater to see it the summer prior to my high school senior year, I realized how wrong I was about superheroes -- assuming before that their classic cartoons were an indication that they were "boring" -- and became invested in the characters to a point where I wanted to just keep watching these movies play out until whenever they ended up coming to an end. While the MCU is now passed its prime and peak this day and age, I will still watch the ones that people say are great as long as I agree. That said, is The Avengers truly all it's cracked up to be even in this day and age? Let's take a closer look and examine why everyone loved -- and still loves -- this movie and its characters.
*SPOILERS* (although I'm sure everyone has seen this and much of the MCU by now)
12 years ago, the Avengers would have needed an introduction to the general public, but nowadays they basically don't. The film follows several prior MCU movies -- the first two Iron Mans, Captain America: The First Avenger, Thor, and, depending who you ask, The Incredible Hulk, to be exact -- as the mysterious alien race known as the Chitaruri plan to conquer Earth with help from Loki the god of mischief (Tom Hiddleston). As Loki one man infiltrates Earth and steals the Tesseract from S.H.I.E.L.D. custody, he utilizes his scepter to mind control Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Dr. Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård), getting the attention of Director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) who reactivates the "Avenger Initiative" teased initially at the end of Iron Man. While on a mission, Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johanssen) gets in contact with Dr. Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) who's in hiding to protect the world from "the other guy" -- the Hulk. While reluctant, Banner agrees to locate the Tesseract through the amount of gamma radiation it generates; meanwhile, Fury approaches a recently thawed out Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans) about the mission since Cap had a previous encounter with the Tesseract in The First Avenger after it was previously thought to be lost. Finally, Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) visits Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) at Stark Tower -- Stark having just provided a clean source of sustainable energy for the tower -- in order to fact check Dr. Selvig's research and for Coulson to recruit Stark for their cause. While the superhero team members have their disagreements about each other and their strategies, Loki's adoptive brother, Thor (Chris Hemsworth), attempts to reason with Loki in order to convince him to return to Asgard. What follows is the team becoming argumentative about the situation, which factors into Loki's plan to use the Tesseract to open a portal for the Chitauri to invade Earth starting with New York. With the superheroes being forced to team up and form the titular Avengers, the resulting battle will find their version of Earth never being the same again.
Plotwise, there's certainly a lot at play here, but with an ensemble director like Joss Whedon at the helm, he manages to create amazing character dynamics and make everyone feel relevant on top of that. The film goes a different direction than you'd expect from a teamup movie and has our characters of strong personalities at odds with each other, which makes the stakes at hand feel way less hunky dory and more real and tangible. For example, something I never noticed prior to Captain America: Civil War was that Tony and Steve weren't particularly fond of each other with Tony mentioning how his father, Howard Stark, spoke highly of Cap all the time, but never supported him (Tony). In addition to that, Steve, having been the one to make the "sacrifice play" in his first outing, calls out Tony for fighting only for himself and not being the one who would ever make that call -- something that ultimately concludes Tony's character years later in Endgame. It's a dynamic that is pretty much the basis for the first three phases of the MCU happening the way they did and I'm very glad I rewatched this movie to notice the seeds of what became years later. Although they don't get much screentime together this time around, this also shows the believable friendly dynamic between Black Widow and Hawkeye, the two having been great friends in S.H.I.E.L.D. for years despite the latter being mentioned to have been sent on a mission to kill the former when they first met. That there was a detail I never caught before and it's told at an underrated moment where Black Widow is interrogating Loki on what his plan is -- Loki using Natasha's history to emotionally compromise her, eventually revealing that he will use their "monster" -- the Hulk -- against them. As far as Clint and Nat's dynamic, this movie was also the first mention of the famous unanswered MCU plot point known as Budapest, the question of which was answered in Phase 4's first film, Black Widow. The setup for so many significant MCU moments in this one film is astonishing and it succeeded in its own payoffs by both bringing all established heroes together and even including several supporting roles such as Agent Coulson and Dr. Selvig and giving them important roles.
The acting is also stellar as well; Robert Downey Jr. maintains his usual Tony Stark arrogant charm and witty charisma he had established in the first two Iron Man films, even improvising certain gags like him eating blueberries while talking about serious topics with Steve and Dr. Banner. As with the first Captain America film, Chris Evans continues to be one of my favorite parts of the MCU, exuberating that charisma of a soldier with a sense of duty who doesn't play around and puts the safety of others first -- the antithesis of what he suggests to Tony as I mentioned before. Like most Marvel movies, Cap also has some of the best quotes like when Romanoff suggests that Cap is dealing with gods to which Cap says, "There's only one God, ma'am, and I'm pretty sure He doesn't dress like that" -- a nice nod to comic book Captain America's Christianity. Up to this point, Chris Hemsworth has also been an exceptional Thor, demonstrating a more humble attitude toward Earth than he did in the first Thor movie while also acting vengeful like when he fights with Iron Man for getting in the way of him dealing with Loki. Being his first round as the Incredible Hulk, Mark Ruffalo does a pretty good job acting as Bruce Banner, maintaining a bashful, level headed demeanor when, secretly, he's "always angry", which allows him to control the Hulk persona a little more easily -- save for when he Hulks out due to the stress of the Helicarrier attack. Jeremy Renner wasn't given much to do in his small cameo in Thor, but he has more significant presence and character here with his dynamic with Natasha, as I mentioned, being the best part. As far as Natasha herself, Scarlett Johanssen shows much more acting ability here than her debut in Iron Man 2, showing she is much more prone to emotional breakdowns like when she acts emotionally compromised due to Loki taunting her about her past and later when she distresses over Bruce Banner Hulking out while she's stuck under debris. It was moments like this that turned Black Widow into more than just a badass beauty for me with her now being one of my favorite women in the MCU. And, of course, who could go without mentioning Loki? Tom Hiddleston's iconic performance showcases Loki's evil charm and cunning demeanor so effectively that, at this point in time, he was the best, most effective villain in the franchise -- also was the only one to survive is first appearance then. Smaller roles like Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson and Colbie Smulders as Maria Hill are what you expect from those characters with Agent Coulson getting the most emotional moment in the film by being the one to die -- he comes back in the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV show, but at the time, this was the most emotional Marvel movie death apart from Uncle Ben in Raimi's Spider-Man. The acting of this movie would ultimately form the basis of these characters for their remaining MCU tenure and they would act very consistently for many movies to come.
Something that current movies in the MCU lack is good CGI and this movie has a lot of that, but it's very impressive CGI for that matter. With a whopping 2,200+ VFX shots, this film pretty much gave James Cameron's Avatar a run for its money (quite literally in terms of how fast it achieved $1 billion). The Iron Man suit CG is still a sight to behold with the contraption that removes his armor along the Stark Tower walkway being an impressive showcasing of digital effects as well as the evolution of Tony's technology. The Hulk CGI is also done well in how it captures Mark Ruffalo's face on the beast, which is something all Hulk actors have done, but, in my honest opinion, Ruffalo's facial capture looks the most natural; upon looking into the VFX shots of the movie, I discovered that Ruffalo also wore a motion capture suit with prosthetics on his upper body to emulate the Hulk's size. This was particularly useful in closeup shots such as when Thor and Hulk are fighting in the Helicarrier and made their interactions look more natural compared to the CGI dolls that have been used frequently in later Marvel projects. The look of the Helicarrier is also rather impressive with the ship being the largest ship put to screen in a Marvel project at that point and even the wideshots of it rising from the ocean present some clean, detailed CGI, making it look very lived in and used. Perhaps the most impressive use of CGI in the film is, surprisingly, the New York skyline during the final battle; potentially to avoid filming costs, ILM (Industrial Lighting and Magic) recreated the New York skyline in great detail and did an excellent job making it look like the real Manhattan with fictional landmarks (i.e.: Stark Tower). A well-known fact among Marvel superfans such as myself is that this film was almost canonical to The Amazing Spider-Man because Disney and Sony agreed to implement the Oscorp Tower from said film into the background somewhere in the final act. This idea was unfortunately abandoned, but it would have been an impressive connection between those franchises and, as of the present day, I am glad that Disney and Sony worked out a deal to implement a new version of Spider-Man into the MCU. That aside, the lengths to which this film went to make the CGI look natural was astounding and makes for some of the best VFX in Marvel before and since.
Shockingly for an MCU film, this soundtrack is actually decent as many sequences present what is perhaps the most iconic MCU theme song and superhero theme song in general, "The Avengers" by Alan Silvestri. Silvestri was previously in charge of the Captain America: The First Avenger soundtrack and, while his work wasn't too standout in that film, he more than exceled at giving the world the one theme song that most people besides Marvel superfans would associate with the Avengers. The swelling horns and heroic strings that display the triumph of the Avengers forming for the first time to save the world is so iconic, I am picturing the moment where it plays in the film as the camera circles around them forming up to take on the Chitauri invasion -- a very iconic group shot of the Avengers, for that matter. The formation of this team was not only a triumphant moment in-universe, but the fact that the theme is repeatedly used and reused for Avengers promotional material and in the following three sequels for that matter is a testament to its iconography and the impact the Avengers and other Marvel heroes have had on pop culture for the last decade and a half. I, personally, haven't listened to the rest of the soundtrack as I don't typically do that for film soundtracks, but the film score I could make out sounded pretty epic and befitting of the situations they were in, even the non-superhero action sequences such as the opening chase scene with Loki and co. running from Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. forces. As with most of my reviews, I am often one to point out the vocal theme song made for the credits and in this case it's "Live to Rise" by Soundgarden. With the band having reformed around the time of this movie, this song was a hit upon release and, in my opinion, captivates the Avengers in their moment of triumph against Loki and the Chitauri. Rock songs have often been included at the end of superhero movies, even the 1990s Batman movies, and the Avengers has no shortage of music from and inspired by it on its aptly titled Avengers Assemble: Music from and Inspired by the Motion Picture soundtrack -- I even listen to the Shinedown song, "I'm Alive" while working out. Of all the MCU movies, this is by far the one in which I can say the most about the music and that shows just how relevant the team has become both in culture and musically.
With all that's become of superhero pop culture in this day and age, it's only fitting to say that The Avengers has played a significant part in that in more ways than one. With its familiar plotline full of excellent character relationships and dynamics, its great acting talents, impressive VFX, and actually competent music -- for an MCU movie that is -- it's no wonder that the Avengers superhero team and its characters have become one of the newest pop culture staples in recent memory. While sadly the former passion and talent of the MCU has mostly gone away, lest we not forget how this movie brought to the limelight the concept of an interconnected movie universe with shared characters that have strong enough personalities to expand into a mega multi-billion dollar franchise. If this film serves as a testament to me personally, it was the beginning of my superhero nerd culture with both the then-upcoming and already existing Spider-Man projects I invested in cementing the reasons why I love superheroes so much nowadays. To me and many others, they may have larger than life personas, but with actors and aspects of their characters portraying well the humanity of the heroes showcases why we more often than not return to see these characters go on new escapades and take on new challenges no matter how formulaic the movies might get with time. All that said, I give The Avengers a solid A and recommend it to anyone, comic book nerd and casual moviegoer alike.
Thank you all for reading and I will see you in the next review!
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