Marvel's The Avengers (Whedon) 2012

The group of Avengers comes together for the first time in this Marvel Cinematic Universe film directed by Joss Whedon. Of course, all is not smooth sailing as infighting and squabbles pop up as a preview of things to come in the series.

With the coming together of the Avengers as a team, the group that backs them up begins to have a much bigger role. Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg), and Agent Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) feature prominently in this film, and Coulson especially brings the Avengers team together, albeit in a bit unconventional way.

The film revolves around a plot by Loki (Tom Hiddleston) to use the Tesseract to subjugate planet Earth with the help of an alien race called the Chitauri. He recruits scientist Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård) and S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) to help him in his plans, taking up residence at the top of Stark Tower in New York City.

Various members of S.H.I.E.L.D. are dispatched to activate the "Avengers Initiative" bringing together the team of superheroes including Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.), Bruce Banner/Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), and Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans) to help save the world. Thor arrives and frees a captured Loki in hopes of changing his mind.

The ending of the film is an all out battle royale in and above the streets of New York City as Chitauri aliens attack through a wormhole opened by Loki and his band. The group of differing personalities must come together and use their individual strengths to become an even stronger whole in order to defeat the alien menace.

There are obvious undertones of friendship and trust in this film, as we see Stark not fully trusting Banner and his temper that might transform him into the Hulk. Thor completely distrusts both Rogers and Stark at first, but ultimately must join forces with them against his own brother. We also get a much better glimpse into Fury's character in this film, when he...stretches the truth about a certain event in order to help drive the Avengers together as a team.

Despite the overwhelming scope of this film, Marvel's The Avengers was only able to muster one nomination at the Oscars, for Best Visual Effects, and lost out to the Ang Lee film Life of Pi.

While short for an Avengers film, it still clocks in at nearly two and a half hours. That said, it doesn't feel like an overly long movie. The pace keeps moving, and there is action happening in enough places to keep any one piece from getting stale. This one is definitely on the list of key films to watch before checking out Endgame.

​​8 out of 10

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