Entertaining and silly at the same time while the writers manage to not make a mess out of this huge ensemble cast

Rating: 7/10 (9 May 2016)

"Wow!! A Super-Hero movie" days are gone with one releasing every month and the interest levels getting saturated with the audience. In these times, the studios, artists and technicians are always trying to find ways to out-do each other, come up with something fresh and innovative each revision which sometimes work. Marvel seems to be a clear winner in the genre war against DC which seems to be imploding with its heavy-handedness continuing the strategy successfully used by Christopher Nolan in the Dark Knight trilogy. On the other hand, Marvel seems to have understood the pulse of its mass audience better and kept churning out blockbusters with relative ease - but not sure how long the same strategy works.
The storyline is very close to "Dawn of Justice" and many other recent superhero ventures dealing with people's tolerance towards vigilante justice and accountability for collateral damage. After an operation to thwart a mercenary from stealing a bio-hazardous virus goes bad in Lagos, Nigeria leading to deaths of innocent civilians, the Avengers are held accountable and an accord is passed to give control of their missions to a UN committee. Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and Natasha a.k.a Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) sees reason in this request and plays ball but not Captain America (Chris Evans). When a bomb explodes in the accords convention at Berlin, and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) comes out as a prime suspect, battles lines are drawn and each member of Avengers are forced to take sides.
What Marvel is getting right in the Avengers series is the treatment - after all these characters and story lines are straight out of comic books. While they try to build mature character arcs and brings in a serious plot involving death of some characters, the treatment is still on the lighter note focused solely on quick and cheap entertainment. If a viewer takes especially this storyline seriously, there couldn't be a sillier premise with the two groups of Avengers fighting each other but not seriously enough to hurt each other. Another attribute that Marvel has been doing so good is how to write a script that gives enough screen time and importance to this plethora of characters.
Starting with the technical departments, the special effects are slick and on par with other recent movies. A special credit goes to the writers for coming up with a smooth screenplay with so many characters each having their space. While it features some of the best actors that Hollywood could offer, there isn't enough in the script which requires them to play out of their skin. Most of the actors are veterans in this series who has established characters and mannerisms, so rather than indulging in their performance analysis - I would rather go over some new characters in the Avengers series. Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther doesn't come off as menacing as he wants to be without the costume, but the effeminate mannerisms with the costume makes it highly inconsistent. Paul Rudd (Ant-Man) has built his entire career on his comic timing and the writers have ensured they leveraged the most out of it. However the revelation has been how good Peter Parker a.k.a. Spider-Man (Tom Holland) has been integrated into the Avengers universe with lots of wit, charm and heart - which the web wielding audience favorite is know for. Overall the pace is brisk, the battle scenes of the actual premise is entertaining and silly at the same time while other action scenes are worth a watch, the actors seem to be having a good time and it shows in their performances. The makers have overstayed their welcome for sure with the repetitive gags and banter between their lead characters across multiple Marvel movies, I am not sure if I am ready for more of this.
Entertaining and silly at the same time while the writers manage to not make a mess out of this huge ensemble cast.