Great Film

Rating: 9/10 (18 November 2012)

Envision the Marvel Universe as a gigantic spider web. At the center of this web-- where multiple, independent strands combine lies Josh Whedon's, The Avengers. Marvel hits the big screen once again in this blockbuster of a film that unites six heroes' to be the Earth's last line of defense against a common enemy. Lead by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), hero's Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), and the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) are brought together to stop Thor's adopted brother Loki, played by Tom Hiddleston, from releasing his army of alien soldiers on Earth while wielding the power of the Tesseract.
Loki plans to use the power of the Tesseract, which first appeared in the Captain America movie as the driving technology behind the bad guys, to open a portal that will allow his fleet of extra terrestrial militia to invade Earth. Early on in the movie Loki uses his scepter to take over the bodies of Hawkeye and Dr. Erik Selvig (played by Stellan Skarsgard, who first appeared alongside Natalie Portman's character in Thor). So it is up to the rest of our hero's to free their friends and defeat Loki.
While collecting our hero's we see that getting them to work as a team is proving to be difficult. On paper, it seems like the Avengers Initiative would be awesome. But between Starks narcissism, Nick Fury's secrets, and the Banner's temper it is hard to imagine how the Avengers Initiative could ever work. The lack of cooperation between the hero's purposefully adds to a more intense build up to the turning point in the film with the movie poster shot of all the hero's standing together.
If you have seen any of the five lead-in movies to The Avengers (Iron Man, Iron Man 2, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, and Captain America) you might have notice talk of the Avenger Initiative in these films. Though, it is most prevalent in the Iron Man movies. I think Marvel did a great job of taunting the viewers with tiny and not so tiny hinting of the Avengers movie before it came out. Personally I think that is why the movie did so well—it was the anticipation had by superhero fans for this filmthey knew it was a long time coming. The only thing I didn't like was that Spider Man did not make in appearance while Loki was trashing the New Yorkers back yard. Other than that, terrific movie!