Avengers Tops All Other Superhero Movies Before It

Rating: 10/10 (30 January 2013)

Not since the original Superman in 1978 or even Batman in 1990 or Spiderman in 2000 has there been a comic book movie that so exploded like this one. Maybe it takes ten-year interims to produce blockbuster superhero movies; I don't know. There has never been a movie that picked up on the characters of several movies at once, least of all from the comic book/superhero genre. Loki ends up on Earth after "Thor" and discovers the tesseract ("cosmic cube") from "Captain America." He decides to uses it to conquer the planet, but Nick Fury from "Iron Man" uses it to rally "The Hulk" and the rest of Earth's Mightiest Heroes into protecting the planet. It has more violence than "The Dirty Dozen," more wrecked cars than "The Blues Brothers" and more damage than any of the James Bond films. (Insurance rates in the comic book universe must be astronomical on Manhattan.) It's exactly like watching what you would expect from a comic book brought to life or of you could get into the world of the Marvel Universe (except without the expanded universe characters like the She-Hulk and Ant-Man). The movie never gave me a moment to catch my breath or tear myself away. It is just that compelling. Filled with numerous memorable scenes (Thor battling Iron Man, Hulk batting Thor, Tony getting his suit in mid-air, Hulk smacking Loki around) and numerous quotes ("I've got an army." – "Yeah, well, we've got a Hulk."), the movie and plot charge forward and never slows down. It's augmented by numerous strong performances given by an obscenely talented and gifted cast. Downey's swagger and gift for wry humor carries the incredible film as does Tom Hiddleston's Machiavellian role as Loki, one of the most complicated personalities of the Marvel Universe. Mark Ruffalo succeeds as Bruce Banner (and the Hulk!) where his predecessors could not. There is not a bad performance in the entire movie, not even from Stan Lee in his Hitchcockian traditional cameo or Jeremy Renner in this his first comic book film. (It's had to believe he's the same guy who played a slacker obsessed with drugs and alcohol in "National Lampoon's Senior Trip.") "The Avengers" really deserves to be called "the greatest comic book movie ever." The only thing that could possibly have made this movie anymore awesome would be including cameos of the cast of the "Fantastic Four" (although Justin Timberlake would have to be the new Johnny Storm), Tobey McGuire as Spiderman, Ben Affleck as Daredevil and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. (And maybe Dean Cain, Michael Keaton and Charisma Carpenter as Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman.) The only bad thing about the movie is that the DVD is totally lacking in decent bonus features, all of which are unfortunately held hostage on the Blu-Ray. What's up with that? Why am I being coerced to buy stuff I don't want?