A success yes, but not really on a groundbreaking level

Rating: 6/10 (7 October 2017)

Here we have "The Avengers", the five-year-old movie from 2012 that was really breaking all box office records back 5 years ago. The director and co-writer was Joss Whedon, at that point mostly known for Buffy and Toy Story, the film that brought him an Oscar nomination. But now, this one here is certainly his career-defining work. The era of superhero blockbuster films had already started back then and RDJ's Iron Man franchise was going well enough for using his popularity to bring up a Marvel superhero all-stars film. Thor and Captain America of course have their own films now too. But back to this one here. Hiddleston was still doing a good job and Loki as a villain definitely does not get old too quickly. Some great potential this character has. Not a surprise at all, Whedon was also going for comedy next to the fantasy, drama and action sequences. Most of it was working out well like the restaurant scene at the very end. The only parts I did not like from the comedy perspective were probably the Tony Stark one-liner moments, but that's also subjective.
This film was nominated for its special effects for a BAFTA and an Oscar and lost both times to Life of Pi. Of course, fitting the box office success, it received many other honors during the award season back then. At slightly over 140 minutes, it is a really long watch indeed and I think there were enough insignificant moments to stay under the 2-hour-mark. But I still take it as it is as there wasn't a great deal of dragging which is certainly a success for its duration. Back to the villain, Loki may have been the primary antagonist here, but there is a lot more conflict in here, most of all the Avengers managing to grow into a team that manages to hold their egos back a bit for the greater cause. It's a long way to that. And when it's finally done, Loki reappears by opening the gates to hell or the gates to the "other end of the universe" as they were saying. So what was the best thing here? Yes it may be the special effects work indeed as they helped the film nicely to overcome a few lengths. And I am not talking about the spectacular stuff like the explosions here, but also for example about the more subtle effects like what Iron Man sees written in his mask.
So yeah, overall I think this was a good watch. Everybody will have their favorites from the cast, but as the film is so long, every bigger character gets his solid deal of screen time. For me, these would be Jackson, Renner and ScarJo of course, even if I must admit that SLJ's character did not do a whole lot for me in here. It's a film you want to watch when you are in for some pointless fun. It's of course not a realistic movie at all from start to finish, but it's still a success and not just in quality, but also definitely from the commercial perspective. No surprise number 3 is coming out soon. Still the IMDb and RT ratings may be a bit too high to be honest. Nonetheless, if you are not one of the million people who have seen and rated this blockbuster here on IMDb, it really is high time to finally go check it out. Today was the second (or third) time I watched it and I think it does not lose any of its appeal on rewatch. Go for it, especially if you like Marvel films. I give this first (new) Avengers film a thumbs-up. The character are really interesting and fun to watch, not just during their introduction in the first 45 minutes.