Flashy, extravagant uniting of the comic book heavyweights

Rating: 9/10 (30 June 2013)

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), head of defence agency S.H.E.I.L.D., is thrown into action when a powerful device called The Tesseract is stolen by Loki (Tom Hiddleston), the renegade son of Odin and a wicked God banished for his nature. He calls all the superheroes together from around the globe to unite as one to save the Earth. But upon Loki's capture, they start to question their assignment and whether they're being told the whole truth.
Superhero movies seem to be the in thing at the moment, the big studios still requiring a guaranteed fan base and surefire box office return in these recessionary times. And so some bright spark in the marketing department had the foresight to imagine them all coming together as one, supposing the ardent fans would go crazy and flock in droves to the theatres to catch it. While personally I prefer the action films more grounded in reality, there is still a young boy in me who can still find an appeal in the flashy suits and fantasy adventure. It says a lot that Avengers Assemble, where all the big Marvel comics names (with the exception, sadly, of The Punisher whose antics would probably have been too violent for a family film) manages to be more of an exhilarating thrill ride than all the films from recent times that inspired it.
Joss Whedon has crafted a colourful, flashy sensory extravaganza that brings the characters to life in ways none of their first recent outings could and never manages to drag at quite a bit over two hours. Working together as one, the gang manage to be more effective than they ever could on their lonesomes, forging an unwitting chemistry together as events roll on, while you can never shake the feeling there's a part of them that would still like to rip each other's throats out. Luckily, Whedon never forgets to inject the script with flashes of humour at regular intervals, resulting in material that never takes itself too seriously (unlike maybe some of the original films), which sets it on the right track.
While the all star cast all manage to bring their respective characters to life in their own way, it's probably Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man who steals the show, firing off a wise cracking charisma through out that makes him stand out, while Scarlett Johansson is an alluring femme fatale, and Hiddleston is a hissable villain. Meanwhile, other big name stars like Jeremy Renner and Mark Ruffalo are pushed further back and occupy less screen time. But casting aside, the main thing here, the action and special effects, are appropriately spectacular and round off probably the most satisfying film I've seen in this series. ****