Essentially a dumb, loud, explosive action film, but a dumb, loud explosive action film done well.

Rating: 8/10 (10 May 2012)

I had my reservations about Avenger Assemble for a long time- it is not my sort of film. The only previous films in the saga I saw before this were Iron Man (which I didn't like) and Captain America (which I did). What made Captain America for me was that it was interesting that is was set against the backdrop of world war II, and the redeeming feature of Iron Man was the witty dialogue between Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow. So the task is, how do they make a film with all of these stars, with so much back-story, set in the modern era, without it turning into Iron Man 2.5 (which it does in places), that lives up to the MASSIVE hype? Let's face it, since the film has been building up people's expectations for that long and with so many huge stars competing for screen time and the best dialogue it was never going to be anything but a little bit of a mess. What it is though is an enjoyable mess. They don't go down the route of the Transformers films (Revenge of the Fallen in particular) and just spend 2 hours making 2 dimensional robot characters smash each other up. Avengers Assamble is enjoyable because of the characters involved. It is to its advantage that the back-stories for most of the main characters have been established already, it means that we can just get on with the film and not spend to much time discussing the wherefores and the hows. It is also good that despite having only seen 2 of the previous 5 films I was able to understand perfectly well what was going on the film. The story is very simple and not at all confusing (unlike Transformers ROTF) and requires very little thinking. If you do take anytime to actually think about the film it is clearly just a "slot A into tab B" affair- very predictable and formulaic- but if you take it for what it is and enjoy the ride it is very entertaining. It is the characters that make the film. Unlike the Transformers films the characters are all unique and well rounded. They all seem to have their own part to play (apart from Black Widow, who aside from looking good and being the token female seems to have nothing to do and no real superpowers). It does turn a little into Iron Man 2.5 at times, after all it is clear he has the best powers and Robert Downey Jr. is the biggest star so it is hard not too. Some of his lines do get a little less witty and a little more silly at times but it is never really too much of a problem. Each character does have their part to play and it was interesting watching their interplay on screen. The film as a whole was nothing more than a formulaic affair, going from confrontation to confrontation without much to link it together, but this is not really a problem. It relies heavily on special effects, which is OK since they work well in the context of the film. The final huge CGI fest that was the end battle was done very well, with each character getting a similar amount to do (with the exception of Black Widow) and it was consistently interesting (unlike the climaxes of the Transformers films which were just dumb smash 'em up's for an hour). I do take issue with one thing though- a tiny amount of CGI in the climax battle was quite poor (Scarlett Johansson flying on the hover-bike thing)- almost unforgivable in a film that relies to heavily on special effects and which has such a big budget. The actors do a great job, for me Mark Ruffalo stealing the show with his unhinged, unstable Banner, though Tom Hiddleston was great too. It is this that makes the film so watchable. Without such interesting characters the film would just be a big dumb mess. In the end the film is nothing more than formulaic but a very well done formulaic film. The director Whedon clearly knew exactly what he was doing at every scene of the film. I think it is very commendable that with the amount of hype surrounding the film and the number of stars competing in the film that he has formed anything other than a complete mess. When it comes down to it Avengers Assemble is an enjoyable film, made so by the characters and the actors portraying them. It is very funny at times and surprisingly never boring. It's not particularly clever but it know's how to appeal to a wide audience and fans alike and it is an achievement.