Adrenalin rush

Rating: 7/10 (26 July 2012)

In a nutshell, the Avengers are six superheroes brought together by an organisation called SHIELD to protect the Earth. The Avengers (a product of the Marvel comic book publishing company) are Black Widow, The Hulk, Captain America, Thor, Hawkeye and Iron Man.
Four of these have already had movies made about them (as part of the same franchise) and this movie draws heavily on that. Out of the four earlier movies involving these superheroes, I enjoyed Thor and The Hulk. I was not particularly bowled over by the Iron Man and Captain America movies. I have to admit a bias: as a childhood DC fan, I was never able to get into Marvel comics. Also, I'm not into video games at all.
As you might expect, this movie was a parade of spectacular effects, superhero stunts, fearsome aliens, wild technology, city obliterating fights, shootouts, chases and so on. When I say spectacular special effects, I am not kidding. It's astonishing what filmmakers are able to show on screen nowadays.
There was also a good deal of superhero clichés (of the good kind), jingoism (both noble and sappy), comedy, snappy one-liners, oiled biceps and tight leotards.
Speaking of the latter two, Chris Hemsworth makes a great Thor.
Chris Evans...well, let's just say I don't quite get Captain America as much as I get Chris Evans. I prefer him as the wise-cracking Torch.
Mark Ruffalo was OK as Bruce Banner, but the script didn't really give him a chance to do his stuff.
This movie was mostly about Iron Man, but I'm not into this superhero. I really don't get Iron Man. Such a waste of a good actor.
In general, this movie seemed a little forced to me. There were parts of it that I was unable or unwilling to follow closely. The film had a very fast pace, perhaps too much action. It was clearly designed to be primarily an adrenalin-inducing visual experience. The problem is that I don't go to movies to get an adrenalin rush. I go to be entertained, an emotional and intellectual process, not a physical one.
I also have to confess that this movie seems quite similar to other action films I've seen lately. It's getting hard to tell them apart. Scary aliens, awesome technology, skyscraper carnage, endangered Earth. This genre seems to have the same four themes popping up over and over again.
I suppose I've become jaded, but maybe it's time for something different? Now that we can show virtually anything on film, it's time to move to other things, don't you think?
I yearn for the near-religious awe and excitement I felt when I saw Close Encounter of the Third Kind for the first time many years ago. Avengers is the kind of movie that doesn't deliver that to me. This movie evoked no emotion in me at all really.
I didn't feel anything for the characters in this film. I didn't really care what happened to any of them.
I felt mostly annoyance at the NYC destruction scenes.
The highlight of the film for me involved the amusing final scene with Hulk and Loki, but that's all I'm going to say.
It's an entertaining film. No different than the others really. You might as well see it. Everyone else has.
The score assigned to this movie on IMDb is far too high and casts a shadow over the entire IMDb ratings concept.