Marvel's The Avengers

For a long time now, Marvel has shown movie adaptions of their comic book franchises. However, it wasn't until the 1998 film, "Blade", that had the studio start bringing in films that were either hit or miss with its fanbase. Even though I never held a comic before, I've gotten pretty familiar with most people on how the films or TV shows turned out. We've gotten films based on comics like Blade, Spiderman, X-Men, Punisher, and many others. However, it wasn't until 2008, when Marvel Studios and Paramount decided to start working on some new films, in a series called "Marvel Cinematic Universe", which would all lead to "The Avengers".

The start of the series, dubbed "Marvel Cinematic Universe", was the Jon Favreau film, "Iron Man", starring Robert Downey Jr. This film was considered by many to be a fantastic work of art on several levels. It had a great cast, great effects, great direction, and was claimed by many to be one of the best of Marvel's films. SNL comedian, Robert Downey Jr, was probably a surprise to most, since no one usually sees comedians play a comic book hero, but he did a good job with that. In my mind, I thought "Iron Man" was a pretty good movie.

The second film, which came out the same year, was "The Incredible Hulk". Now back in 2003, there was already a Hulk film, directed by Ang Lee and starring Eric Bana. It was given mixed review, but fans of the giant were not happy about it at all. The reboot was directed by Louis Leterrier and starred Edward Norton, who was also co-writter. This film was given much more praise by fans, but was given the same box-office results and reception from critics. It was heard that rumors of an "Incredible Hulk" sequel would happen, but sadly the film didn't make enough money than expected, so the idea was scrapped. And later in 2010, it was announced that Edward Norton would not be reprising his role as the Hulk, due to wanting "The Avengers" to be more based around the Hulk. Thus, he was fired, and was replaced by Mark Ruffalo.

Speaking of 2010, that was the year "Iron Man 2" was released. And might I say, that film was silly. Not only were the effects all over the place, but there was just so much stupidity in it, it felt like the film was just made off the spot. Granted, Downey Jr. was still good, I enjoyed some of the action scenes, and Mickey Rourke gave a good performance. However, there were things in it that just made me just shake my head, asking questions over and over again, and was just flat-out laughable. People either liked it or hated it, but for me, it wasn't anything new. It was just a popcorn-flick. Plus, I'll admit I was kind of a sucker for Scarlet Johansen as Black Widow...even though she didn't have a Russian accent.

Now following "Iron Man 2", was "Thor". People had doubt about this film, since it was said that Thor from the comics wasn't worth watching, thinking that it would be the worst one to deal with, but surprisingly it blew fans away. Kenneth Branagh, who has directed much Shakespeare in the past, had given more than something for fans alike, and Chris Hemsworth was brilliant as the title character, even though he hasn't been in much. Tom Hiddleston plays Loki, brother of Thor, and was a great villain. And from your guess on the trailers for "The Avengers" he plays the villain, but it works. It was also notified by some that Jeremy Renner was playing Hawk-eye, who all I know is a professional archer and assassain, much like Widow. Some critics found "Thor" to be un-interesting and called it a weak film. Others only hated it for the 3D in it. Personally, if the 3D is bad, then people should try again in 2D, to get a different result. For me, this was one that made the money worth it.

Lastly, we have "Captain America: The First Avenger" directed by Joe Joe Johnston, who was an art director on the original "Star Wars movies", as well as the director of "Jumanji" and "The Rocketeer". The film also starred Chris Evans, who had appeared in previous Marvel films, as the Human Torch from "The Fantastic Four". However, instead of being a complete chucklehead, he actually gave a very serious performance as the character, getting much praise from fans and critics alike. Not only that, but the one that stole the show was Hugo Weaving as Red Skull, and was just a lot of fun to watch. He had so much passion in the role, and he just has that appeal of playing such great villains.

Now the moment you've all been waiting for, my thoughts on "The Avengers". So what did I think of it? Well, I knew it was going to be awesome...and it was.

This film delivers so much to the table. With all this build up that the film's been getting, I can understand why. The action scenes are simply phenominal, from begining to end. I was really blown away by how much the effects have improved all the way from "Iron Man". The dialogue is also very clever, mostly due to being written by director: Joss Whedon, but that's beside the point. There were many moments that made me laugh, especially with the Hulk and Iron Man. The film had such great things going for it, and it kept it up for as much as it could. And like most "Marvel Cinematic" films, there's a bonus clip at the end. Two of them to be exact. I'm not going to say what it is, but let's just say, this movie knew it was getting a sequel, one way or the other. That's all I have to say, since there are many other people who have said the same thing. While I do love this film, I can't say it's my favorite Marvel movie.

Overall, "The Avengers" is one of the best comic book movies I've seen, and it's pretty obvious what to expect in this film. I'd say go see it, but you probably have by now.

Rating: 8/10