To say that Marvel and its new parent company, Disney, has a lot riding on The Avengers (or Avengers Assemble as it is being released as in the UK and some other territories), is a colossal understatement. Ever since the success of Jon Favreau's Iron Man in 2008, Marvel Studios has been openly working towards this movie. While the temptation was surely there to rush into The Avengers the minute cash tills started ringing that summer, they have, to their immense credit, bided their time and introduced each key character in the franchise with their own movie. They even pushed the release of The Avengers back almost a full year, from July 2011 to now, in order to get it just right. The largest single factor was the hiring of fanboy messiah Joss Whedon to rewrite Zak (X2/The Incredible Hulk) Penn's screenplay and to direct this mammoth superhero mash-up. Whedon, of course, has displayed an uncanny understanding of and loving devotion towards science-fiction, horror and other genre pillars of geekdom in the past, and when his name was announced there wasn't a whisper of dissent to be heard. Now the film is upon us and Whedon's fingerprints are all over it - in the whipsmart dialogue, the smart character interaction and the playful riffs on cinematic superhero conventions - all the while staying true to the franchise that has been painstakingly constructed over five feature-length films and honouring 50 years of comic book fandom. Put mildly, The Avengers is the best Marvel superhero movie yet.
When the film begins, the superheroes have scattered far and wide. SHIELD's Avengers Initiative has been disbanded and all their efforts are being placed into figuring out just what that mysterious glowing alien cube, The Tesseract, does and how they can use it. All they know so far is that it opens a portal to another world, something that promptly happens, allowing Loki (Tom Hiddleston) to come through, enslave scientist Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard), along with master marksman Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), and promptly escape with the Tesseract. SHIELD director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), going against the orders of his higher-ups, sees no alternative but to round up his rogue agents and put a team together.
Once this set-up has been galvanised, the film really shifts into gear by addressing what proves overwhelmingly to be its greatest strength: the dynamics of a team of outcasts, lost souls and displaced warriors as they struggle to manage their own egos, as well as each others, and work together towards a common goal...namely, saving the planet! One of the biggest fears about the film was that there simply wouldn't be enough space to give each character ample time to shine, but Whedon pulls off an incredible juggling act that feels natural, loose and never overly contrived, while always servicing the story and helping move the narrative forward.
Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) has pretty much succeeded in becoming a one-man superpower and sees little reason why he should dirty his hands fighting SHIELD's battles for them, particularly if he is not in charge. Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is still struggling to adjust to life in the 21st Century, but has never let go of his earnest patriotism and natural leadership. Unsurprisingly he has little time for Stark's self-serving nature and flagrant arrogance, which causes frequent clashes - both verbal and physical - between the two. Thor (Chris Hemsworth) has returned to his kingdom of Asgard, and his return also sees him clashing with Stark, while Russian assassin Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) is anxious to rescue her former teammate Hawkeye from brain-pulverizing enslavement.
However, it is the reintroduction of scientist Bruce Banner (this time played by Mark Ruffalo) into the mix that proves the most exciting and potentially explosive component in this already volatile mix. SHIELD needs Banner for his expert knowledge of Gamma radiation, the exact same kind that the Tesseract appears to be emitting. Understandably, Banner is at first reluctant to come in as he knows SHIELD is also intent on capturing and incarcerating "the other guy" - namely the Hulk. It has been over a year since Banner last had "an incident" and he seems to have got a handle on his condition, so when he is called upon to voluntarily "Hulk out" for the good of all humanity, he is understandably wary.
The Incredible Hulk has always been my favourite Marvel character and I find lots to love in both Louis Leterrier's canonical episode from 2008, as well as Ang Lee's much-derided "one shot" from 2003, Hulk poodles and all. However, it is clear that Marvel Studios has never been satisfied with how the character has been portrayed onscreen, and so a lot of effort has gone into both sides of his character in The Avengers, and finally they seem to have found a way for it to work. Hulk is incredible in this film. There was a worry that the change in actor - for the third time in three films - from Edward Norton to Mark Ruffalo, might tempt the filmmakers into giving Banner less screen time and relying more on the CGI monster instead, but fortunately the opposite proves to be true. Ruffalo is given loads to work with and proves so good as Banner that you can't help but wish they'd gone with him in the first place. Banner and Stark quickly hit it off - if for no other reason than they both understand tech speak - while Hulk pisses off pretty much everybody, most notably Thor. In my modest opinion, Hulk owns this movie.
That is not to say that other characters are eclipsed. Black Widow and Hawkeye may have less story to tell, but they get stuck into the action as much as anyone else when the time comes, and even Clark Gregg's Agent Coulson has a noticeably beefed-up role this time out and genuinely feels like part of the team. Jackson's Nick Fury projects a perfectly pitched air of authority and feels much like a high school football coach, struggling to keep the jocks and the nerds from pulverising each other, instead training their collective energies on Loki and his army of evil aliens.
When it does come time for the Avengers to get avenging, the action proves to be top-drawer spectacle. There is a temptation to glaze over during these sequences of mass destruction in modern day blockbusters, as let's be honest, once you've seen one city levelled by a meteor/giant lizard/alien invasion, you've seen them all and it often boils down to nothing more the a variation on which famous landmarks are going to be obliterated in extreme close-up. The Avengers succeeds in keeping its moments of excessive carnage interesting by again, populating them with interesting characters who operate in very different ways, and has a lot of fun playing with how they collaborate and deal with their common enemy.
Apologies if this review feels a little breathless in its relentless praise and enthusiasm for The Avengers, but until now my enjoyment of these films has always been muted by certain caveats. The wit of Iron Man was marred by its unimaginative action, while the visual invention and Shakespearean drama of Thor was hindered by a lack of real plot. Captain America came close, thanks to the enthusiastic embrace of its period setting, but that also made it fall out of step somewhat with the rest of the Marvel series. Why The Avengers succeeds is because it plays to all of those strengths but without the flaws. It works both for hardcore fans, those with only a passing knowledge of the films that have come before, and even for those viewers who have never seen a Marvel movie before.
Make no mistake, The Avengers is only a superhero movie, embedded in a world of "monsters and magic" that in no way attempts to shoehorn characters into the "real world" as Christopher Nolan does in his Batman films. Instead, Joss Whedon and his impeccable cast have embraced this comic book world of spectacle and fantasy and brought it to life with incredible energy, imagination, intelligence and laugh-out-loud humour. Marvel has made good on its promise to deliver the ultimate superhero team-up movie. Forget X2 or even Spider-man 2, The Avengers sets a new standard for the Marvel Universe onscreen.
The Avengers opens in Hong Kong and the UK today, around the world this weekend and in North America on 4 May.