This movie has a deadly biohazard theme from the start, just in time for what allegedly happened in the real world just a few years later. Pre-programming much? Fortunately this theme quickly disappears and doesn’t spoil the rest of the movie.
Chris Evans stars as Captain America – the main character in this movie; although there are a few other major characters from The Avengers also playing roles here, including Wanda Maximoff aka The Scarlet Witch, played by Elizabeth Olsen with vibes of Hillary Clinton. And Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow, played by Scarlett Johansson – the camerawork during her fight scenes is particularly shaky, presumably to hide the fact that a stunt double is doing all the work for her, and this makes for rather unpleasant viewing during action scenes. There’s also plenty of action from the start by Anthony Mackie who plays Cap’s flying negro sidekick called Sam Wilson.
Later on we also see Tony Stark aka Iron Man played by Robert Downey Jr, and Clint Barton aka Hawkeye (Marvel’s equivalent of Green Arrow) played by Jeremy Renner. Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) and Spider-Man (Tom Holland) even get involved, as does T’Chala aka Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), and Iron Man’s sidekick War Machine aka Iron Patriot (Don Cheadle) and even Bruce Banner aka The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) – they all have roles in this movie as if it’s just another big Avengers get-together, but I guess it’s fine, because let’s be honest, it would be quite boring if it were all Captain America unless they had an interesting & creative storyline as good as the original from 2011.
There’s some good action in this movie – it may even be Chadwick Boseman’s best outing as the Black Panther – better than his work in the first dedicated Black Panther movie which came a couple of years later. But there’s also some unpleasant arguing in this movie, followed by a divide between the order-following Avengers and the ones who think they know better (including Cap). The script is a bit messy too. It’s a real mixed bag of a movie, and for this reason, I’ll rate it Bang Average just like both previous Captain America movies and both prior Avengers movies too.
This movie is an overload of messy drama and uncoordinated action. It’s as if a kid became the director and was spoilt for choice which superheroes to focus on so he picked every superhero and put them all together but none of them really had a chance to shine. Well, Iron Man (played quite well by Robert Downey Jr) has a few good bits, but for the most part, it’s like too many cooks are spoiling the broth.
This reminds me of Ocean’s Eleven – when it came out with both Brad Pitt and George Clooney in the same movie (not to mention Matt Damon and Julia Roberts too), although I were only a teenager at the time, I expected it to be twice as good as the average Pitt or Clooney movie, but no, it was a massive disappointment, like they were too busy partying to produce anything worth watching. Of course I can look back these days and appreciate what little that movie has to offer, but it’s still far from what it should have been, and this movie – The Avengers – suffers from pretty much the same problem.
The most interesting part comes 1 hour and 40 minutes into the movie, when the sky opens up and the aliens invade earth. But 1 hour and 40 minutes is a time when the average movie has already finished – it’s a long time to sit through drama and spurts of uncoordinated action while waiting for the really good scenes to arrive. Having said that, it doesn’t play out nearly as well as it initially seemed like it might have done. The fight scenes when the aliens come down from the sky are mostly barely any better than something you’d expect from an old episode of the Power Rangers. But there’s a good half an hour left in this long movie to play out the ending properly if it wanted – this longwinded movie goes on for nearly 2 and a half hours but it’s mostly boring filler drama, full of verbal arguments – not a good headspace to be in, which is why it took me several sittings to get through this movie, and this should never be the case with a thrilling action movie – I shouldn’t have mostly forgotten the first hour by the time I get round to watching the third hour – this makes for a weak review, but hey, it’s a weak movie, and that’s one thing I remember thinking since the start. I rate it Bang Average, on a par with Iron Man 2 which came out 2 years prior and was disappointing compared to the first Iron Man movie which I rated a couple of levels higher.
The very ending was alright – it’s one of the best bits, but it’s nothing incredible really.
The main antagonist in this movie is Tom Hiddleston who plays Loki (adopted brother of Thor). He does a fair job, especially for those familiar with the Thor movie series, but doesn’t wow.
It’s also a pleasure to see Scarlett Johansson playing a significant role in this movie, as Natasha Romanoff (the star character in Black Widow, 2021). She was one of the best things about the Iron Man 2 movie.
It’s also good to see some action from Chris Hemsworth – his character Thor is one of the most entertaining in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, although he doesn’t do much in this movie.
Samuel L Jackson adds value as always, as the leader of the agency called SHIELD tasked with putting together The Avengers to defend the Earth from otherworldly threats.
Chris Evans does a standard job as Captain America, promoting an institutional angle, barking orders from the front even though he’s one of the weakest superheroes in the crew – this is obviously part of a military recruitment campaign, designed to appeal to those who want to act like the main man in the room, even when they’re not. Cap’s powers are nothing compared to Iron Man and Thor for example, but I guess his character is meant to be super smart (although so is Iron Man, especially with the help of Jarvis) and of course Cap has military leadership experience – it just seems terribly out of place him barking orders to a team comprising several far more powerful superheroes than he. Having said that, he’s probably just as powerful as Romanoff and Hawkeye. The Avengers team seems half comprised of natural & near-natural humans with unrealistically perfected skills, while the other half seem to be physically indestructible freaks.
Clark Gregg returns as Agent Phil Coulson from the Iron Man movies. He’s always makes an entertaining character, and gets far too little screen time for my liking.
Jeremy Renner takes on a major role as Arrow (another seemingly feeble Avenger who somehow fights perfectly enough to compete very effectively with much more powerful warriors than he). I’m not really a fan of this actor, but he fills a role. He’s not terrible, he’s just giving me Daniel Craig vibes – he seems more made for soppy drama, not action heroism.
Mark Ruffalo plays the Dr Bruce Banner who turns in & out of his alter-ego, the Hulk, played by Lou Ferrigno with the help of plenty of CGI of course. They both do an adequate job of it.
Stellan Skarsgård does alright as Dr Erik Selvig – a man we met in the Thor movie series, who is controlled here by Loki who needs him to help open the portal.