Features > Movie Reviews > Avengers Assemble…

You guessed 'em. Twitchy science boffin Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) just wants to be left alone, in case “the other guy” loses his temper. Genius billionaire playboy Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) is much too busy upgrading his Iron Man suit and renovating his office. Norse god Thor (Chris Hemsworth) has a kingdom to run and badly needs a haircut. WWII super-soldier Captain America (Chris Evans) is beginning to realise that, in 2012, he looks like he arrived late to a fancy dress party.

As if knowing he can’t make the most spectacular superhero movie ever, writer/director Joss Whedon (Serenity) has decided to make the wittiest instead. Dialogue is what drives this $200m-plus mega-blockbuster – sharp, knowing and very, very funny. True, there’s not much depth or drive to the functional story: Loki, Thor’s power-mad brother, has returned to enslave mankind using an all-powerful cosmic cube, meaning Earth’s only hope is for SHIELD agents Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), HawkEye (Jeremy Renner) and Phil Coulson (Gregg Clark) recruit the superheroes.

But Whedon has a blast letting his mega-powered freaks and geeks bounce off each other. Literally. After testing their egos and powers against each other, the Avengers finally stop arguing and start assembling for a pair of epic, elastic action sequences that soak up the second half of the movie: firstly inside the tight spaces of an airship under siege, then in the wide-open-spaces of a blitzkrieg by Loki’s army of chariot-riding aliens and gigantic flying robo-fish.

Trust us, it’s less silly on screen. Whedon studs the movie with fun, affectionate touches: cineastes will be delighted to see Polish filmmaker Jerzy Skolimowsk popping up as a Russian interrogator who makes the mistake of taking on Black Widow and there’s a great surprise cameo from another arthouse icon.

Smart casting, clearly, is another of Whedon’s trump cards. As the only Avenger we hadn’t seen before, Mark Ruffalo pulls out as definitive performance, painting Banner as a nervy, hand-rubbing scientist who has a wry understanding with “the other guy” who threatens to burst out of his shirt. And when he finally does burst out, the green giant pretty much stomps away with the rest of the movie. Hulk? Smashing.

In the midst of a chaotic, city-crushing finale, the smash-happy monster serves up two of the funniest moments in the whole movie. Romping home at 135 minutes, it’s a colourful crowd-pleaser that’s lit up by laughs. And as, the post-credits snippet reveals, an even bigger sequel is yet to come...