Avengers Assemble. As it's called here in the UK, is the Hollywood incarnation of Marvels Avengers directed by one of my favourite, Joss Whedon. If you're not familiar with the Avengers I'll quickly spell it out for you; The Avengers Initiative is headed by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and funded mostly by S.H.I.E.L.D, or, Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. If you ignore all the infantry and staff that come, and die, in their hundreds, the main members of the Avengers are; Natasha Romanoff/ Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Clint Barton/ Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner aka Boyfriends man crush), Bruce Banner/ The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Steve Rogers/ Captain America (Chris Evans), Tony Stark/ Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and Thor (Chris Hemsworth). In this 2012 adaptation, the villain is Thor's adopted brother and God of Chaos; Loki (Tom Hiddleston). There are also the usual associated characters we've seen in the lead up character films like Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg).
Loki makes a deal with a race named the 'Chitauri' to deliver to them an object of infinite power, the 'Tesseract'. Upon delivery of this relic, Loki would then command an army of Chitauri to conquer any world he wanted. Obviously the Avengers have something to say about that. They spend the first two thirds of the movie bickering and squabbling like petty children which, although amusing, gets old and I found myself wanting to slap them and tell them to grow up. Hawkeye is corrupted by Loki's magic staff (no, really) through out the first half so we don't see much of him. He has often been dubbed 'the useless avenger' but actually, he and the Widow are the only two that use their mortal strength. No trickery or 'god' genes, they aren't rich foolish philanthropists and for this they are my favourites.
When the Avengers finally gain some initiative, though it may be close to the end, and actually decide to save the Earth, actually scratch that, when they decide to save America they come together really well. They are a formidable force that work well together in combat and have great screen presence.
The relationships between the characters are very well written, there's a slight romanticism between Widow and Hawkeye, Captain America and Stark butt heads like grumpy children trying to get one up on each other, Banner avoids everyone except Stark and even then he tries to keep mostly to himself. Thor and Loki have a strange two-way you're my brother but I'll gladly kill you thing going on, but they have the only believable and endearing relationship in the film. And no one likes Nick Fury. Or the Hulk. Poor lads.
The film has beautiful effects and settings and the costumes, especially Loki's, are really fantastic. The writing is really good, as I expect of Whedon, very PG of course (rated at PG-13), and the film flows well, it's never too slow. The humour is mostly dry, with some big hitting jokes for the crowd and the kids, look out for the moment with Loki and the Hulk in Stark's penthouse, you'll know it when it happens, it's probably the funniest moment in the film and one I would gladly rewind and watch several times if I wasn't partial to a bit of Tom Hiddleston.
All in all it's a really good film, a 7/10 for me, it has humour, a tinsy bit of mushyness, plenty of action and women in tight leather, and enough science and thoughtfulness to actually make the film mostly believable. Mostly. There's a hint of a sequel too, which I really look forward to as I think this franchise in it's current form has the ability to go through at least 2 maybe 3 films before it starts to get old.
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