Marvel's The Avengers

Director: Joss Whedon
Writers: Joss Whedon & Zak Penn
Actors: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Samuel L. Jackson, and many more!
[A cast of everyone you ever wanted]

Rated PG-13 {Please remember that PG-13 means 13 and up parents, GEEZ!}

Inspired by the comic book marvels of Stan Lee & Jack Kirby, Marvel's The Avengers had fans electrified with a first trailer of voice-overs and an animated logo. The full weight of this excitement was shown in its breaking of opening weekend box office records with $207,400,000, crushing the $169,189,427 made by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (2011) by just under 40 million dollars. Money is not everything though, as we have seen with so many super hero movies... *cough* Green Lantern (2011) *cough* So let's take a look!

WHAT I LIKED

I was quite worried that having several main characters and their stories in a single movie would be end in tears, especially since they are super heroes. However, this movie blew me away with a integration of characters like nothing I have ever seen before. Here is my run down...

Hawkeye actually mattered in this movie. Definitely a step up from Thor (2011).

Black Widow was surprisingly important to the story plot. I liked her performance in Iron Man 2 (2010) but her character seemed to work better as member of the super hero team.

Thor had a solid performance that added greatly to the story. I liked Thor (2011) but I felt like he seemed too other-worldly. Marvel's The Avengers gave him the human connection he needed.

The Hulk was a character that took some time to get into the flow of the movie, but once he got going I wished the smashing would never end. Mark Ruffalo's performance as The Hulk not only crushed Eric Bana's The Hulk (2003), a disappointment to the Marvel franchise, but it found room for improvement in Edward Norton's The Incredible Hulk (2008), the salvation of The Hulk series .

Captain America brought the same enjoyable class to the movie that he did in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) and it could not have fit better.

Iron Man / Tony Stark was the best part of this movie. End of line.*

Awesome characters aside, the combat in this movie did not leaving me wanting anything other than another Avengers movie. 

*Tron (1982)

WHAT I DID NOT LIKE

This movie was over marketed, more specifically over commercial-ed. I really dislike it when I am shown a significant amount of defining moments from a movie without context.

!!!NOTE!!!
I have seen several other reviews that claim Marvel's The Avengers was too formulaic. This is a terrible complaint. A movie with comic roots is going to be formulaic if it is being true to said roots. 

FINAL THOUGHTS

This movie was everything I wanted and more. Even with people telling me all the best parts before seeing it. Marvel's The Avengers deserves the rare A for saving the world and my watching experience.

WHEN SHOULD YOU SEE IT?

It is definitely worth the theater ticket. I will be adding this movie to my collection ASAP.


SCORE

Personal Rating: 9 of 10 (A)

Plot: 9 of 10 (An incredible amount of action while still explaining exactly what was needed)

How does this TS review compare to major reviews?
IMDB 8.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes C-93%/A-96%

CONTENT

Violence: 7 of 10 (intense violence but not graphic with minimal blood: constant hand-to-hand combat, a man's eye is gouged out, people of shot/stabbed/burned/bludgeoned/blasted, aliens are shot/stabbed/burned/bludgeoned/blasted/disembodied/crushed/, blood is seen on wounds/playing cards/walls/dead main characters)

Language/Profanity: 4 of 10 (infrequent use of: "damn", "hell", "bastard", "oh my God", and "son of bitch")

Sexuality/Sensuality: 4 of 10 (skin-tight somewhat revealing costumes are worn by the female characters, an intimate relationship is implied between Stark and Pepper by their flirty banter and actions, Banner is nude but given clothes before he is fully shown)

Spiritual Aspects: 5 of 10 (Thor and Loki are constantly referred to as gods or demi-gods, Captain America after meeting both claims there is only one God)

Drugs/Alcohol: 4 of 10 (Occasionally drinking throughout, a character is accused of using "weed")