MOVIE REVIEW: 'The Avengers' packs a full punch
“The Avengers” shot, flew, punched and thundered its way through the opening weekend box office record set last year by “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2,” assembling an astounding $200 million last weekend alone.
Marvel’s “The Avengers” is a continuation of the story started four years ago in “Iron Man." It is the sixth movie in the series, with “The Incredible Hulk,” “Iron Man 2,” “Thor” and “Captain America” in between.
It tells the story of six unique individuals assembled to fight a god, Loki, who has come to take over Earth. The six must overcome their own egos so they can work together to save the world.
“Avengers” offers the full package to moviegoers. Not only is it so action-packed you do not realize an entire two and a half hours have gone by, but almost all of the characters have at least one humorous line that will keep the audience laughing.
It’s a nice change from the previous Avengers movies, where Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey, Jr., had most of the comedy. He was still his witty self, but it was distributed more evenly this time around. Even the Hulk, played by Mark Ruffalo, had his own parts that had audience members laughing into the next scene. This was surprising after a more dramatic “The Incredible Hulk."
One of the parts I was most skeptical was Ruffalo’s interpretation of the Hulk. Edward Norton had played the big, green guy in “The Incredible Hulk,” so Ruffalo was the only one of the six stars who had not been featured in a previous “Avengers” movie. Ruffalo, however, had one of the best interpretations of Bruce Banner yet. He was constantly twitchy and on edge, like one could imagine Banner in real life.
The movie, which came out May 4, has been released in 2D, 3D and IMAX 3D. I have not had the opportunity to see the IMAX version, but I was not very impressed by the 3D. There were only a few scenes that seemed geared more toward 3D, but they didn’t seem to add a great deal to the overall experience. In fact, some scenes almost had too much going on visually, which made the 3D painful to watch.
Despite my preference for the 2D version, the movie was enjoyable both times. It’s the type that can be watched over and over by a wide range of demographics. Unlike other Marvel movies, “The Avengers” is not necessarily geared only toward 18 to 24-year-old men. So gentlemen, tell your lady friends they have no excuse to not go.
After all, what girl wouldn’t want to see five attractive men run around in Spandex?
