I had the wonderful privilege of getting to see an exclusive fan screening of Marvel's Avengers Assemble last night, and it was absolutely brilliant. It far exceeded all my expectations and was a perfect example of what a superhero blockbuster should be.
The plot is simple enough: Loki, vanished into a wormhole at the end of Thor, makes his way to Earth to steal the Tesseract (the magical cube from Captain America: The First Avenger) for an alien race. In exchange they will provide him with an army so he can take over and subjugate the human race. Nick Fury is forced to put together a supergroup consisting of Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Captain America and Thor in an attempt to stop him.
It's a simple plot but it's no simple task to juggle so many characters in a two hour film, but it's a task that Joss Whedon performs remarkably well. He has four main heroes, two assassins (Black Widow and Haweye), Nick Fury, Agent Coulson, Loki, and the alien threat to balance and give time to, and he's managed it perfectly. You can really see everyone's motivations and everyone is given a character arc.
I absolutely love the way none of the Avengers gel with each other at the start and slowly start to respect and like each other. Captain America's old-fashioned values do not click with Tony Stark's devil-may-care attitude; Bruce Banner's presence has everyone constantly on edge, waiting for "the other guy" to appear; Thor is convinced that Loki is for Asgard to deal with, and no-one else; and Nick Fury seems to be pursuing his own secret agenda.
I can't stress enough here how fascinating Mark Ruffalo's Bruce Banner is. He is possibly the most compelling character in the film. Rounded up from Calcutta and brought to help Fury's team locate the Tesseract due to his knowledge of gamma radiation, he is constantly tense and coiled, like a bomb waiting to go off, trying to dodge irritants such as Stark's perpetual (and literal) poking of him, always looking over his shoulder expecting to be imprisoned. The build-up to the Hulk's appearance is so well done: the tension levels are through the roof by the time we first see him. Also the CGI is fantastic; the motion capture method allows us to see all of his emotions.
Another thing I really liked was the treatment of Thor and Loki. Here, they really are the Gods of legend, and are treated as such. It just gives an added element to their interaction with the humans; they are physically much superior, and in Loki's case, mentally superior.
Loki is a brilliant villain. There is a fantastically striking scene near the start, where he travels to the opera in Stuttgart to find a scientist who can help him use the Tesseract to get his army. He forces the entire audience to kneel before him and acknowledge him as their ruler - all except one old man, who stands up to him and tells him that never again will he let that happen in Germany. It's an utterly amazing scene, well written, well shot, well acted... I felt chills.
Loki however is more than just another world domination-obsessed stereotype. we know from Thor that jealousy of his brother and a deep need for approval are his driving forces, fueling his choice of Earth as the planet he wishes to enslave. Thor's love for his brother and his horror of his actions are shown fantastically as well, although Loki is too far gone for any familial love to save him now. He also shares a fantastic scene with Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow, where he displays exactly how terrifying he can be when he chooses. I actually clapped at the end of his speech.
Chris Evans as Captain America is note perfect too. He's a fish out of water, still getting used to the modern world, trying to hold onto what he believes in in a world that doesn't seem to care about much anymore. He finds Tony Stark almost impossible to deal with, and baulks at his "fuck it" attitude. The two of them are polar opposites and their journey from potential enemies to friends is one of the highlights of the film. Cap is a character that is so hard to make badass: he's earnest and honest to the core of him, and it can make him rather hard to swallow at times, but here his military training is played up and his values are never shown to be corny or sentimental. I've always thought that Evans was a great actor, and he really proves it here as the Captain: he's tough, kind, funny, and intelligent.
Tony Stark, surprisingly, doesn't get ALL the good lines, but his Iron Man is a great source of wit and comic relief, and is also able to be threatening, menacing, and ferociously intelligent when he needs to be. He accepts Banner to the team faster than anyone else (mainly because Banner is his intellectual equal), enjoys ripping the piss out of everyone (the first scene where he encounters Thor is hilarious), and is brave enough to try and take on Loki by himself.
All in all, I just couldn't find anything wrong with this film. It's intelligent, funny, scary, sad, action-packed and just plain entertainment. The team behind The Dark Knight Rises should be very, very scared.
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