The Avengers

Directed and Screenplay by Joss Whedon. Starring Robert Downey Jr. (Tony Stark/Iron Man), Chris Evans (Captain America), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Mark Ruffalo (Bruce Banner/The Hulk), Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye), Tom Hiddleston (Loki), Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury).

Bottom Line: Great CGI, solid jokes make Avengers a fun movie experience. I've seen it twice in 3D (once in IMAX 3D) and I wouldn't mind seeing it again.

3/4 stars

Super hero movies are like barbeque ribs. I can't say I'm generally the biggest fan but I've had some darn good ribs. The meat of the rib is the most important part. If it is tender and well cooked, the meat can stand alone; I've had some ribs without any sauce or extra spices and they’ve been lovely. But, if you add a little sauce or spice rub, you can make some really memorable ribs. Memorable, of course, can be a good or a bad thing.

The Avengers is a solid rack of ribs. The meat (the action and special effects) is wonderful. Even though the 3D effects were applied in post-production, they are well done, particularly the extreme long shots of Iron Man flying through the city.

The dialog is the sauce. The characters are distinct and they are fun to watch. The jokes are spot on and provide a pleasant break from the action. Even the cliché jokes are successful. For example, in the final battle, Captain America orders some police around, ‘Why should we listen to you’, some aliens jump out, Capt. America destroys them and, predictably, the cop turns around and follows orders. That joke must be in just about every action movie but, here, the cop’s delivery of the punch-line is executed perfectly.

The Avengers, as you may well know, is the result of a four year string of movies from Marvel. Each of the characters, Iron Man, Captain America, Black Widow, The Hulk, Hawkeye and Thor are brought together to form a team to protect the world from Thor's brother, Loki. The strong personalities of the heroes make the possibility of a team slim. Ultimately, they are persuaded but in ways which bring to light the film's questionable sense of morality.

In a lot of these types of movies, there is always “The Man”. The big government type of entity. They don’t understand, man, because they haven’t been out in the field. Here, this comes in the form of "The Council", which I assume is the UN. Alright. I'm fine with this. It’s nothing new.
Now Nick Fury (Jackson), the man in charge of the “Avengers initiative”, is in the field. So he ought to be a strong moral leader because he understands how hard it is for the soldiers.
But, what happens? Fury manipulates the emotions of the heroes so they form a team: “…he died believing a dream.” The message, then, is “the ends justify the means”. The Avengers do go on to save the world but it leaves me with a bitter taste in my mouth.

The moral ambiguity, fortunately, doesn't overshadow the great dialog and special effects. The Avengers is a movie that I was actually dreading. I was fully expecting the $200,000,000 budget to go to special effects at the expense of dialog but, to my great surprise that isn’t the case.