Reviewed by Melissa Garza
My husband and I brought my mother to see “The Avengers” for mother’s day. I have been waiting for this film since they hinted at it in the original “Iron Man” where Nick Fury (Samuel Jackson) spoke with Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.).
The movie opens with Loki (Tom Hiddleston) arriving at earth and acquiring a device called the Tesseract that The Shield had been utilizing to create a nuclear weapon in the event of a major war. His intent is to rule the world and make everyone kneel to him.
Loki quickly kills most of the people within The Shield but spares a few in order to take over their minds and make them allies. Among the ones he took was Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner). Hawkeye was originally a good guy who at one time helped Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) from death when she was a villain. Due to him sparing her life, she vows to turn Hawkeye good again.
The rest of The Avengers were called to action to stop Loki from taking over. Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) is hesitant as he doesn’t want the Hulk to come out, but the Shield convinces him that they are not interested in his counterpart and simply wants them to help understand gamma radiation as the Tesseract began emitting small amounts of radiation prior to Loki’s arrival.
From start to finish this was a perfect film. It was exciting, funny and entertaining. It made me feel like a child while watching. I had waited so long to see the film and it finally arrived and lived up to my expectations – few things beat that.
Generally speaking, I was never fond of Mark Ruffalo. It isn’t really his fault I disliked him. He just always played characters that pissed me off. He was always in good –sometimes great films. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is fantastic. Zodiac is great. Still, there was something about him I wanted to punch. I was very disappointed when I found out he was taking over the Hulk as Ed Norton was not cast in The Avengers. Let it be known, I no longer want to punch Mark Ruffalo in the face. As Bruce Banner he has earned my respect and adoration. I am proud to call him the counterpart of the Hulk. Dare I say, he was better than Ed Norton – and I adore Ed Norton. I was one of the few who cheered when I went to theater to see Death to Smoochy .
Kudos for having Lou Ferrigno do the voice of the Hulk. One day, whether it is a skit or a dream sequence – I want to see Ferrigno dressed like the Hulk once more.
The teenage girl, who can’t help but like the bad boys, that dwells inside of me couldn’t help rooting for Loki. He is just so amazingly sexy. Not to mention, Tom Hiddleston is one hell of an actor. He’s amazing at being bad. I would love to see him portray Iago in a revision of Othello. Kenneth Branagh’s portrayal was fantastic, but something tells me it’s a role that Hiddleston was born to play.
There wasn’t a bad actor in the film. Everyone was just amazing.
Robert Downey Jr. as always is amazing – and the best part is that he knows it. He is and has always been charismatic, sexy, intriguing and plain old cool. Whether as the sidekick to James Spader in the little known Tuff Turf (it’s on Netflix Instant Watch – watch it to witness an 80s explosion) or as a hairy love interest to Nicole Kidman in “Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus,” he captivates. He is by far one of my favorite actors and in my eyes can do no wrong. Hell, I love “In Dream” where he’s a murderer that communicates telepathically with Annette Bening within her – you guessed it – dreams. I guess the teenage girl in me was definitely in control during that as even in that movie I was rooting for Vivian Thompson (Robert Downey Jr.).
I cannot stress enough the need to see this film in the theater. Of course, when it hits DVD, I’ll buy it – but there’s something special about seeing it on the big screen. Even the crying baby and loud patrons around me couldn’t take me out of the movie.
Though I’m sure this doesn’t need my rating as it’s a making a billion dollars worldwide, I’m still going to put my two cents in.
Scared Stiff Rating 10/10
