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The Avengers


The Avengers (2012)
(70%)

Director: Joss Whedon
Writer: Joss Whedon
Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson
Production Companies: Marvel Studios, Paramount Pictures

The Avengers is the first team-up film in the MCU and follows the crew as they argue for a while before teaming up to fight some aliens that are invading Earth thanks to Loki opening up a portal.

Even when I watched The Avengers for the first time back in 2012, I didn't think that the story was all that special. This is a long film, and for most of it we just sit around watching the heroes talk. There are a few action set pieces throughout the film, such as when Thor, Loki, and Iron Man (and Captain America) have a pretty awesome scuffle, but besides that it's a whole lot of chatter and not a whole lot of anything else. And it doesn't help that these conversations aren't particularly interesting. The final battle in the city is cool, but there's nothing particularly jaw-dropping about it either. The story here is just...okay.

I will say that having watched the first Captain America film it was cool to see Steve interact with the son of a man that he considered a friend, and slowly realize that he's a bit of a douche. Steve and Tony's dynamic is by far the most entertaining in the film (and possibly the MCU, which makes sense given the future these two have).

As to be expected by this point with MCU films, the cinematography is great. Of course, this is also the film where we get the iconic shot of The Avengers as they assemble on the battlefield, which was cool to see.

In the end, though, while everything in this film is solid, I don't find it to be particularly mind-blowing. And really a big part of the reason why I don't like to watch this one very often is because of the long run-time. There's nothing in this film that makes me want to sit down for 2.5 hours and watch it, unless I'm doing an MCU marathon.