Film Review: Marvel's Avengers Assemble!

10/10

As many people know, my favourite film of all time is 'The Elephant Man'.  To me, it is cinematic perfection.  I've never seen a film, before or since, that has genuinely moved me (still the only film that's ever made me cry!) and I never ever believed that any film could come close to making me rethink my philosophy.

Until now.

As I alluded to in my previous blog, I've loved The Avengers since about 1985 so the chance of me not liking a film version would be small, but to say I was blown away by Marvel's Avengers Assemble would be like saying Siberia is a little bit nippy.  Almost from the very first scene, the film grabs you, demands your attention and refuses to let you go.  And you don't even notice.

The set up is perfect, and really you don't NEED to see any of the five previous films that lead up to it (although if you do, trust me it makes it much better.

For me, Captain America is more like himself than he was in his own movie.  Tony Stark is just sarcastic and wonderful, Thor is several kinds of awesome.  Mark Ruffalo is the best Bruce Banner ever (sorry to the fans of Bana, Norton and/or Bixby) and if he doesn't get his own Hulk film out of this then there's no justice in the world.  The other two Avengers (Black Widow and Hawkeye) are not treated as extras, as you might reasonably expect and in fact easily have about as much screen time and development as the rest.

As for SHIELD, Cobie Smulders is just smoking hot as Maria Hill and Clark Gregg continues his deadpan nothing-can-shock-me performance as Agent Coulson (and he will be missed in the future films) but Samuel L Jackson is still 'The Man' and couldn't be cooler if you dumped him in an ice bath.

But as in 'Thor', the best acting was from Tom Hiddleston as Loki.  He displays such a believable performance, going from evil to humourous and everything inbetween.  His scene with Black Widow was one of the stand out moments (plus it had the phrase 'mewling quim' - 12a rating ahoy!) and his battle with Hulk was... Short but oh so memorable.

The final scenes are perhaps the best ever seen, certainly in a superhero film and possibly in any film.  This is what Transformers WISHES it could have been.  Some real fist pumping and 'Fuck yeah' moments but you never get lost in the visuals (which are stunning throughout).

And if you don't get chills when the Avengers form the famous circle (the one we've all seen in the trailers) then you might want to check your blood flow.

I have tried and tried to think of some negative points but the only ones I can think of is just the very minor disappointment that there didn't seem to be any 'hidden' gems in the film.  Would have loved a minor cameo from Agents Danvers or Morse (Ms Marvel and Mockingbird respectively) or maybe even tracking Bruce Banner while he's hiding out with his cousin Jennifer Walters.  But nothing like that, not even a mention of "We tried the Fantastic Four but they weren't even in this dimension".  Shame, but that is a churlish criticism at best.

So, is this now my favourite film ever?  No. But it's pretty damn close. The adult 'me' is telling me that The Elephant Man is still the best film I've ever seen. But the child 'me' insists it's The Avengers. Pfft, who wants to be a grown up at the cinema anyway?

Sod it, I'm going to see it again!


Oh, and Thanos.  THANOS!.  THANOS ON THE BIG SCREEN!!  Can this Avengers sequel just hurry up already??