With so much hype about The Avengers, very good reviews by several film critics, and with a capable filmmaker such as Joss Whedon, creator of one of my favorite Sci-Fi TV series – Firefly, at the helm, I was quite fired up about this superhero film. Ultimately this 143 min long flick is uneven. It delivers action and entertainment and for the most part is quite engaging. Yet something is amiss. A fantasy film needs to stick to the rules of its own logic or else risk its internal world collapse. The Avengers does not follow this important principle. Furthermore, the treatment of the characters is uneven with some coming across as independent and credible and some not. All in all Whedon does a good job maintaining the individualism of the superheros while establishing their relationships with each other and with the authorities. But that is not enough to deliver a great story thus reducing The Avenger to a typical well-made blockbuster action film.
Commendable especially are the performances by Mark Ruffalo as Dr. Bruce Banner aka Hulk, and of Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark aka Iron Man. Also notable are moments of comic relief scattered throughout the film – all well-timed and whimsical.
If you like comics go with reduced expectations and you are sure to experience an outer-space blast.