Avengers Assemble

[Lizhawkins]

Twitter has been abuzz since the press screenings of Avengers Assemble last week...

The embargo has been lifted and the reviews are now hitting the t'internet.

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Here's a link to Total Film's 4 star Avengers Assemble review.

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[jaykays hat]

Booked my tickets for next Saturday...can't wait!!

[TheGuyver]

Going to early show in thursday back at my old work . Should be fun :-)

[TheGuyver]

Ignore that going to the Imax screening :-)

[Zippykins1]

Keeping expectations low for this one, trailer was meh.

[Firedragon76]

Got tickets for Thursday. I'm usually pretty jaded and refuse to buy into any hype but I'm geeking out about this one like there's no tomorrow

[TheGuyver]

Ladies and gentlemen and cats.


I was at the first showing this morning of the Avengers. Hour on the bus half hour walk. All worth it.

If this is a bench mark for the summer season. We as film fans are in for a treat. Everything about this film works. The main characters bounce of each other with great effect. Downey Jr is on great form as Tony Stark/Ironman . But its 3rd time lucky for the main star The Hulk.

I loved every minute of it. If Disney had any sense they would tie down Joss for all the sequels to this film.



Epic start to the summer season. Batman better bring his A game .


10 out of 10 for me. Can't wait till everyone else sees it.

[fortunesfool]

The Dirty (half) Dozen meets the Marvel Universe.

That’s it in a nutshell.

The culmination of Marvel’s movie experiment has finally landed and, against all the odds, is the best by far.

I gave a sigh of relief when Joss Whedon was announced as the man calling the shots. Even more so when Zak Penn’s screenplay was mostly binned and Joss got to work with the words. If Whedon knows one thing, it’s how to write multi character pieces and he delivers big time here.
Things get off to a shaky start with an exposition heavy, clunky opening which had me struggling to recall the events in Thor and Captain America and pondering the weird framing choices - lots of eyelines too far up the screen. About twenty minutes later though, my initial reservations were gone. Once Nick Fury (Samuel L jackson) and the ever brilliant Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) start getting the team together the movie ratchets up a few notches, the gears start ticking over and it’s full steam ahead. One memorable scene follows another and you’re soon struggling to remember Tony Stark putdowns as they come too fast to keep up (“No hard feelings Point Break” to Thor is a doozy though). And then there’s the Hulk. The movie was always gonna stand or fall on how well the Hulk was integrated. Fear not. Some of the most crowd-pleasing (and funny) scenes in the movie are Hulk-centric and he works a charm. Whedon makes sure that all the characters get their time to shine though so it’s not just the Tony Stark and Hulk show. Tom Hiddleston has a lot of fun with his ‘big bad’ Loki and gets some great verbal tete a tetes with assorted Avengers. Safe to say that the Hulk gets the last word though ☺
With the Avengers finally assembled, the action begins to pick up with an extended second act set piece leading towards the exhilarating final showdown against Loki and his army of alien … things. If I had to pick a fault in the film (other than the clunky opening) it’s the villians. Fun though Loki is, he’s just a bit of an arse and not particularly ‘evil’ and the alien army is little more than CG cannon fodder for out heroes to smack about at the end. Not that you’ll care though, as you’ll be having too much fun.
Technically, it’s top notch across the board. Whedon stages his action scenes with clarity and editing in mind. The action flows as opposed to assaults. Cinematography is clean and crisp. The 3D is superfluous but still looked good in the IMAX screening I attended. Alan Silvestri’s score is disappointingly bland and lacks the bombastic themes and motif’s that the film deserves.

Okay, lets be realistic here. It’s not a modern masterpiece. It’s not gonna be dissected in film schools across the world. It is, however, a solid, supremely entertaining, beautifully crafted bit of escapist fun. The kind of movie you always want from a big Hollywood blockbuster but hardly ever get. If you’re not a fan of superhero movies, and haven’t been following the Marvel movie universe so far, this isn’t for you. If you’re a certified movie/comic book geek then prepare for a sore face because your gonna be grinning from ear to ear for the best part of two hours.

[Firedragon76]

I went to see it last night and absolutely loved it. This was the first time there was actually a line-up around the block where the cinema is located and also the first time I saw people dressing up as movie character's for the screening (we usually don't do this over here). Bringing a fully functioning compound bow and arrows was a bit overkill though IMO.

Had I not known Joss Whedon was at the helm before, I would have known when watching the movie. I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard (not counting budget meetings).

I agree with The Hulk stealing a lot of scenes and enjoyed Loki more than I thought I would. Probably because he is played as kind of a Shakespearean baddie here.

I think I'll watch it again in a few weeks - sometimes the laughter and applause in the theatre got so loud that the following lines could not be heard.

[fortunesfool]

The genius of Whedon is that he appreciates that it's the little character moments that makes films so re-watchable, not an increasingly large amount of explosions.

I'm still laughing as little things I suddenly remember like - Steve Rodgers handing Fury the ten dollar note or HARRY DEAN STANTON!!!