Movie Reviews by Jeff {The Avengers}

Years of hype and movies have prepared us for this moment. Various back-stories and relationships have built in preparation for it, and now the wait is over. The Avengers is finally here and I have to say, Impressed!!

Joss Whedon has created a storyline that has the right pace to keep an audience on the edge of their seats while also keeping it steady enough to follow along with 4 previous heavy-weight leading characters. Its obvious why they chose to use Whedon for this task. He is a great talent for bringing together main characters with different strengths as shown in Buffy (I know....the vampire slayer) and Firefly. Not to mention he wrote a couple episodes of Roseanne!

The evil Loki, from Thor, who has come with a vengeance to destroy Earth. Sounds like most evil plots, but this time Nick Fury (Samuel Jackson) assembles the crew to stop the Norse God with the likes of Captain America (Chris Evans), Iron-Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), and Hulk (Mark Ruffalo). Yep, one bad-ass group of dudes full of good and anger at times.

The movie shows some great interaction between characters and shows the struggles a group of people must overcome to become a united front. Iron-Man has his usual comic relief moments and awesomeness. While he seems to struggle with his inner-hero at times, he shines in the group in his own right and we see why he has his own tower.

Whedon does a great job of writing Captain America and showing him to be the mega-hero he is. He is a straight up, in your face hero that doesn't back down from confrontation. He fully embodies the American spirit and can do attitude of the greatest generation.

I do believe the best character that Whedon shows in the movie is Hulk. After 2 movies that were by all means blah, this movie debuts a Hulk that is actually worth watching. Ruffalo shows a side of Bruce Banner the audience really hasn't believed yet. He is dealing with a monster that has been terrorizing him for years and yet also knows the positive side to having an indestructible monster inside of you. Thor is in the movie as more of a side character and the shepherd to bring Loki back to Asgard.

Like anything, the movie is not perfect, but pretty DAMN close. I would have to say that the movie was not long enough, didn't have enough popcorn, and shouldn't have bathroom breaks!! Anyways, the 2 side characters of Hawkeye and Black Widow were actually good characters that seemed to be underdeveloped. With 6 superheroes, it's difficult to develop each individual's story. Also, It was a simple plot, but made sense for a movie that had heavy hitters coming together for the first time. Hopefully, the next one will be more character development for those secondary heroes and new ones that may arise in the sequel.

An overall great action packed adventure that has proven to be well worth the wait. The only question is will Marvel and Whedon be able to pull off a 2nd one if chosen to do so. I'm pretty sure that answer is an emphatic YES!

And finally, like every other Marvel Comics movie, don't leave early.