THE AVENGERS (2012) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

the avengers (2012) movie

Genre              |   Science Fiction

Classification   |   M

Running time   |   143 minutes

Released         |   4 May 2012

cast

Robert Downey Jr. ... Tony Stark / Iron Man
Chris Evans ... Steve Rogers / Captain America
Mark Ruffalo ... Bruce Banner / The Hulk
Chris Hemsworth ... Thor
Scarlett Johansson ... Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow
Jeremy Renner ... Clint Barton / Hawkeye
Tom Hiddleston ... Loki
Clark Gregg ... Agent Phil Coulson
Cobie Smulders ... Agent Maria Hill
Stellan Skarsgård ... Selvig
Samuel L. Jackson ... Nick Fury
Gwyneth Paltrow ... Pepper Potts
​Paul Bettany ... Jarvis (voice)

director

Joss Whedon

writer

​Joss Whedon ... (screenplay)
 
Zak Penn ... (story) and
Joss Whedon ... (story)

cinematographer

​Seamus McGarvey ... director of photography

music

​Alan Silvestri

film editor

​Jeffrey Ford
Lisa Lassek

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box office result

Worldwide             $​​​​​​​​​​​​​​1,518,812,988

Australia                 $​​​​​​​​​54,385,465

North America       $​​​​​623,357,910

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movie minutiae

According to writer and director Joss Whedon, the original cut of the movie was over three hours long. About thirty minutes of the excised footage are included on the Blu-ray, most of which revolves around Steve Rogers (Captain America) struggling to adjust to the modern world. Chris Evans announced later that these deleted scenes would be used for CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER (2014).

​Samuel L. Jackson's role as Nick Fury in this film makes him the second actor (after Hugh Jackman, who has appeared in all of the X-Men movies) to play the same comic book character in five different movies.

Since this movie and IRON MAN 3 (2013) were originally part of a six-picture deal with Marvel and Paramount Pictures before the distribution rights were transferred to Walt Disney Pictures, it's the Paramount logo that appears in advertising and marketing, as well as the beginning of this movie. Although Paramount Pictures had no part in the production of this movie, they still received a share of the box-office grosses, based on their original deal with Marvel. No reference to Disney is made, until the end of the closing credits, where it says "The Avengers" is "Distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures."

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related movies

AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON (2015)

THE AVENGERS (2012) MOVIE IMAGES

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THE AVENGERS (2012) STORY SYNOPSIS

​"Marvel makes cinematic history as it unites the Super Hero team of a lifetime. Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) assemble together for the first time ever in this epic, action-packed blockbuster alongside Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). Director Joss Whedon creates an unprecedented masterpiece that has become a global phenomenon. Packed with spectacular visual effects, Marvel's The Avengers will blow your mind!"

THE AVENGERS (2012) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 4 February 2015

​​Pop Movee Rating

The first five Marvel films all lead to the spectacle that is THE AVENGERS; the culmination of what the film’s producers refer to as Phase One. The Avengers is the most ambitious comic book film ever brought to the big screen. Iron Man, The Hulk, Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, Hawkeye, JARVIS and Nick Fury all together in one film battling Loki’s plans to take control Earth and its people.

In some ways, Loki never had a chance...

While the assembled Avengers aren’t necessarily the top-tier of Marvel’s comic book talent, there’s enough firepower on hand to well and truly see Loki and his inter-dimensional attackers thwarted by this Avengers line-up.

Anchoring the film is Robert Downey Jr., who is clearly the leading talent in the Marvel line-up and had helped kick-start Marvel Studios with the commercial success enjoyed by the first two IRON MAN films. Downey Jr. is very comfortable with Tony Stark and his natural talent provides energy and purpose throughout THE AVENGERS two hour plus running time.

Chris Evans, as Captain America, really comes into his own in The Avengers, especially in the second half of the film. Joss Wheddon’s screenplay allows a number of the post-traumatic elements of Cap’s 80 year deep freeze to play out in the opening section of the movie, but, by the time the action ramps up, Evans takes his place as the natural leader of the team. Another actor change for The Hulk doesn’t hurt the film either.

Mark Ruffalo is the best Bruce Banner to date, approaching his Hulk transformations with a degree of inevitable resignation as opposed to the confused intensity that both Eric Bana and Edward Norton went for in previous incarnations.

Chris Hemsworth is as stoic as his first foray as Thor, but the natural woodiness of the character doesn’t allow him to bounce of his more affable Avenger colleagues. Hemsworth is a solid actor and anyone who has seen him in other more Earth-bound roles know that he is more nuanced than the range he plays in his Marvel appearances.

The real delight of THE AVENGERS is how well Joss Wheddon incorporates every character into the story in a meaningful way. The secondary cast including Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury all get to add something to the story. Even Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts and Paul Bettany’s disembodied computer-voice of JARVIS get to be a part of the action. Clark Gregg as SHIELD Agent Phil Coulson, once again, gets to steal most of the scenes in which he appears, and it’s his pivotal scene that brings this disparate group of superheroes together in a meaningful way that fulfils Nick Fury’s plan for the Avengers Initiative.

Superheroes, however, are only ever as good as the villain they have to confront and Wheddon, wisely, chooses to continue using Tom Hiddleston’s Loki; the galactic trickster who was flung into another dimension at the end of the first THOR (2011) movie. The Marvel post-credit scenes had already told the audience that Loki would be back, as he was last seen at the end of THOR (2011) admiring the Tessaract in the guise of Stellan Skarsgaard’s brilliant, but hapless Dr.Selvig. The movie is pretty clear that Loki is not acting alone in his effort to conquer Earth.

The film provides a couple of scenes with Thanos, who is heard but not seen furnishing Loki with the alien Chitauri army that will be used to invade New York in the movie’s finale. For those unfamiliar with the Marvel comic book universe, Thanos is a brutal ancient being who brought together five different powerful elements to create the Infinity Gauntlet; a weapon that gives its possessor the ultimate power in the universe.

The presence of Thanos in THE AVENGERS plants a seed for fans that the brains-trust at Marvel Studios have a long-term, grand plan for their story that ties into many of the great Marvel comic book storylines.

Joss Wheddon does an excellent job at keeping THE AVENGERS on track and the film really benefits from him doubling-up on screen writing and directing duties. As mentioned, the finished film manages to distill all the vital elements of THE AVENGERS into a series of sequences that translate into a coherent whole. There’s little doubt that Wheddon the Writer would have had a lot more material and, as is always the case, would have had to pare back either during the writing process or in principal photography to make THE AVENGERS work without being a four hour film.

Wheddon the Director and Film Maker has clocked a lot of television hours and knows how to balance the needs of action adventure with a level of characterisation that allows his actors to deliver something new in their role. Unfortunately, THE AVENGERS is missing the layer of Wheddon individuality that has been a unique signature of his television shows such as BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER and FIREFLY.

This is probably not Wheddon’s fault...

Marvel Studios, and its senior management team, work with the Director of each Marvel film to produce the final cut of the film. Marvel’s Kevin Fiege is adamant that these days the studio, after a long history of selling their properties off with little quality control, need to collaboratively work with each project's Director to make sure the finished product meets their expectations. It’s a control mechanism that allows the studio, and parent company Disney, to maintain brand equity in their properties and demonstrate to fans and casual viewers alike that they are committed to releasing the best quality of films possible.

One disappointing element of THE AVENGERS is the uneven cinematography by Seamus McGreevy...

The first half of the film is fine, with the standard over-the-shoulder, close-up, reverse over-the-shoulder, close-up approach to capturing what’s needed. In some scenes, Wheddon and McGreevy have enough coverage to pull back to a master shot, which really gives the viewer a sense of The Avengers as a team; not just individual superheroes.

In the second half of the film, the standard falls away dramatically as more hand-held camera work comes into use to give viewers the sense that they are participants on the frontlines during the battle of New York sequence. There are other missed opportunities; especially on board the SHIELD Helicarrier. The bridge of the Hellicarrier is a great set; open and full of light. McGreevy’s photography never does it justice, as he shoots a lot of it from below the actor’s waist so there’s no sense of what’s in the background. It’s disappointing, as the production value of this set is lost.

One of the great modern day film composers, Alan Silvestri, was hired to score THE AVENGERS, and his signature track is a wonderful piece of music. For those not familiar with his work, Silvestri has produced film scores dating back to the 1980s and was responsible for two of the best action adventure films from that era – BACK TO THE FUTURE (1985) and PREDATOR (1987).

THE AVENGERS score sees Silvestri take cues from each of the previous film’s themes and bring them together in a rousing piece of music that is entirely fitting for this gathering of superheroes. The score’s use during the battle of New York creates one of the truly great comic book movie scenes of all time, as, at one point, the camera spins around The Avengers to the rousing crescendo of Silvestri’s notes.

It would be remiss not to mention the film’s special effects, as the story is so reliant on them to enable the viewer’s suspension of disbelief. From the movie’s opening set-piece in the Nevada desert all the way to its conclusion, THE AVENGERS relies on CGI and traditional physical effects to tell its story.

Special mention goes to the artists who created The Hulk, who is entirely CGI. The previous Hulk movies struggled with ‘selling’ the character because the animation technology could not create Bruce Banner’s alter-ego in a convincing fashion. The Hulk in this film, however, is far more believable as computer animation software has made significant advances in the last couple of years, as companies like WETA animation have pushed technological boundaries to remove visual recognition of the difference between animation and reality.

The efforts of everyone associated with THE AVENGERS production were duly rewarded, as the movie busted box office records all over the world upon its release. In the United States alone, the film generated over $200 million at the box office in its opening weekend. This is not why film makers make movies, but it sure does help when the public really support a film I such a big way.

Credit must also be paid to the executives at both Marvel and Disney. Green-lighting a film with a $200 million production budget is a huge economic risk. The history of cinema is littered with examples of big-budget films that never found an audience. No guarantee existed that THE AVENGERS would be successful enough to recoup its investment.

One of the really smart things that Marvel did was take advantage of the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con forum to bring together the key cast and crew to promote the film almost a year ahead of its release. The goodwill generated by this fan inter-action created extremely positive sentiment that lead to ongoing social media commentary that was self-perpetuating across the entire internet. 

Subsequent Comic-Cons have seen all the major film studios attempt to emulate this grassroots marketing strategy in search of the next billion dollar break-out. To date, the only film to get close in emulating THE AVENGERS success has been the Marvel film that immediately followed it: IRON MAN 3.

​THE AVENGERS is a fun, action-packed film. Joss Wheddon successfully brought together Earth’s mightiest heroes in a movie that manages to remain relatively cohesive. It delivers a lot of bang for its buck and, up to the release of CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER (2014), was regarded by fans as the best Marvel film.

​2015 will see the release of the second Avengers movie, AGE OF ULTRON. All the major cast and crew from the first film are returning and new characters such as Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch and The Vision will be making their first appearance. Joss Wheddon will be doing extremely well to emulate the success of THE AVENGERS with the second film and, if he does, will, no doubt, have to have a new, larger pedestal onto which he will be hoisted and hailed as a truly great movie-making talent.

THE AVENGERS (2012) USEFUL LINKS

The Avengers (2012 film) - Wikipedia
​The Avengers (2012) - IMDb
​​Marvel's The Avengers (2012) - Rotten Tomatoes

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