MCU Filmathon: The Avengers

We come to the end of phase one with The Avengers and come into territory that I can remember quite well. I remember when the film came out in the cinema in 2012 and I hadn't brushed up on my Avengers knowledge with the comics so I went in not knowing what to expect. I was blown away by the movie and how spectacular it was; just almost every aspect of it was amazing. Backed up by great Director Joss Whedon, who managed to pull off one of the greatest superhero movies of all time and didn't seem to be fazed by the pressure of adapting one of the best superhero teams!

You should know the basis of the story, the evil Loki comes to Earth via portal with an alien army, intent on conquering humanity! Now S.H.I.E.L.D face a threat unlike any other, Director Nick Fury is forced to put the The Avengers initiative into action gathering the heroes from the past movies. Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr), Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), and Captain America (Chris Evans). Also including S.H.I.E.L.D agents Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and later on Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) who spends the majority of the film possessed to fight for Loki in his proper film debut after a cameo in Thor.

Of course putting these superheroes in a team for the first time isn't going to go as well as planned, having four superheroes who were all lead characters in their previous films it isn't long before

tension arises in the squad. In fact Iron Man and Thor's first meeting results in an all out fight that Captain America later joins as well. Later in the film Captain America and Iron Man both have a struggle for power among the team. It is easy to distinguish the differences between the two characters and we are convinced they cannot work together. But we do see them working well together when The Helicarrier comes under attack, proving they can put their differences aside to work as one (in Stark's case his ego). I do believe both these characters get the most screen time which at the time didn't seem fair, but now with Civil War just around the corner it makes it more understandable why they were viewed so much. You would think in a film like this the amount of characters used, including a bunch of S.H.I.E.L.D agents, it would all fall apart and it would be difficult to focus on them and the storyline together. But Whedon managed to cleverly pull it off and show how a team of superheroes manage to work together to save the World!

While the cast is predominately male it does take focus on strong female characters and some would Iron Man 2 and although she's at a slight disadvantage to the other members with not having a superpower or amazing suit of armour, it is obvious to see that she doesn't need any of that to be part of the team and is just as dangerous as the other members in some ways!
say at this point in the film series it was the right time to big up Black Widow. In this film she comes off as much stronger physically and mentally. She was better handled than she was in

Unfortunately one disadvantage of the film is around the characters. Hawkeye drew the short straw when they were writing this because he is barely included in the film. This is rather

disappointing because his character is quite an interesting one. Although he does get a good fight scene with black widow and proves to be of some help when the aliens invade New York. Another gripe is the plot, it is quite basic with the idea of Loki taking over Earth and the Avengers have to stop him. It sounds like the premise to all conventional superhero movies and this isn't the first time it was used in phase one either. Although the plot is more complicated than that, it is predictable in places and makes it seem quite basic!

Nonetheless the flaws of the film almost go unnoticed with the fight sequences being so essential to

the movie. In phase one a lot of the fight sequences have been great and some haven't, but the final battle in New York and the Stark Tower was the best yet. It all flowed beautifully and allowing each character to have a moment of greatness. Especially seeing Hulk taking out that flying Chitauri flying creature with one punch and Tony grabbing the rogue Nuclear missile and diverting it up through the portal where the aliens were coming through. It is definitely up there with one of the best battles in the MCU so far!

Well I was quite happy to watch this film again, although the flaws of the film do let it down a bit I can't deny that this is a great movie and in my opinion vastly improves Marvel's phase one. Now that we've finished phase one we can move onto phase two of the MCU as we build up to the start of phase three.

I salute you for reading! :)