The Avengers

Alright, lets try this review thing again.

The Avengers (2012) has just his shores this week in Australia, amazingly a week ahead of the US date (lacking the antisipated new trailers for the other two big Hero flicks coming out, the Amazing Spider-Man and The Dark Knight Rises. But we don't go to the cinema's for Trailers, right?), This film in the culminations of the Marvel/Paramount alliance (of sorts), to bring together as many Marvel hero's under one roof, to put together the ultimate Superhero flick. If you know the general score, you can skin to the bolded setup below.

So lets take a look at the Roster, We've got the time displaced Super Solider Captain America (Chris Evans), Professional Sneaks buggers Black Widow/Hawkeye (Scarlet Johanson/Jeremy Renner), The good Doctor Bruce Banner with his nasty Mr Hyde the Hulk (Played by Mark Ruffello), the Man, the Myth the God Thor (Chris Hemsworth), and with the (in his words) Genius Playboy Philanthropist Billionaire and a mechanical suit, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr). To top it off, we've got a Bad ass General Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson) trying to assemble the team, with his loyal and likable 2IC Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg).
With a collection of Heroic Misfits like that, your going to need a intimidating, Powerful, Big Bad to place the smack and escalate the the conflict to a point where Team Work is the only option for a happy resolution. Those boots are being filled by the Trickster God, Loki (Tom Hiddleston). You might remember him as the Thor's brother, who he beat the silly out of in his film. He's back, and after some mind games, He's got an Army.

And manipulating these players around the field is Joss Wheadon, who you might remember as the Creater/Producer of televisions Buffy The Vampire Slayer/Angel/Firefly/Dollhouse and the Internets Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog. He's not only directing, but he's also co-written the story.

So, we've got our set up, Heroes, Villain, War, being orchestration by a Geek God. Can it hold up to the Fan expectations? That remains to be seen, though I suspect it just might. For a film that runs at a 2 hours 21 minutes, it moves as a pretty quick clip, and I can't exactly say there's ever a dull moment, or at least, one that lasts for any significant amount of time to leave a lasting impression. There's some OK fight scenes in the first half of the film, nothing i'd call spectacular, but not awful either. There's so good chemistry between the cast, the the dialogue from the characters feels pretty true to the characters that have been presented to us on screen for the past few years. There's some real crack to the Dialogue, and the Exchanges from Mr Military and the Iron Rogue are pretty solid. The real value of the film comes together in the last act of the film, when the shit hits the fan and we see the team come together. Its a massive action sequence, filled with explosions and excitement.
Unfortunately, The threat never really feels that real, and I know its obvious in these kinds of films that days always going to be saved, and the heroes come out on top, but the film hardly feels like there's a consequence to the action taking place. There are, but they don't hold a lasting effect on the screen or on us.

I have to say this quickly as well, the VFX department have done a pretty good job bringing the film to life, and of particular note, the Hulk looks great on screen. His presence seems to be getting better with each of the films they've released (for the record, i didn't mind the Lee/Banner Hulk, up until the last battle, and
Leterrier/Norton one was pretty good too). The invading force looks fairly good as well. The films 3D isn't bad, but not great, so i'd say if you can get away with seeing it in 2D, go with it. you won't be loosing out.