Well, summer’s almost here & so are the summer movies. Kicking off proceedings in more ways than one is Marvel superheroes union of sorts “The Avengers”. & everybody from 6 to 60 is queuing up at the box office to stake their claim at “I have watched it. Haven’t You?”. Touted by every data crunching site as the biggest superhero movie outside the US ever, the feature is raking up profits in the proverbial “truck loads” since its release 6 nights back.

As for the movie itself, writer / director Joss Whedon has put together a dish that should serve and appeal to a wide variety of palette or as in this instance, the cinegoing demography. In his quest of universal appeal the man has barely left any twist and turn in tits screenplay to anybody’s guess. Equal screen presence to almost all the pivotal characters and measured attention to their character developments, culminating into their meeting and an elaborate climax also means a longer than usual runtime. That is if you agree that 135 minutes is much more than your average Hollywood potboiler. Most of your friends, who have watched it, will make you believe that it didn’t feel that long, but try telling that to the distributors, who if given the opportunity would have gladly slid in one more show and make optimum usage of this 4 x A lister led cast. In perspective to the story itself considering a predictable end, I personally feel the climax could have done with a few scissor work here and there. Besides that, a multitude of CGI induced action sequences from start to finish, peppered with a few smart one liners will keep you quite interested through out, or almost through out. Special mention to the aspect of the heroes trying to outsmart each other sometimes with their skills but mostly with their knuckles, makes for a fun and unique experience. A couple of scenes that attributes to this, was the highlight of the premise for me. The villain, owing to the painstaking build up could or should have been done with some more sinistry. He caves in exactly when you were expecting a boombastic retaliation.

As for the actors, the lone bad man Tom Hiddleston does a terrific job to outshine the collective glare of  a long line up of hammer wielding, shield dangling, mind twisting, mixed with bunch of bow trickeries & a fancy suit along with a blown up rage monster in green. The man who should have had more lines, makes up for his leaner image against his bulkier opponents through tremendous poise and screen presence. Specially when a gamut of super powers also meant the subconscious mind of the audience focussed a lot on the solo bad guy in the screenplay. This brings me to a couple of glitches, of an otherwise spotless production. Loki, should have had more in his arsenal than being the one trick pony that he was eventually made out to be. Even if that was at the expense of the elaborate introductions of of the heroes, a couple of who are pretty well established with two sequels and two remakes, so be it. Secondly, an attempt at being a crowd pleaser sometimes comes with a dubious distinction of being a nobody, a particular someone who is a no one. In the long run this is what “The Avengers” looks like it could suffer from. But then again considering this is also a business of making money, I see sky being the only limit for this swashbuckler.

Watch “The Avengers” for the fun tongue wagging of heroes having a go at each other, who you’ve come to know and associate with over the years. Enjoy for what’s it worth. A case in point being all the action (nothing like you’ve never seen before), and if not for that, then for Scarlett Johansson’s skin fitting PVC suit, Tom Hiddleston’s dialogue delivery,  Chris Hemworth’s overgrown biceps, Mark Ruffalo’s awkwardness, Jeremy Renner’s brooding sleepwalk, Chris Evan’s ridiculous uniform and IronMan for being Robert Downey Jnr. Obviously not for Samuel Jackson’s run of the mill Nick Fury and definitely don’t watch it just for the 10stars that every 15 year old is giving it, in IMDB If anything watch it because you get to see 6 heroes at the price of 1. Period.

“The Avengers” is an entertaining film and it will earn unbelievable amount of money. There’s no two ways about that. I am just not that thrilled because it could have been much, much more than that.

4/5

Awesome – Awesome Trailer