As a self-confessed Marvel/Comic/Superhero fangirl, I was always going to enter the screening of Avengers Assemble with unrealistically high expectations, but after an altercation at TGI Friday’s which caused me to miss the first 20 seconds, I was immediately submerged into a world where the film’s stupid name (Avengers Assemble? Really?) really didn’t matter.
Cue a delectable superhero delicacy starring Robert Downey Jr as himself- no, wait, I mean as Tony Stark- in a kick-ass metal suit that transforms him into Iron Man; Mark Ruffalo as Hulk, the incredible green monster with anger management issues; Chris Evans plays Captain America, the genetically enhanced supersoldier with old time values; Chris Hemsworth as the Norse God, Thor, who’s pretty dexterous with a hammer that creates lightening and draws power from the sky; and Scarlett Johannson as the super sexy, super spy who holds her own in a testosterone filled boiling pot of characters. Nick Fury, the smart talking, eye patch wearing S.H.I.E.L.D Government operative, is tasked with amalgamating these heroes to save the world from an exiled power tripping Norse God (who also happens to be Thor’s brother), who’s stolen the ultimate source of self sustainable energy in a bid to enslave the world’s population. Brit Tom Hiddleston, as Loki, does not disappoint, and is every bit as badass as the villain who needs five superheroes (not including Hawkeye, the arrow wielding S.H.I.E.L.D. operative, ‘cause he doesn’t really count) to take him out.
Written and directed by Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon, Avengers Assemble is incredibly well paced and with five huge egos in play, none of them are ignored or overshadowed. A script laced with hilarity throughout underlies the action and emphasises the Avengers relationship as a family. They fight, they banter but when the time comes to save to the world (because it always comes) they get their acts together and work as an amazingly nuanced team. All in all, the Avengers Assembled, and they really kicked ass.
Avengers Assemble, directed by Joss Whedon, is distributed in the UK by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures UK, Certificate 12A.
