Incredible Hulk (2008), Iron Man (2008), Iron Man 2 (2010), Thor (2011), and Captain America (2011), have all been leading up to the master epic of the summer, The Avengers. Never has a cinematic experience like these six movies ever been pulled off with such success, having five movies be the "prequel" of sorts to one giant production? Unprecedented. But Joss Whedon pulled it off with his snarky writing style. He gave each character their own story and delved just enough into each on. The Avengers is one of the best movies I have ever seen.
This is a summary so if you wish to not be spoiled head straight to the next page for the review!
We start off the movie at some S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters out in the desert, Nick Fury has just arrived due to some disturbance with the tesseract. Eric Selvig is working on the tesseract, trying to harness its power in order to initiate phase 2 (more on that later). Then we are introduced, formally, to Agent Clint Barton/The Hawk/Hawkeye. He's the Agent assigned to supervise the entire operation, to see things that others can't. Shortly after Loki appears claiming that he wants the tesseract and that he's not taking no for an answer. He uses some sort of magic to possess Eric Selvig, Clint Barton, and some random agent(s) to come to his aide. With the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents leading him through the base he almost gets away unnoticed but Nick Fury alerts Agent Maria Hill that Loki has arrived and has the tesseract. After a minor chase the entire base collapses due to lingering effects of the tesseract. You see Fury on the phone initiating the Avengers Initiative.
You then join Agent Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow, who is currently tied up and being interrogated by Russians. She gets word that Clint/Hawkeye has been "compromised" and she immediately springs into action. She is sent out to get the "big guy". You then see her in Calcutta as she tries to convince Bruce Banner/The Big Guy/Hulk to join the ranks so he can track the tesseract/"the cube" since the cube has a faint gamma radiation signature. And after a while he finally agrees. Next on the Avengers list is Tony Stark who is currently having a spat with Pepper. He is then interrupted by Agent Coulson. Pepper addresses Coulson as "Phil", it being his first name, but Tony insists that his first name is "Agent". After much persuasion Tony joins the hunt for the Tesseract, being a genius and all. Then we see Nick Fury trying to convince our resident super soldier Steve Rogers/Captain America to join the initiative. Cap is eager enough to join and needs the least convincing out of all the other Avengers.
Next up we have Clint trying to steal iridium for the machinery to work the tesseract. Simultaneously Loki has been seen in Stuttgart, Germany at a gala where he then proceeds to use some sort of device to get the retinal pattern of some guys eye so Clint can access the iridium. Loki gets what he came for and then is seen ordering every human in a twenty foot radius to kneel. Which they do. When one old man stands up to him and is about ready to be shot down Cap saves him with his vibranium shield. Loki and Cap have a stand-off before they're joined by one Tony Stark blasting his usual classic rock. Tony saves the day and they take Loki aboard a smaller aircraft than the helicarrier the main base is located on.
Aboard the aircraft a thunderstorm approaches, and if you have any foresight in you you know what happens next "What's the matter? Afraid of a little thunder?" Steve asks a suddenly terrified Loki.
"I'm not particularly fond of what follows."
Enter Thor/Thor! He comes crashing down on the aircraft with his mighty hammer and when the pilot opens the hatch to let Tony out Thor comes in and takes his brother down to earth. Tony does not like this and soars after them. Cap also jumps from the aircraft with a parachute seeing that he can't fly. And after a loving brother talk from the two Asgardians and a raucous fight between Cap, Thor, and Tony, they seemed to have settled their differences and have cooled off considerably. They return to the ship with Loki in tow once more as Thor agreed to keep Loki in human custody until they retrieve the tesseract.
Now that the entire Avengers cast is together (minus Hawkeye who is still under mind control) they return to the helicarrier so Tony Stark can hack into S.H.I.E.L.D. and so he can point out the nitwits on board playing Gallaga. More jokes all around, mostly on Tony trying to get Banner to go Hulk with shock pointers, but Natasha manages to discover Loki's plot by appearing to have been affected by him. They learn that Loki plans to induce Banner to go Hulk and destroy the craft. But this is when Tony has successfully hacked into the server and Steve has found what phase 2 of the operation was going to be, use the tesseract to make weapons like HYDRA did all those decades ago.
Little does anyone know that a band wagon full of Loki controlled drones are in an aircraft waiting to take the helicarrier down. Barton deploys an explosive arrow and it takes out one of the engines. The explosion induces the Hulk to come out of hiding and Tony and Steve have gone off to repair the busted engine. After the Hulk Hulks out and destroys most of the lower desk he jumps onto an aircraft and plummets towards the ground. Thor did the best he could to retain him but he had other problems with the drones freeing Loki. He goes to stop this but is tricked into being trapped in Loki's prison. Loki pushes a big red button and Thor also plummets to earth. Meanwhile Tony is pushing the blades of the engine to kick start them and Steve is fighting off more drones as Natasha and Clint face off in an assassins face off. Natasha wins and Clint is back to his old self due to "cognitive recalibration" or she "hit him really hard in the head". Too bad that during the midst of this Agent Coulson was killed by Loki. All of the engines are brought back online, Loki has vanished, and the Hulk and Thor are no where to be seen.
But now it's time for the big battle, Thor goes Sailor Moon, the Hulk is somewhere without any pants, and Clint, Natasha, Tony, and Cap are all planning to stop Loki from harnessing the power from Stark Tower to power his device. They steal an aircraft and head to New York City where the s--- is about to go down. Once they get to New York City they see that there still might be some time and they can prevent Loki from reaching his goal. After a funny confrontation with Loki and Tony, the portal is opening and Loki's army, the Chitauri, is heading in for their big debut. And, conveniently, Banner shows up on a tattered old motorcycle. He goes Hulk and the battle ensues. And after a surprisingly long time (and it's not repetitive they throw something new at you every minute and it's amazing) and after all of our heroes are brought to the point of exhaustion, Natasha figures out a way to disarm the portal to close it. Too bad the council of dark shadowy people have decided to nuke Manhattan. Fury alerts the Avengers to this and Tony springs into action. He guides the nuke up into the portal just as Natasha closes the portal. The nuke destroys the big battleship (which is connected to the Chitauri's life force or something) and the Chitauri all drop dead. The world is safe once again, thanks to the bunch of misfits known as the Avengers! Loki is brought back to Asgard with the tesseract in tow as a prisoner, Thor goes with him, Steve rides off on his motorcycle, Tony and Banner do heck knows what, and Natasha and Clint have been reunited once more so they go do what assassins do best, whatever that is.
We then cut to an end scene where we get a preview of what's to come in the next Avengers movie to be released 2014 or 2015. Our new villain looks a lot like Hellboy, just saying. There's another end scene where they're all eating together... and it's hilarious because they don't talk and- I'll just let you watch the movie.
Now, check the next page for the actual review.
