Saying that The Avengers is the highly anticipated film of 2012 is likely an understatement (though I would say that The Dark Knight Rises rivals in extreme anticipation). But does it live up to all the hype?

Yes, and then some.

I knew I was going to enjoy this film as a whole  but I had expected to need to look past a few aspects, characters and/or actors to be able to give it both thumbs up. Let’s say that I was proven way wrong.

This tweet from Seth Green says it all:

So that was AMAZING. Like, double plus awesome. Thank you Joss Whedon for giving us all the #Avengers movie we deserve. #OnlyYou
— Seth Green (@SethGreen) April 12, 2012

Here is a break down of what components made The Avengers double plus awesome, and some were pleasantly suprising.

Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/ The Hulk

I have never be fond of anything Hulk. From any comic or cartoon to  the  2003 Ang Lee Hulk disaster  (which has been erased from our minds) and even the Ed Norton revamp with Avengers tie-in never spoke to me. With that being said, I am also not a fan of actor-swapping either. Even though I thought Norton made an awful Hulk, having another actor play him in what is supposed to be a direct link-movie to “The Incredible Hulk” further rubbed me the wrong way.

Mark Ruffalo’s performance as Bruce Banner and Hulk won me over! He is exactly what was needed and I loved every second of him on screen.

Nick Fury (Jackson) has Agent Romanoff (Johansson) bring in Bruce Banner from hiding in the slums of Calcutta because of his work with gama radiation, they need him to help find the stolen tesseract  (an ancient Asgardian artifact of unimaginable power).  This is what ties many of the previous films together, specifically “Thor” and “Captain America”. The entire time Bruce is among all the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and other heros he is persistent about not letting himself become the other guy as he referes to it.

His calm and reserved demeanor with the bottled up rage/other guy inside can not be an easy feat to pull off, but he nailed it. Not only are his Hulking out scenes bad-ass and intense, there is quite a bit of humor when paired with the other characters. His initial Hulk out scene and battle with Black Widow and Thor (even the Hulk can’t lift Thor’s hammer), to the epic battle against Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and his Chitauri army. See a Hulk featured trailer at the bottom of this post for some teaser Hulk smash action.

Johansson’s vindicating performance

Scarlett Johnsson has a gotten pretty bad reputation, lots of people think she is horrible despite how gorgeous she is and how many big films she has been in. I have never had a problem with her, but I also wouldn’t be able to defend her by saying that any one of her performances was award worthy or even mentionable (truth be known she actually has a few Golden Globe nominations). In my mind she has been a pretty face and an mediocre actor who has happened to be in several great movies, just hasn’t had many stand our performances. I really did not care for her in Iron Man 2 but  sooner or later she was going to have to walk the walk (like the recent Hollywood Walk of Fame) and actually earn everyones attention.

After The Avengers, everyone should be in full attention. She kicks ass, she deceives and she even shows some emotion! (Whoa?!) One of the early scenes in the film she is being interrogated and she receives a phone call being brought in by S.H.I.E.L.D and busts out some sweet moves to kick her captors asses then gracefully picks up her high heels and strut out.

She has two other great acting moments, one scene between her and Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner as she is bringing him in from Calcutta and then her scene with the imprisoned Loki, which I think is likely the best one. The only thing lacking is any sort of a Russian accent, since the character or Black Widow is Russian and they even mention it in the film.

Whedon wrote a delicately balanced story

All four of the super hero’s have already told their story. We have watched them all battle their demons and save the world, so why are we watching them do it again?

The whole story is so well balanced and focused on the conflict at hand I found myself in disbelieve that the film was actually two hours and twenty two minutes. The pace was quick but not forced along, and it slowed down to allow for tying up loose ends with all of the characters and giving all parties involved a fairly equal share of screen time.

The Avengers isn’t about Captain America, Thor, Iron Man or The Hulk or even S.H.I.E.L.D., it’s about all of them coming together to achieve a common goal, or rather defeat a common enemy.

They might not work well together in other circumstances, and they all have their moments fighting to in this film. The steps taken in the story for these individuals to become a team is done in a way that makes it believable and realistic. We never have to wonder why or ask why a character is behaving a certain way or saying a certain thing. We already connected with them in their previous films and we can relate and understand.

The chemistry between the characters, the story and the conflict is explosive. Thank you Jos Whedon.

Don’t forget about extra scenes after the credits

This film was set up over the past few years by the extra scenes following the credits of “The Incredible Hulk”, “Iron Man” and “Iron Man 2″, “Thor”, and “Captain America” (see links to the recaps of these movies at the bottom of this post) so it would seem incomplete if there wasn’t one (or two… hint hint) at the end of The Avengers.

Also, we want something to go off so we can all fantasize about the next film. Because there has to be more.

The wrap up and the trailer

The Avengers is released everywhere on Firday, May 4th and is a MUST SEE for all types of movie goers. I like to describe how much I like a film by sating if it was even worth seeing in theaters or if it is something you should rent or watch when it makes its way onto TV.  ”The Avengers” is something I will be seeing one or two more times in theaters and later purchasing when it comes out on DVD/Blu-Ray.

And that is why “The Avengers” is (once again repeating Seth Green) double plus awesome.

Avengers – Hulk smash! by teasertrailer

Get to know the Avengers’ other films*: Captain America | Iron Man & Iron Man 2 | The Incredible Hulk | Thor | Marvel’s ‘The Avengers’ Gives Us a Lesson on Where Real Power Comes From
*Black Widow and Hawkeye, while a part of the Avengers team, do not currently have their own movies.

Andrew

Avid movie goer, music aficionado and Netflix junkie. I also strive to quote Jurassic Park on a daily basis and I sing like no one is listening when in the car.

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“The Avengers” is already set to be one of the summer’s biggest blockbusters and it’s easy to understand why. Superhero films already do well at the box office and this one has an outstanding cast with more Academy Award winners than any other film of its genre. It’s also helmed by a worshiped (though polarizing for some) director. Most importantly, this is a film that we’ve basically been watching two hour-long trailers for since 2008. Yet as excited as many are, “The Avengers” is a bit of an overwhelming prospect for some average moviegoers. So you haven’t seen all the other Marvel movies leading up to this film and you haven’t read the comics. Will you still enjoy this film? The answer is yes, but it might help to do a little brushing up on these heroes before hitting the theater. That’s why we’ve put together this handy article to help you learn about the characters and movies leading up to this film and their end scene teasers. Here’s a guide to how The Incredible Hulk fits in. 

The Incredible Hulk

Ok, yes there are two recent Hulk movies, but we’re going to pretend that 2003 Ang Lee “Hulk” doesn’t exist (Sorry, Eric Bana, but that movie sucked). Marvel reacquired the rights shortly after that “Hulk” movie received mixed reviews and in 2008, they released a rebooted version, “The Incredible Hulk,” with an updated back story that better set up this character to tie-in to “The Avengers.” This time, Ed Norton would take on the role (Norton is the only one not to reprise his character for “The Avengers” film – Mark Ruffalo takes over for the upcoming film). This movie skips past the genesis story a bit more than the other superhero films do, but for the unfamiliar, Bruce Banner (Norton) is a scientist who was researching gamma radiation. In an experiment that went terribly awry, Banner Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde-d himself. The timid Dr. Banner (Jekyll) suffers from poor anger management, and post-experiment, his anger turns him into a massive green punching machine: The Hulk (Mr. Hyde). While Banner is a smart, but timid man, his alter ego is a being based solely on emotion – the brains just aren’t there, which is why you have the 2-year-old speak dialogue “Hulk smash.” So though he’s a strong hero, he’s also a very loose cannon and not dependable – he’s just as likely to take out the good guys as he is the bad guys. The one thing that keeps the Hulk in check is Banner/The Hulk’s love for Betty (Liv Tyler). Nonetheless, Banner finds his alter ego too unsafe for his regular life, so when this movie first hones on him, we learn that he has isolated himself South America and is working on meditation and flying under the radar. Unfortunately for our reluctant hero, the government (and specifically his love interest’s father, General Ross) still have a great interest in finding and controlling his alter ego. So when his contaminated blood falls into a bottle that gets an American sick, the government discovers his location and begins to hunt him down. Meanwhile, another scientist has been working on a cure for Banner to get rid of the Hulk. But one of the government guys, Blonsky, discovers this and since he covets the Hulk’s power he forces the scientist to use the cure in reverse on him – he turns into a villainous super beast that only the Hulk can take out. In a twist of fate, General Ross finds himself in a reverse position – he no longer is hunting the Hulk, but trying to help him save the day. At the end of the film, we still have our Banner/Hulk, but he disappears back into hiding at remote location, doing his best not to Hulk out and smash up anything else.

Uniform: Pants? Being green? There isn’t exactly a uniform for this guy. When this character is regular ole Bruce Banner, he tends to wear a loose white shirt and khakis. When he hulks out, he turns all muscular and green. For our modest viewing audience, he does keep tattered pants on covering his naughty hulk bits, but everything else – shoes, shirt, etc gets ripped off.

Key Powers: Ridiculous strong in Hulk form. As a human, he’s pretty weak, but he’s a super genius.

Weaknesses: Banner’s emotions -whether anger or his weak spot for his lady scientist friend, his emotions are the easiest way to push his buttons and manipulate him. Also, his human form is generally pretty weak. As Hulk, though virtually unstoppable, he’s not the brightest of superheroes. You’re lucky if he smashes the enemy and not you, so he’s not very dependable.

The Avengers Tie-ins (this is not definitive, but shares some key notes): “The Incredible Hulk” has quite a bit of tie-in to the “Iron Man” films. While many of these cross film references are a bit more subtle or hidden away in credits,   Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) makes a small appearance toward the end of this film to discuss “The Avengers” project with Bruce Banner – these references also indicate that the Hulk film is sometime between the two Iron Man movies. In “Iron Man 2,” we see some footage in  a background news story that shows the aftermath of a Hulk rampage. “The Incredible Hulk” also has quite a bit of crossover with the “Captain America” film. We learn that the whole reason that the government and banner were researching the formula that created the Hulk was because they were trying to recreate the original super soldier serum – the very serum that made Captain America. In a deleted scene, Captain America’s frozen body can be glimpsed (this also indicates that this film is set shortly before the epilogue of the “Captain America” movie when that character joins the modern day.

Stan Lee Appearance: This is a little Easter Egg in many of the Marvel movies. Stan Lee, a primary creator of many of these characters in the Marvel-verse, likes to make little cameos in the films. In “The Incredible Hulk,” Banner cuts his finger at the bottling factory he is working at during the start of the film. His contaminated blood is consumed by a U.S. citizen, played by Stan Lee. This person falls ill, giving away to the military where Banner’s position is in South America.

Sequel Alert: Not currently anticipated (but hey, they already had 2 tries to make this movie in the last decade).

Watch the Trailer:

Watch the Hidden Credits Scene/Avengers Teaser:  (We couldn’t find the Incredible Hulk’s scene by itself, so this sequence includes the other movies as well. To watch just the scene from the Hulk film, jump ahead 38 seconds.)

Get to know the other Avengers by film*: Captain America: The First Avenger | Iron Man & Iron Man 2 | Thor

*Black Widow and Hawkeye, while a part of the Avengers team, do not currently have their own movies.

Bethany Smith

I'm a geek; I love music, technology and grammar.

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