Review: The Avengers

With only days to go before the highly-anticipated U.S. release of Joss Whedon’s adaptation of Marvel Comics’ The Avengers, the embargo has been lifted and the American press can now tell you what the international press has been able to say for more than a week: This is a really, really good movie. Not “a really good superhero movie,” either. In spite of a few flaws, it’s a terrific piece of filmmaking.This is not the “best superhero movie ever,” as so many early reviews were eager to claim. But it is the one that’s likely to be a lot of people’s favorite. The movie is undeniably awesome; it’s packed wall-to-wall with so many “hell yeah!” moments that they often obscure the paper-thin plot. That may sound harsh, but it isn’t; that’s more or less the premise of any mainstream American action film since Die Hard. In a nutshell, it’s an incredibly fun movie, with a strong script, great special effects and compelling characters–but it’s unlikely to be one that will stick with you long after you’ve left the theater.The tone, look and feel of the film is pitch-perfect, and it’s a testament to Whedon’s eye as a filmmaker. It’s not the widescreen, panoramic wonderment of The Lord of the Rings, but closer to The Matrix in terms of a clean look, occasional mood lighting and eighty inches of action crammed into every forty inches of film. It “fits” comic book characters so well that this movie has to be more or less what Ang Lee was going for when he made his hideously misguided Hulk film.