Review of The Avengers (2012) by Thomas L — 02 May 2015

The avengers suffers from one major problem: It has absolutely no story, and is completely style over substance. It feels more like a fan service and a showoff of special effects than it does an actual movie with an arc. It's also full of cliché, and it plays everything safe. A little too safe, which makes it all feel like wasted potential for more substantial sequels.

Another glaring problem is the extremely underdeveloped and uninteresting side characters. The movie obviously tries to make the audience care about the characters, but with so little development put into them, it is hard to take seriously. A lot of the supposedly serious and emotional moments come off as laughable instead of genuine. The screenplay also ignores a lot of the character traits and abilities for the sake of bad jokes and fights between the main characters, obviously to please all fans in every way. The other problem is Loki, the main villain. His motivations are what makes him an uninteresting character, as he really does not have anything special to do. As a villain, he is pretty bad. The only saving grace is Tom Hiddleston, who is undeniably charismatic and entertaining as Loki.

But with all those problems, one simply cannot deny the extreme entertainment value there is to be found. The last 30 minutes or so are a complete joy to watch, and there is an undeniable chemistry between the actors, who all fit their role very well. It is an excellent movie to watch purely for entertainment, even if it sacrifices what could have made it great for cheap jokes and forced fan-service.

The Avengers is more of a guilty pleasure than a genuinely good movie. It's not a bad movie per sé, as there is a lot of great action, which doesn't feel as poorly directed as Michael Bay's films. It's the direction of the action sequences that really makes this movie stand a little above stuff like Transformers and G.I. Joe.