The Avengers
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"If we can’t protect the Earth, you can be damn well sure we’ll avenge it!"
— Tony Stark
Marvel's The Avengers (classified under the name Marvel Avengers Assemble, or simply The Avengers) is a 2012 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics superhero team of the same name. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, it is the sixth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Written and directed by Joss Whedon, the film features an ensemble cast including Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, and Jeremy Renner as the Avengers, alongside Tom Hiddleston, Clark Gregg, Cobie Smulders, Stellan Skarsgård, and Samuel L. Jackson. The Avengers premiered in Los Angeles on April 11, 2012, and was released in the United States on May 4, as the last film of Phase One of the MCU. Three sequels have been released: Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019).
Plot
One year after Captain America was defrosted, renegade Asgardian Loki appears on Earth and steals the Tesseract, a powerful device that can open gates to other parts of the universe which S.H.I.E.L.D. had been experimenting on since WWII. Loki uses his staff to brainwash Erik Selvig and Clint Barton into serving him.
S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury determines that in order to recover the Tesseract they have to resume the Avengers program, which had been suspended due to not finding enough candidates. Fury sends Coulson to go after Tony Stark and Natasha Romanoff a.k.a. Black Widow to recruit Bruce Banner, who's been hiding in India ever since an incident at Harlem. Fury himself goes to recruit Steve Rogers.
Bruce Banner is reluctant to trust S.H.I.E.L.D. and suspects they want to capture the Hulk but eventually agrees. Stark rejects the offer to join the team at first but agrees when he notices the Tesseract which was mentioned in his father's old research notes. Steve accepts Fury's offer to return to the battlefield but scolds S.H.I.E.L.D. for messing with the Tesseract as he witnessed what HYDRA did with it during WWII. Banner starts working in tracking the Tesseract while Captain America goes to Germany to capture Loki, which he succeeds at with Iron Man's help. On their way back to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s helicarrier their jet is attacked by Thor, who is still mad at Loki. Thor kidnaps Loki and tries to convince him to return home but Loki refuses. After a brief fight with Iron Man, Thor agrees to help them find the Tesseract, though he makes it clear that he intends to bring it back to Asgard as well as Loki so he can be properly incarcerated there.
At the Helicarrier Thor explains that Loki made a deal with the Chitauri alien race; they'll conquer Earth for him in exchange for the Tesseract. Stark also explains that Loki's using Selvig to build a device to activate the Tesseract so it opens a gate for the Chitauri army, then he goes to help with Banner's research. Captain America suggests they take a look at Loki's staff because it reminded him of HYDRA'S Tesseract fueled weapons. Fury interrogates Loki directly and quickly figures out that Loki let himself get caught on purpose. While working, Stark tries to convince Banner to stop fearing the Hulk and even tries to summon it. Captain America scolds Tony, only for Tony to reveal he's been hacking S.H.I.E.L.D. to get every dirty secret they've been hiding ever since he came to the helicarrier.
Tony and Banner suspect that there's something fishy going on with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s claims about using the Tesseract to make a clean energy source, as Stark has been working on the same project for over a year yet they haven't consulted for his help. Steve leaves enraged and decides to investigate on his own. Black Widow figures out that Loki plans to unleash the Hulk and wreck havoc. Before she can warn them however Fury confronts Stark about the hacking. Steve arrives and shows them Tesseract-powered weapons. Banner finds out S.H.I.E.L.D. wants the Tesseract to build an arsenal of mass destruction weapons. Thor mocks humans for using the Tesseract like that, only for Fury to point out they're doing that because of his arrival on Earth last year. That incident made Earth realize that not only are there threats from other worlds, Earth is completely underpowered and defenseless against them.
Everyone continues to bicker until Loki's forces attack the helicarrier. During the attack, Banner Hulks out and jumps off the ship, Loki kills Coulson and Thor is ejected from the ship, but Hawkeye is freed from Loki's control. Fury takes advantage of Coulson's death to encourage the team to work together to avenge him. He also admits that he never wanted to follow the plan to build an arsenal but was forced to do so by the World Security Council and that he genuinely believes the Avengers would be a better alternative to protect Earth.
Stark finally realizes that Loki will use Stark Tower to open the Chitauri gate to make it more flashy and flies there. Upon arriving he has a brief talk with Loki before the portal opens and the Chitauri invasion begins. Thor arrives and battles Loki. After Loki escapes Thor knocks out Selvig and tries to shut down the Tesseract machine generating the portal but fails. Captain America, Black Widow, and Hawkeye arrive too and begin to fight the invaders but they find themselves outmatched and Banner is nowhere to be found. A giant Leviathan monster comes from the gate which Iron Man distracts. Banner finally arrives, Hulks out, and kills the Leviathan with a single punch. Now with Hulk joining, the Avengers finally assemble and manage to work as a team.
The Avengers cripple as many Chitauri as possible, but they won't stop coming down and eventually, the team starts getting exhausted. Black Widow goes to Stark Tower to try shut down the portal again while Hulk pummels Loki into submission. Meanwhile, the World Security Council decides to send a nuclear missile to the city. Fury tries to stop the launch but the jet escapes so he calls Iron Man to warn him about the missile. Selvig, now free from the brainwash as well, tells Black Widow that Loki's scepter can turn off the portal. Before she can, however, Iron Man takes the missile and sends it into the portal to destroy the Chitauri mothership which kills all the troops back at New York. Stark is knocked unconscious and falls down, seemingly to his death, but Hulk rescues him. The invasion is over, the Avengers have won, and Loki is arrested.
The tired out Avengers go eat Shwarma in awkward silence.
Nick Fury decides to let Thor take the Tesseract and Loki back to Asgard and allows the Avengers go their own separate ways. The World Council scolds Fury for that decision and worries out the Avengers are a dangerous destructive force. Fury simply responds by pointing out that now other worlds know that Earth must not be underestimated and promises the Avengers will reunite when we need them again.
In the mid-credits scene, Thanos is told about the Avengers' existence.
Why This Film Is Very Assembled
- For the first time ever in movie history, the Marvel's characters join in a major crossover movie, yet, the first-ever crossover movie.
- Samuel L. Jackson's portrayal of Nick Fury was fantastic.
- Every major Avenger already had an independent movie to introduce them and get to know them, so they all feel right in place on the team. Even Black Widow and Hawkeye don't feel out of place despite not having movies of their own, although Black Widow is having her own movie 9 years later, while Hawkeye is having his own television miniseries 9 years later as well.
- Mark Ruffalo managed to pull an amazing replacement cast with Edward Norton as Hulk.
- Amazing performances and chemistry.
- Hulk vs Loki has become one of the funniest moments in the MCU.
- Epic fighting scenes and action like the rest of the Marvel movies.
- Joss Whedon did impressive job for directing this movie.
- Triumphant soundtracks to symbolize the Avengers assembling for the first time.
- Solidified the Marvel Cinematic Universe and set up major plots for future movies.
- Showed that Marvel can handle crossover movies well.
- Tony and Steve's rivalry, which escalates into Captain America: Civil War starts developing here.
- An awesome tease of Thanos including his role as the big bad of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, during the mid-credit scene.
- Its impact. The success of this film would lead to other studios starting their own cinematic universes with interconnected plot threads, cameos, Easter eggs, as well as references to events of related movies.
- Some really funny scenes where Tony and Steve argue, with Thor calling them petty and tiny. Another example is during his fight with Thor, Tony did an impersonation of Shakespeare.
- "Enough! You are all of you are beneath me! I am a god, you dull creature, and I shall not be bullied by-"
- "And Hulk, SMASH!"
- "KNEEL!"
- "That's my secret, Cap. I'm always angry."
- "Puny god"
- Nice looking cinematography, with many colorful shots with interesting filming angles.
- This film is the original "Portal in the sky" trope before the other movies like Fan4stic come in.
- Even the deleted scenes are better, even though it's been cut out in the final release, like when Cap saved the family and the little boy give it to him.
Bad Qualities
- While Loki is still one of the few memorable MCU villains, the Chitauri, on the other hand, are just generic troop soldiers unlike the comics where they were human eating shape shifters (Basically the Skrulls of the Ultimate universe but deadlier).
- Some scenes involving Captain America's character development were cut (although he does have in the previous movies).
- Even though Black Widow and Hawkeye didn't feel out of place, they both felt like background characters due to their lack of backstory and proper contributions, mainly Hawkeye.
Reception
The Avengers received critical success from critics, audiences, and fans alike, who praised Whedon's direction and screenplay, visual effects, action sequences, acting, and musical score. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 91% with an average score of 8.00/10 based on 358 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Thanks to a script that emphasizes its heroes' humanity and a wealth of superpowered set pieces, The Avengers lives up to its hype and raises the bar for Marvel at the movies.". Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 69 out of 100 based on 43 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a rare "A+" grade on an "A+ to F" scale.