Avengers Assemble

First of all, let's deal with the elephant in the room. No, I haven't taken leave of my senses. At least I don't think so. Even I would have scoffed had anyone told me that I would have been giving a Marvel superhero film five stars, but it would seem that's exactly what's happened. Now don't get me wrong, I'm a massive fan of the Marvel formula on the big screen. Aside from the slightly dubious job they did on Captain America, they normally churn out some pretty high quality entertainment. But five stars? Not so far...

Now to be fair, as releases go, the Avengers had an awful lot riding on it. The momentum for the film has been building for what seems like a lifetime, seeded in ten second teases throughout the last five years of Marvel's cinema offerings. What's more, several of their most lucrative character franchises hang pretty squarely in the balance of this film, so it's not surprising to see that they've pulled out some pretty hefty guns. Aside from Joss Whedon at the writing and directorial helm, the production team essentially reads like a who's who list of Marvel movie veterans. And to be honest, with all that cinematic firepower, it shouldn't come as such a massive surprise when the quality of their output reaches such a high bar.

In case it wasn't clear from the picture, something bad is happening off camera right

Aside from the numerous talents of the team pre, during and post-camera, the thing that strikes most immediately about the Avengers is actually how funny it is. The script is chock full of expertly judged wit, never taking itself anywhere remotely seriously, just like a Marvel film should. There are numerous audience-pleasing laugh-out-loud moments laced throughout the film, and many more subtle ones waiting to be discovered on subsequent viewings ("Better clench up, Legolas" being a personal favourite).

All that said, the film is by no means perfect. The eagle eyed reader may have noticed that at no point during this review have I actually referred to it by it's full (British) title. In fairness, as much as I may resent the last minute name change (done presumably so the UK cinema-goer wouldn't confuse this action-adventure superhero epic with the 1960's cult TV series about a spy who swordfights with an umbrella - an easy mistake to make...) even I realise that isn't quite enough of a reason to penalise the film as a whole. Equally, even though the film does feel a smudge too long, especially up front, the truly spectacular special effects and action sequences more than make up for any length-related shortcomings.

Is it just me, or are those costumes just not quite tight enough?

Ultimately then, the Avengers seems to have been a massive success. And with 3 character sequels (Iron Man 3, Thor 2 and Captain America 2) already planned, plus a Nick Fury spin-off and rumours of a possible return to the solo Hulk franchise, it would look to have done some pretty good things to the Marvel cinema universe as a whole. It will also come as no surprise, given that the film has already smashed pretty much every box office record available and is still climbing, that a formal Avengers sequel has now officially been announced. The tough thing is, they've now set one hell of a bar for themselves.