Superheroes extravaganza

Have you ever imagined a bunch of superheroes assembling on screen and going hand-in-hand into a fighter against grisly villains?

Marvel Studios brings your imaginations alive through The Avengers, mustering Iron Man, Hulk, Thor and Captain America, along with special agents Black Widow and Hawkeye, to fight crime together.

In the last decade, Marvel has delivered a series of comic book movies: two Hulk films, two Iron Man movies, Thor and the recent Captain America. Then, the film studio announced that they had come up with a more ambitious plan of getting its famous superheroes into one feature film.

The studio smartly inserts bits of the much-awaited major project into the flicks, garnering the curiosity of comic book fans and movie buffs. There’s no need to wait much longer, as the team of the superheroes arrives in early May.

You might be familiar with Nick Fury (played by veteran Samuel L. Jackson) and Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg), who made brief appearances in previous Marvel flicks, wondering who those people are and what their interests really are.

This time around in The Avengers, Fury, director of international intelligence agency S.H.I.E.L.D., now takes full charge as the man who brings the superheroes together in a mission to save the world.

The film kicks off when demigod Loki (Tom Hiddleston) of Asgard makes his way to Earth and steals Tesseract, a cosmic cube that is a source of powerful energy which is also a portal to other dimensions, in order to rule the human race. He is backed by his army of extraterrestrial warriors, called the Chitauri.

To refresh your mind, Marvel gave a small introduction to the Tesseract in Captain America.

Fury has no option but to call together the group of superheroes, known as The Avengers, to save the day and stop Loki before he goes too far.

The Avengers include Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.); the famous World War II hero Steve Rogers, better known as Captain America (Chris Evans); Bruce Banner, also known as The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo); and demigod Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Loki’s half-brother who has the mightiest hammer in his hand.

Two super agents, Natasha Romanoff, a.k.a. Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), known for her speed, reflexes, and concentration; and Clint Barton or Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), who has superb archery skills, join the all-star team.

While the superheroes should unite and stick together to find way to battle Loki and his men, The Avengers still tries to go along with each other, chasing away all the differences between them and struggling to overcome frictions to learn to trust each other.

A little way into the film, director Joss Whedon, whose credits include Serenity and TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, quickly takes moviegoers into a fast-paced plot, showered with thrilling action scenes and fight sequences.

Whedon does not even try to focus on one specific character. He equally gives every character moments to shine as every hero gets his or her own great action sequences.

He also highlights the other side of each hero, whether it is Iron Man’s supersized ego, Captain America’s efforts to adjust himself in the high-tech modern world, The Hulk’s fear of turning into the green monster, Thor’s worries over his brother’s plan and Black Widow’s aim of erasing her dark past.

The filmmaker also provides some background on Black Widow and Hawkeye, who did not appear much in the previous Marvel films, to give non-comic book buffs out there better insight on the two characters.

Whedon might only have one feature film under his belt, but he and the crew successfully execute the done-before save-the-world plot into an entertaining piece, juggling six major superheroes and impressively putting in fine 3D technology into the film.

 Whedon clearly wants to have fun with moviegoers as he infuses tons of humor through a series of funny dialogues and physical scenes.

The presence of the flamboyant Iron Man, for instance, will always get a laugh.

The actors did their jobs well, giving enjoyable performances. Downey Jr., likely to have been born to play Iron Man, and Ruffalo, the third actor to play the green giant after Eric Bana and Edward Norton and seems to be the most perfect actor to give the Hulk a go, manage to build strong chemistry between them.

During the premier of The Avengers at the newly launched IMAX theater at South Jakarta’s Gandaria City shopping center, the audience occasionally gave applause for some stunning scenes.

As the movie came to the end and the credits began to roll, the film left a triggering last scene that is seemingly to be a teaser for the second installment of The Avengers.

Verdict: Watching a bunch of heroes together is too hard to miss. No need to be a comic book buff to enjoy this entertaining film.