'THE AVENGERS'

'THE AVENGERS' (PG-13) (3 STARS)

Written by Zak Penn and Joss Whedon
Directed by Joss Whedon
Actors: Robert Downey Jr, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Samuel Jackson,
Tom Hiddelston, Jeremy Renner

"The Avengers" is like a Marvel Comic's fever dream with an all star cast of superheroes working together to save the World from a despotic madmen. It is like the Rat Pack of superheros in a movie like "The Cannonball Run" but much better. The charm and power of the movie comes from the repartee between the superheroes and the great actors playing them plus you get one of the best sight gags I have ever seen in a movie like this. It also has a great, snide bad ass bad guy played very well by Tom Hiddleston. I can do without the big metallic monsters doing destruction until I write my "Johnny Socko and His Flying Robot" screenplay. The attacks by the monster in this movie is not much better than the Transformers crap but I love the fight scenes between the Avengers themselves and then against the villain Loki .

Loki is the brother of Thor and he wants to open a hole in a vortex so he can destroy the World I guess. I tuned out the plot which is simple and didn't make sense to me because this movie is really about "Hey, Thor, Captain America, Hulk and Ironman are in a movie, all at one time!" Nick Fury recruits the Dean Martin roast like collection of superheros to form S.H.I.E.L.D. and defeat Loki. Then the Avengers start fighting with each other because they can't get along. Of course they wouldn't, they all have giant egos right? The big ego belongs to Robert Downey Jr as Ironman and yes Downey steals the movie of course with all the best lines. Though I was quite surprised that The Hulk steals the movie after Ironman. Yes the two Hulk movies got blasted though I like both but Hulk has some great action scenes and some funny visual smashings including the aforementioned classic sight gag. Mark Ruffalo also as Hulk's alter ego David Banner is by far the best Hulk of all three.

I am not the biggest superhero fan though I am a Superman nut but the last few years has had some really good Superhero movies. Of all these Avenger hero movies nothing will come close to the original "Ironman" movie and "Captain America" is a very close second and "The Avengers is third right under those two. It is not the best superhero movie and it can't hold a candle to "Superman II" (original and director's cut) "Dark Knight", "Spiderman 2" and "Ironman" but it also could have sucked. Like I said I love the fights, the one liners and the 3D actually looks good and enhances the movie. Robert Downey Jr and Mark Ruffalo steal the movie as does The Hulk and Ironman and Tom Hiddleston's Loki is a great bad guy plus Chris Evans is also underrated and great as Captain America. I also love little scenes like the adorable, quick witted, sexy and funny repartee between Ironman and Gwyneth Paltrow's Pepper Potts. "The Avengers" is good fun and a great teaser for the eagerly awaited "Ironman 3" with Downey and Paltrow, can't wait!

P.S. Stay for the end credits because you get a sneak of a bad guy I don't even know for "Avengers 2" plus a classic and funny scene after the credits have stopped rolling!