The Avengers

The last hour is a lot of fun, but I found the opening chunk disappointing.

I was expecting wall-to-wall action, pretty much from the start - especially given the forces that join together. However, I felt the first half of 'The Avengers' as slow. What also didn't help is that the villain, carried over from a preceding MCU film, isn't super interesting - we also don't see the antagonist's earlier film counterpart for a fair few scenes, which felt too delayed.

The last half is much better, which allowed me to enjoy myself properly. Robert Downey Jr., while not as entertaining as he is on his own, brings goodness, as do the likes of Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth.

I'm not a big fan of recasts, though Mark Ruffalo as Hulk is a positive one; even if that took a bit away from the novelty of all the superheroes joining, given we hadn't seen Ruffalo himself before. Added to Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow, at least in terms of the film franchise, getting major screen time out of nowhere - having been a bit part character in her debut MCU appearance.

The music is noteworthy, while everything looks brilliant. Overall and in short: It's a fun, good action film - I just expected greater.

I have to say that the furore surrounding this film had pretty much doomed it to failure in my book. The Marvel marketing machine had gone into over-drive plugging it, so no way could it be any good. Well, it is good. Not great, but it is good. The compendium element of the storyline pits all of the superheroes against the mischievous "Loki" (a cute, curly haired, Tom Hiddleston) whom, together with his army of extraterrestrial henchmen, is bent on taking over the world... well, of course he is... The writing is nothing special at all, but who cares? The visual effects are great and each of the characters gets their moment in the sun as they work to thwart our Tom's even plotting. Robert Downey Jr. Steals the show as engineering genius "Tony Stark" with Scareltt Johansson and Chris Hemsworth - and his trusty hammer - on great form too. I'm afraid I find the whole "Capt. America" character so nauseatingly wholesome that even Chris Evans in his spray-on lycra cannot do anything other than put me firmly in the baddies camp right from the get-go. On the downside, Mark Ruffalo tries hard with the rather limited opportunities offered him as the rather dull "Hulk", and Clark Gregg continues to prove he must be one of the luckiest actors alive to have alighted on this franchise - he is hopelessly wooden as "Coulson" but as a piece of fast-paced fantasy entertainment this film takes some beating ("Star Wars" notwithstanding). It is too long - the fight/chase scenes can get a tad recycled and repetitive after a while but it all builds well to a fitting crescendo that did make me wonder whether the impeding alien invasion may have ended up causing less damage than the saviours of mankind did! No point watching if you're not up for a complete suspension of reality - this is a top class adventure with loads of quirky characters, a bit of humour, plenty of fisticuffs and even a bit of Schubert!! Great stuff!