This is no General Assembly

Here it is at last; the world's mightiest heroes assembled for the first time in a live action feature.  Marvel's "The Avengers" is perhaps the most hotly anticipated event in the history of fanboy geekdom, and I don't make a habit of tossing those words around in everyday conversation.  As directed by the already legendary Joss Whedon, "The Avengers" works marvelously as the culmination of the events from each of the previous films in the Marvel film Universe.  I doubt I need to remind you that that includes Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, and Captain America.  Hopefully, if you're reading this and are going to see the movie, you know what has occured with these characters before, because otherwise I don't know what to do for you. 

As "The Avengers" begins, the vengeful Loki (Tom Hiddleston), last seen in "Thor" dropping into the deep realms of space, has become buddy buddy with an alien race called the Chitauri, lead by a mysterious figure known as the Other.  Their deal is to have Loki travel to earth to recover the Tesseract (aka the cosmic cube, last seen in "Captain America") from S.H.I.E.L.D agents, who have had it in their possession since Howard Stark recovered it from the bottom of the ocean shortly after WWII.  With the Tesseract, Loki will be able to invite the Chitaurian army to earth, where they will do his bidding in exchange for the Tesseract itself.  The opening scenes set up the success of this plan as Loki assaults a secret S.H.I.E.L.D base and uses his magic to pursuade Clint Barton, alias Hawkeye (Jeremy renner), and Dr. Eric Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard) to assist him.

After this assault, S.H.I.E.L.D leader Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) reiniates his plan to assemble the mightiest heroes imagineable.  He personally invites the recently thawed Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans), who is feeling a bit out of place in a modern world.  The screenplay provides him some humorously perceptive lines about the ways in which the world has changed.  Fury also dispatches the loyal Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) to convince Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.) to have a look at Dr. Selvig's research.  Stark is used to working with similar technology to power his new Stark Tower on unlimited sustainable energy.  Meanwhile, Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) tries her best to convice Dr. Bruce Banner/Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) to come assist them with tracking the location of the Tesseract because it gives off Gamma radiation signatures, which is something the, er, angry Dr. Banner is familiar with.  Mark Ruffalo gives probably the best performance yet as Banner, which is a hard sell since we don't even see his big, green alter-ego until just over halfway through the picture.

If this already sounds like dense plotting and a crowded picture, it's because it is.  Once you figure in Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders), another prominent member of S.H.I.E.L.D, there are no less than 10 main characters to balance.  And oh man is there ever balance.  At 142 minutes, "The Avengers" manages to find brilliant character beats for every single person on screen, and smashes them headlong into one breathtaking action set piece after another.  A standout is when Thor arrives on earth to intervene with his adopted brother's plans.  This leads to contention between other members of the Avengers, because for many reasons, they all have different motivations for wanting to stop Loki.  Obviously for Thor, this is a very personal matter.  He'd simply like to take Loki home for some bad Assgardian justice, and Iron Man needs him to stick around.  Loki takes advantage of that hostility to play them off one another at vital moments.  Those moments resonate well because each character has been established so well individually that we understand they both have a point.

In my review of "Captain America", I theorised that, of all the Avengers, Bruce Banner and Captain America have it the hardest because they didn't necessarily choose their circumstances.  That is a really prominent trait here and provides them some very compelling interplay with one another.  Mark Ruffalo and Chris Evans are becoming so intuitive as actors, that it really sells the quiet understanding and respect that Banner and Rogers have for each other.  The best scenes take place aboard a gigantic 'hellicarrier' that serves as a mobile base of operations where the four heroes along with the members of S.H.I.E.L.D scramble to locate the Tesseract before it opens the gate that will welcome Earth's new guests.  The sense of tension is two-fold, because while the Avengers struggle to work out their differences, Loki has set a plan in motion that we watch slowly play out while the heroes are distracted.  This plan leads to an ambush and tragedy which becomes a motivating circumstance for everyone.

What follows is an onslaught of gleefully executed action that bounces from character to character, leaving nobody short changed.  Part of the brilliance of the screenplay is that it sets up developments that require everyone to work together, and sometimes pair off.  The camerawork also provides consistent spacial awareness, and this helps the audience keep track of everything that is going on.  Because their individual strengths are so well established, we instictively understand who will be better suited to what task and aren't surprised by their weaker points.  For instance, Iron Man can take to the skies to provide aerial support while Hulk and the good Captain do some pummeling on the ground.   Thor finds a balance by being able to transverse both spaces.  Even the non-super heroes can hold their own.  Black Widow can certainly take care of herself, especially in confined spaces, and once Hawkeye snaps out of his trance, his skills with the bow are used to great effect.

That Whedon is able to juggle all this chaos in a cohesive motion picture is nothing short of hypnotic.  He has seemingly mastered an element from each director of the previous features and displays them here with elegant pacing and a perfect balance of tone.  The beginning of the film plays like the sum of the endings of the previous Marvel installments; and when it comes time to introduce each Avenger and assemble the team, it even has the good grace to sidestep the usual montage showing us what the characters are up to.  Instead, the screenplay wisely conveys each character as already being in the loop and assumes that we are to.  "The Avengers" certainly won't do much for you if you haven't seen these guys before in their own movies; especially if you have a habit of leaving before the end of the credits.

Over-stuffed pictures almost never work successfully (consider "Spider-Man 3") but I think where "The Avengers" gets it right is by taking advantage of the fact that we are already familiar with these fellas and by scrapping any exposition that would need to re-establish them.  I also suspect that Marvel Studios respects the bottom line of their profits, and rigthfully understood that it depends absolutely on making the fanboys happy by doing this story justice.  Therefore, Joss Whedon was given reign to pay respects to each vital trait of each Avenger, and give them the screen time they deserve. Any flaws are easily overlooked because considering the difficulty of showcasing 10 movie stars, 4 of which come from their own movie, it is amazing that it can even be conceptualized successfully.  It is because of the character moments, and the sheer giddiness of seeing four iconic heroes stand shoulder to shoulder that "The Avengers" works.  Really, you could place these guys in any environment and it would have the same effect.  The climactic battle takes place in mid-town Manhattan because, where else?  There always must be countless innocent civillains to show us the peril and human cost and New York has always been the go-to place to do this.  Thing is, we've seen New York smashed up so many times, including in "The Incredible Hulk" that it leaves an almost subconcious yearning for a change of venue. For instance, we could watch this battle play out in corn fields in Kansas, and would still probably not be able to contain our excitement.

In any case, it is impossible to sit through "The Avengers" and not grin throughout.  If you aren't grinning, your jaw is hanging open, and if your jaw isn't hanging open, then what are you doing at the movies?  Even after multiple viewings, I can't imagine this film will ever be anything less than thrilling.  It is presented with masterful direction, well-placed humor and high-priced effects.  You definitely get what you pay for and then some.  For me, the Incredible Hulk steals the show everytime he does anything here.  In fact, the only let-down of the night was that the promised new trailer for "The Dark Knight Rises"  did not show before the movie.  The disappointment of that left me feeling a bit like Dr. Bruce Banner, and I could really sympathize with him.  That probably had something to do with it.