The Avengers

Director: Joss Whedon

Whilst – mostly – very good in their own right, movies such as “Iron Man,” “Captain America” and “Thor” have been nothing more than extended movie trailers. Their ultimate goal has been to lead up to “The Avengers,” a film that – as of writing – looks to become the most successful comic book film of all time. Has it really been worth the wait?

After super-villain (and Norse god) Loki (Tom Hiddleston, who makes for a brilliant bad guy) steals a source of energy known as the Tesseract, S.H.I.E.L.D agent Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) assembles a team of superheroes – amongst them Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr. whose wisecracking hero is a highlight of the film), The Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo, who is something of a surprising delight) – to retrieve it and save the Earth. But with Loki able to turn people to his side, and the newly formed group succumbing to infighting, will the odds prove to be too much?

Joss Whedon – of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Star Trek” fame – has had his work cut out for him. Trying to deal with the expectations of comic-book fans (who have very high expectations indeed), the needs of a general audience and attempting to fit so many stars and characters within a relatively small amount of time, seems something of a daunting task. But he does so with aplomb. The characters are given just the right amount of set-up (ensuring that both those who have and those who haven’t seen the previous films will be satisfied) before we head right into the action. And the action is wonderfully staged with just the right blend of pathos and humor (with Hulk getting most of the laughs).

“The Avengers” has managed to live up to the hype and there is no doubt that the characters are going to continue to be on our screens for a long time to come.