"Avengers" Satisfies Comic Fans and Newcomers Monday, May 07, 2012 By Ian Scott - Yahoo Advertising     The long-awaited movie version of Marvel’s The Avengers was unleashed onto screens across the country Friday, heightening the nerdiness of anxious comic book fans in every hill and valley throughout America.     It has a pretty simple storyline. Loki (Tom Hiddleston), brother of Thor (Chris Hemsworth), is attempting world domination, and it’s up to an all-star team of superheroes (Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner and Mark Ruffalo) to squash his plan.     To do that, the group, assembled by S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), must cease Loki’s operation of an alien energy source called the Tesseract, which is a very pretty blue, a recurring color in world domination movies.     Director Joss Whedon opted, shockingly so in this day and age, for a much more visual approach than usual to telling this story, an approach that at times becomes a tad too overwhelming.     Loki’s attempts to overcome the strength of The Avengers consist of a scepter that draws power from the Tesseract, an army of inconceivably hideous extraterrestrials called the Chitauri, and a lot of childish babbling about ultimate power and how he is an all-powerful God. If not for his tacky helmet, British accent and greasy, jet-black hair, I would have thought him a flawless reincarnation of Stalin, making him a very lame and shamefully derivative villain. I digress.     The point is that clearly there is quite a bit of magical muscle behind Loki’s fantasy, meaning stopping him and his alien fleet takes lots of manpower. You would think this is where Captain America’s brooding intensity takes center stage... and you would be right!  Aside from that, there are a lot of explosions, arrows through alien heads, fire, lightning, and an Apocalypse Now-like ending that becomes a little hard to handle. In Whedon’s defense, he put an end to things before any true irritation could be forced upon anyone.      Much of the early parts of the film are contrived and use bombastic effects and odd camera angles to make things seem on a much greater scale than they really are.  In short, Whedon tries too hard.  Instead of letting the story develop itself in a more natural manner, he tries to force the issue, and ends up simply copping out with a big ‘ol demolition.     Now, you may not be able to tell based on what has been said thus far, but I really liked this movie.  To bridge the gap between the morose dialogue about the end of days and the all-out war in Manhattan (just once I’d like to see the aliens attack Fargo), there’s a pleasantly-involving charm fueling The Avengers, with many humorous moments to move things along.  What makes the humor work?  The actors.       The magical glue that holds The Avengers together through the glacially-paced diatribes is its remarkable cast. Downey returns in lovingly snarky form as everyone’s favorite self-indulgent hero, and Johansson lends a butt-kicking helping hand.  Evans and Ruffalo round things out in skillful fashion, capturing their characters’ outlet for self-pity with impeccably realistic wallowing. Yet, into each cinematic experience a little rain must fall, and so it is time for confession: if Jeremy Renner were to play even the most minor of roles in safeguarding my freedom, I would rather be in Loki’s futuristic Soviet Union.     Luckily for Renner, much of his screen time was shared with Johannson, and when most of your knights in shining armor are virtually indestructible (which makes them much less appealing), the most captivating characters are always the ones who can’t do anything flashy.  While Captain America flashes his overbearing machismo on the ground, Johannson has a rousing and masterfully shot sequence kicking alien butt in the air.  Whedon was aware enough to expand the roles of Black Widow and Hawkeye to add more understated thrills to what would otherwise have become a perfect embodiment of a sprawling special effects pageant.     The Avengers, which, while remaining a slightly tedious action flick, accomplishes the mission of entertaining in whatever capacity its audience calls for, whether it be sharp humor, blatantly obvious funnies (which were actually, well, funny), understated thrills or nuclear explosions for the mindless. It’s entertaining, mesmerizing and a sure-fire box-office smash, which is drastically understating things.     Rating: 3 ½ out of 4 stars

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