The Avengers (2012)



Director : Josh Whedon
Robert Downey Jr : Iron Man
Chris Evans : Captain America
Mark Ruffalo : The Hulk
Chris Hemsworth : Thor
Scarlett Johansson : Black Widow
Jeremy Renner : Hawkeye
Villain : Tom Hiddleston as Loki


Loki has aligned himself with an alien race and is hoping to use the power of the Tesseract to take over the earth. Nick Fury launches the Avengers to combat the menace.
The beginning of the movie introduces the superheros and what they have been up to. It also shows them as they begin to grow together as a group.
The battle scenes are spectacular, and beautifully filmed (and created). With so many different characters joining together, it was almost impossible to have strong character development or a really good story, but this movie did better than could be expected. 
The movie had some excellent dialogue with the verbal exchanges between the superheros being the best part. Some examples:


Nick Fury: What I want to know is how he controlled their minds like a bunch of flying monkeys!
Thor: I do not understand.
Steve Rogers/Captain America: I DO!. :I understood that reference.

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Nick Fury: We have no quarrel with your people.
Loki: An ant has no quarrel with a boot.

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Loki: [to crowd] Kneel before me. I said... KNEEL! Is not this simpler? Is this not your natural state? It's the unspoken truth of humanity that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power. For identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel.
German Old Man: [Stands] Not to men like you.
Loki: There are no men like me.
German Old Man: There are always men like you.

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Loki: What have I to fear?
Tony Stark/Iron Man: The Avengers. It's what we call ourselves, sort of like a team. 'Earth's Mighiest Heroes' type thing.
Loki: Yes, I've met them.
Tony Stark/Iron Man: Yeah, takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that one. But let's do a head count here: your brother the demi-god; a super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend; a man with breath-taking anger management issues; a couple of master assassins, and YOU, big fella, you've managed to piss off every single one of them.
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Steve Rogers: Thor, what's his play? 
Thor: He has an army, called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth. In return, I suspect, for the Tesseract. 
Steve Rogers: An army. From outer space. 
Bruce Banner: So he's building another portal. That's what he needs Erik Selvig for. 
Thor: Selvig? 
Bruce Banner: He's an astrophysicist. 
Thor: He's a friend. 
Natasha Romanoff: Loki has them under some kind of spell. Along with one of ours. 
Steve Rogers: I wanna know why Loki let us take him. He's not leading an army from here. 
Bruce Banner: I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats. You can smell crazy on him. 
Thor: Have a care how you speak! Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard and he is my brother! 
Natasha Romanoff: He killed eighty people in two days. 
Thor: He's adopted. 


The movies major accomplishment was to set up sequel movies that would develop the individual story lines of the superheroes, while at the same time fitting in to the broad framework that has been developed here. The Avengers was a really good movie, and hopefully will spawn some great movies in its wake.