The Avengers: Blu Ray Review

The Avengers: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by Sony Home Entertainment

When the world faces a threat like no other before thanks to the meddling of Tom Hiddleston's Loki, who's determined to wreak havoc on Earth, Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson) of S.H.I.E.L.D has no choice but to bring together the greatest army of Marvel superheroes ever assembled under the "Avengers Initiative".

But despite pulling together Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr), The Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Captain America (Chris Evans), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) on a worldwide global recruitment drive, Fury -along with Clark Gregg's Agent Coulson - find the biggest challenge threatening the world may not be Loki, the Cosmic Cube / Tesseract (which has been teased through the previous films of Thor and Captain America) and his army, but the egos and issues within the team...

With a writing pedigree of Joss Whedon and Zak Penn plus directing from Joss himself, there's plenty of expectation on the shoulders of this film.

The first question has to be - does it deliver?

The simple answer is a resounding hell, yes. And not just to the fanboy crowd too. Sure, they'll feel satiated by the references and the reverence to the mythology of these characters but there's plenty to love in terms of action and plot - as well as much unexpected humour throughout.

From its action packed pre-titles sequence (which  references Stargate and The Terminator), The Avengers 2012 movie is a film which goes at it full tilt right from the get go and succeeds hitting every target it can, while screaming utterly epic on its way.

It's always difficult as well with a film like this, with so many characters in the spotlight to neglect any of them and over-focus on one of them. Thankfully, this is not the case with the Avengers. Every cast member - from the core of the initiative to Clark Gregg's wonderfully funny and human Agent Coulson - get their moment in the spotlight and every one of them seizes it and leaves an impression permanently etched on your mind.

With a great ensemble cast, a smart script and a fanboy eye for detail, The Avengers is a superhero film that does more than just ticks the box. It Hulk smashes the box to pieces with joyous geeky entertainment and cinema smarts -complete with kick ass action sequences. What's also good about this is how broad the appeal is - by not disappearing too far up its own fanboy wazoo, you've got a film that pretty much anyone can enjoy the spectacle of.

Full credit needs to go to Joss Whedon for his Avenging efforts in bringing this to the screen, peppering it with brilliant one liners and ensuring everyone involved in the Marvel Universe is treated well while remaining true to both its comic book origins and the set up of the previous films.

The Avengers is destined to be a classic and a shining example of how great these mass entertainment films actually can be when they're done superbly, respectfully and totally awesomely.

Extras: Brilliant One shot piece, Item 47, deleted scenes, gag reel and visual journey.


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