By Thomas Hair

Online Copy Editor

If you are going to pour five feature length films and billions of dollars into building up to the release of a single movie, it had better be a remarkable movie. It had better be the type of movie that becomes an instant classic – anything else would be a catastrophic disappointment.

Marvel Studios took this risk with The Avengers, and I am thrilled they did. Since the release of Iron Man (2008), every Marvel release, concluding with Captain America (2011), has contributed to laying the groundwork for The Avengers by introducing audience to the individual heroes and slipping in not-so-secret scenes after the credits.

For Marvel fans of the recent movies, seeing the beloved characters together on the same screen for the first time is an experience best summarized as simply awesome. The sight of Hulk going on a bloodthirsty rampage alongside a hammer-swinging Thor and a shield-flinging Captain America with Iron Man zipping through the air up above is truly something to behold and has a surreal, magical quality to it.

All of these characters are legendary, and their convergence in The Avengers makes a legendary movie.

The last hour of the movie exemplifies the word legendary. It is a slugfest for the ages, as the Avengers battle for the fate of the world against an extraterrestrial army led into Manhattan by the sinister Loki.

The special effects are of the very highest quality throughout the movie, but especially in the smash mouth battle at the end. Buildings are demolished, a giant portal to space opens up in the sky, heroes pull off impossible feats – all of the ingredients of an unforgettable battle are present.

Another aspect of the fight sequences that highly impresses me is the camera work. The Avengers goes beyond standard camera angles and offers the viewer many unique perspectives.

The camera tilts as Iron Man runs across the side of the building, zooms out in an arching pattern to capture the Hulk protecting his back before giving the audience a glimpse of Nick Fury firing a gun at an angle from underneath a glass table.

However, what impresses me most about the movie were not the epic fight sequences, but rather the witty dialogue and intricate relationships between the Avengers. Each character is vastly different; Captain America is World War II soldier and Thor is a Norse God, and director Joss Whedon brilliantly highlights each character’s different personalities and passions as they struggle to unite.

The clashing personalities of Captain America and Iron Man, for example, make the whole “team-up” concept more realistic and are sure to elicit laughter from any audience.

Most of the humorous moments are simple one-line cracks, however, and occasionally these obvious attempts at humor feel forced. At one particularly painful segment of the script, the superheroes seem like 12 year old boys at a lunch table, trading vain insults.

Yet, the sheer brilliance of lines such as “How dareth you wear your mother’s drapes” from Iron Man to Thor make up for any strained comicality that was present in the script.

The script is bolstered infinitely by the star-studded cast. Each actor delivers a dynamic performance and that takes the film to the next level. Robert Downey Jr. is especially fantastic as Iron Man as usual, while Samuel L. Jackson and Scarlett Johansson as Nick Fury and Black Widow are absolutely perfect in their roles.

Equally impressive is Whedon’s ability to intertwine the worlds of each character. Convincing the audience that Thor’s Asgard is in the same Universe and explaining away how Captain America looks the same in 2012 as he did in 1943 were no easy tasks, but Whedon pulls it off with ease.

The Avengers is such a success because of how much preparation went into it. The intricate backstories of each character are explained to the viewer via previous movies and the viewer is already sympathetic to and familiar with each character walking into the theater. This allows Whedon to maximize the 2.5 hours of running time with awesomeness and minimize the phase of introducing characters and plots.

To live up to the unprecedented hype, The Avengers needed to be an amazing superhero movie, and it delivers. It is a simple plot and there are some cliché moments in the script, but these are overwhelmingly outweighed by top-tier acting, directing and visual effects.

The Avengers lives up to the hype and should go down in history as one of the best superhero movie Marvel will ever produce.

Rating: A