Zachary Brenner

Life Editor

When going to see The Avengers, my expectations were not that high.  Based on the trailers, I thought that everything in the movie was something I had seen before in previous science fictions films.  Despite what everyone was saying about how amazing the movie was, I was not convinced.

However, to a certain extent, my original expectations of the movie were altered.  I found myself pleasantly shocked at some of the new pieces of technology and action I had never seen in a motion picture before.

The first scene was great –  it got the movie rolling and got people excited to see the heroes as a team. The scene also set up the problem that would continue throughout the movie.

The excitement then died down for about a half an hour, despite humorous interactions with Tony Stark and the not yet released Hulk, Doctor Banner.  There I was, in the theater, actually getting drowsy in The Avengers – the best movie of the year!  Luckily, I was soon paid a visit by the Hulk. When Doctor Banner “hulked out,” I was clapping out of the excitement of the scene. Honestly, that saved the movie right there.

As the movie progressed, more comedic conversations between the heroes took place, some of which were quite hilarious.  Then, the battle for the world was taking place.

Aliens from outer space started to pour into New York from a portal that has been planted by the bad guy, Loki.  Where had we seen this before?  Okay, maybe not the exact situation, but still, nothing special about this scene except the  action from the heroes. All the trailers had already told me what was going to happen during this battle scene, and the coolest moments did not take me by surprise.  In fact, I found myself waiting for the shots of Iron Man flying through the sky because I knew they were coming.  I would have liked to been surprised.

As an audience, we all knew what was going to happen at the end.  So when people tell me that this was the greatest movie of the year, I say it was up there, but not the greatest. If this were not a super hero movie with Iron Man, Captain America, the Hulk, Black Widow, and Hawkeye, the movie’s plot would probably be up there with Battle: Los Angeles – and we all know how that turned out.

Now I cannot speak for all the comic book fans and die-hard superhero devotees, but as a regular audience member. Bringing four super heroes together to fight an ultimate battle sounded pretty awesome. Yet when it came down to it, I knew everything that was going to happen.  Even some of the comedy was predictable, though I loved seeing the Hulk pound Loki, the villain, until Loki could just lie on the floor stunned and embarrassed. The plot and the characters define the movie, and while the characters and their humor were nailed, the plot was not.

Overall Grade: B+