Movie Review: The Avengers (or Marvel Avengers Assemble if you live in the UK like I do) (Cinema, 3D)

In the conclusion to the first chapter of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (which you can see a review of here), Earth's mightiest heroes join forces to take down a powerful enemy who wishes to rule the world with his almighty power and mischief (who turns out to be Thor's "adopted" brother, Loki). And to clear it up, its the Paramount 100 Years logo that is shown, not Disney (information on that can be found here). As this is one of the few films to feature a line up of popular heroes from Marvel, can it live up to expectations? Let's find out:

SPOILER ALERT!!!

Following on from the last films in the series, Nick Fury arrives at a research facility to check out the tesseract (which was thrown into the ocean in Captain America: The First Avenger and then later recovered by Stark). The tesseract then opens up a portal which then brings back Loki (Thor's brother who previously caused havoc to the Earth before being stopped by Thor in Thor), the god of mischief who then uses his powers to control various members of S.H.I.E.L.D including Dr. Erik Selvig (who Nick hired at the end of Thor) and Clint Barton/Hawkeye (who we previously saw also in Thor) and takes the tesseract while letting the research facility get destroyed by the tesseract's powers. Nick and a few other agents survive and with that, Nick then begins forming The Avengers Initiative. While Tony Stark/Iron Man is still refusing to join, he soon learns of the tesseract's true powers and reluctantly, joins the team. SHIELD Agent, Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (previously seen in Iron Man 2) is then given instructions from Agent Philip Coulson to travel to India to get Dr. Bruce Banner/Hulk, while Coulson goes to get Stark. Nick meanwhile, approaches Steve Rogers/Captain America and with everyone now on board, their plan to take down Loki begins. Stark, Romanoff and Rogers are sent to a formal party in Germany to take down and apprehend Loki who is mining for iridium to help him harness the tesseract's powers. This then has Thor attack the aircraft that Loki is on which then sees Iron Man take Thor down, only to be stopped by Captain America. Loki, now in a prison designed specifically for the Hulk, is questioned by Nick Fury about his intentions but as each member of The Avengers try different ways to approach Loki and try to work out why SHIELD want the tesseract to develop weapons. This then results in a possessed Hawkeye attempting to destroy the ship that they are all on. While Iron Man and Captain America attempt to restore the damaged engines, Banner, after a whole year with out the incident, turns into Hulk and wrecks havoc across the ship. Black Widow confronts and fights Hawkeye which in turn eventually frees him from Loki's grasp. In the end however, the ship is saved, Loki escapes and Agent Coulson is killed in action, but manages to use a weapon to weaken Loki temporarily. Captain America, Hawkeye, Hulk, Black Widow, Iron Man and Thor then go to Manhattan to stop Loki from bringing in demons from outer space and after a serious and at times, funny fight, defeat the demons. Nick Fury then warns Iron Man about a nuclear missile being aimed for Manhattan and Iron Man goes to stop it by going through the portal to send it into the alien's spaceship. Iron Man then falls through the portal and is rescued and awakened by Hulk. Thor then takes Loki back to Asgard and everyone then goes their separate ways.

As expected, this film delivers action, comedy and fun throughout. It's considered as the best Marvel film to date and with a new chapter beginning, there will be more to come form these mighty heroes so good work, Marvel Studios. 10/10