The Avengers

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Infinity Saga

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This was it! A movie that so many people thought would never come to fruition finally came to the big screen! At the time, this was completely unprecedented. One can argue this with me all they wish, but things like 'Fantastic Four', 'Ninja Turtles', 'Transformers', were all titles that involved already-formed teams. It's also really funny that no one seems to throw 'X-Men' in there when making this argument, but hey, whatever works.

This was a bunch of solo superheroes coming together for the first time, which broke that barrier comic-to-film adaptations consistently have - they never crossed over, unlike solo comic books do all the time. This was finally noticed, and something new was created that featured Iron Man, Captain America, The Incredible Hulk, and Thor, as well as cameo faves, Black Widow and Hawkeye. It had all sorts of potential to fail, but holy shit. Not only did it prove a movie of such a scale could exist, it proved that cinematic superheroes do NOT need to be totally grounded in reality, and you can STILL come up with great story while blending it with flashy special effects.

If you're one of the two people in the world who hasn't seen it, the plot digs the Tesseract (from 'Cap 1') back up for SHIELD to study. Right off the bat, it turns out to function as a portal through space, and Loki turns up as public enemy number one, aiming to use the Tesseract to summon an alien army known as the Chutari to attack Earth, and allow him to rule it with an iron fist because he's still hurt about getting denied that Asgardian throne. Of course, such a threat is what "assembles" the Avengers - Earth's mightiest heroes, into action.

Well, to be perfectly blunt and perhaps a bit of a bummer on the subject, this movie has bee talked about to death, and there's really nothing new I can add to the conversation. So this review is gonna end up being a little short. To me, this is pretty much the epitome of a great, not so much "superhero film" but comic series adaptation. The way I see it, 'Thor' put his fist through that wall of "keeping it grounded", but 'The Avengers' demolished the wall clean through and said "it's time to make things actually look like a comic book".

However, what this did leave me with this time around with my... I've lost count viewing is the feeling I had with this in the first place. We've got 'Infinity War' coming up, and it's cast is INSANE. As pumped as I am for it, I have to admit that I can't go into it all-systems-go. Here's hoping in doing that, that I'll get a similar experience to what I had with this and walk out 100% satisfied. What more can be said? This is an all-time favorite, and it's actually aged over the past few years quite nicely. It's a landmark though, so I guess that's bound to happen. But it's cool to know that all the movies from here on in would be great, right?... Right!?

5/5

MID-CREDIT SCENE: Failing the first attack on Earth, Thanos is notified, and teased to be a part of the upcoming Universe, and the 'Infinity War' storyline was coming.

POST-CREDIT SCENE: Perhaps more famous that the mid-credit scene, The Avengers sit around eating shawarma in the aftermath of the Battle of New York.

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