Marvel at The Avengers

It's finally here. It's arrived. The Avengers.

I'm a bit of a Marvel fan. I did go to the midnight, GMax, 3D screening. Yah. Well, you know. Thor + Captain America + Iron Man + Hulk = pretty awesome. Anyway, yes. Reviewing.

The basic idea behind this movie is that Loki, the Norse god of mischief and Thor's adopted brother, stole the Tesseract (which is a cube that can potentially create infinite power) from S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division), led by Nick Fury, and him putting together a team (the Avengers) to try and get it back.

Thor, Captain America, Black Widow, Loki, Nick Fury, Hawkeye, and Iron Man all reprise their most recent roles in the previous few Marvel movies. Hulk, however, has yet another actor change, and one for the better, I think. I've watched the two more recent adaptations of the Hulk, and while neither of them were that bad, I think that the Hulk played by the actor in this movie worked a lot better here. And indeed,  the Hulk has some great moments in this movie. He's an easy screen-stealer.

The story in the movie also works really well. Each of the characters has their own story to be told, their own failings and triumphs, and it's good to see that it's not just an explosion-fest. A couple of the plot elements leave a little something to be desired - for example, you'd think that would take more than a bump on the head to knock someone out of a trance induced by a Norse god - but in general, it's pretty good.

Basically, I liked it. A lot. It was a really great movie, and I definitely recommend seeing it. Easily one of the top 3 for this year.

Oh, and there's a little something after some of the credits. I don't know if it points to anything definite, but there seems to be something there....