DVD review: Marvel Avengers Assemble

Sarah Shaffi Tuesday, September 18, 2012
9:22 AM

Captain America, Iron Man, the Hulk, Hawkeye, the Black Widow, Thor - they may not be the most conventional of superheroes, but that’s what makes watching them in Marvel Avengers Assemble so good.

Tom Hiddleston as Loki in Marvel Avengers Assemble. Picture: Zade Rosenthal

The film, the third biggest movie of all time globally, features stunning effects and some of the best fight scenes I’ve ever seen, and the effect isn’t diminished when watching on the small screen.

The Avengers are brought together to fight Loki, an egotistical almost-god who wants to wreak havoc on earth by harnessing the power of the Tesseract to open a portal that brings an otherworldly army flowing into New York.

The film gets off to an action-packed start, with the blowing up of a research facility and the escape of Loki, an egotistical almost-god who wants to wreak havoc on earth by harnessing the power of the Tesseract to open a portal that brings an otherworldly army flowing into New York. Having no other option Nick Fury, director of international peacekeeping agency S.H.I.E.L.D, calls together the Avengers.

What follows is two and a bit hours of spectacle and amazing fight scenes, all held together with a simple but effective plot - the good guys must win.

Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow in Marvel Avengers Assemble.

Directed by Joss Whedon, who was behind hit shows including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Avengers Assemble isn’t afraid to cater to sci-fi geeks, but it’s also mainstream enough that the average viewer won’t feel confused watching what’s going on.

For all its high tech scenes, the best moments are those which show the heroes at their most human, or that involve those who have no super powers - Captain America and Iron Man constantly arguing, the Black Widow’s guilt over her past, even Loki’s egotistical, sometimes childish attitude is an all-too-familiar human reaction, although magnified.

Unconventionally the end of the film wasn’t the usual bad guys die, good guys prevail and are heroes kind of thing. It was much more complicated than that, and all the better for not adhering to cliche.

Avengers Assemble is out on DVD and Blu-ray now.