But in Hollywood, it seems “the more the merrier” is the phrase of choice, as Marvel Comics having successfully put on the big screen beloved individual icons like Iron Man, Captain America, The Incredible Hulk and Thor, has gathered them for a raid on the box-office.

In fact, this Royal Rumble assembled in the movie by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) now including the sultry Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and the ever sharp-eyed archer Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), pits the gang against the exiled king Loki (Tom Hiddleston) of Asgard, backed by Chitauri aliens eager to conquer Earth.

It’s as far-fetched a premise as you can come up with, but going by the 27 million views and 75,000 comments logged on the 2-month-old YouTube trailer of The Avengers, plus the ticket sales globally ahead of the movie’s opening in America on Friday, they’re in for colossal takings.

Joss Whedon of Aliens Resurrected fame has successfully fused the larger-than-life Marvel heroes into one movie. The movie could have easily become Tony Stark and the Other Guys, but Whedon manages to weave and interweave the plotline, character personalities and keep the men’s egos down to a tolerable level. Dealing with a previous cast in Serenity which rivaled the Avengers cast in terms of size and personality, Whedon has more than enough experience required to tame the unruly bunch of heroes unwittingly thrown at him.

The film does its best to showcase each hero and heroine fighting alongside each other and the distinct styles of every character with equal screen time for the individuals to battle alien scum. Be it the swift acrobatics of Black Widow or the raw power of the Incredible Hulk, the planet’s best go all out in a no-holds barred cosmic war with the Chitauri aliens under Loki’s command, resulting in an epic battle that satisfies movie goers.

However, the phrase: “Your greatest strength is also your greatest weakness” proves true for the movie.

With the number of heroes (and heroine) in the film, even the 143 minute screen time wasn’t enough for any of them to fully develop. If you’re the 1% minority who didn’t know any of the heroes’ backstories from previous movies, (Thor, Captain America – The First Avenger, Iron Man 1 and 2) you might be struggling to understand the first quarter of the movie.

However, lacking knowledge of previous movies doesn’t result in total unappreciation, for the various plotlines, such as the Black Widow and Hawkeye’s shared past, the rejected initial plans for The Avengers, Iron Man’s find of Captain America and the Tesseract and the history behind Thor and Loki, shows many layers of interaction between the main characters and interwoven depths of mystery surrounding S.H.I.E.L.D.

The key draw is the action and suspense overload from the very beginning as well as the fight scenes of every hero bashing the brains out of intergalactic life forms. If you’re thinking, “It’s probably like the other movies” or “It’s just like a video game,” you’re so very wrong. Stunt coordinator R.A Rondell (coordinator for the likes of  G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra) and fight coordinator Jonathan Eusebio of Iron Man 2, Never Back Down and Haywire fame paired up to train and teach the cast their various fighting techniques required for their roles. For example, the Black Widow’s techniques are from the Chinese martial art, Wushu.

It is also the same enjoyable fight scenes that take away the focus from the script, which is somewhat weaker than expected and, as Agent Phil would put it, “lacks conviction”. The excellently choreographed action and the sheer awesomeness of the Marvel characters made up for the lack of good lines and witty dialogue, save for the one-liners (Hulk’s “We’re not a team, we’re a time bomb” and Thor’s “He’s my brother!”, “He’s adopted” about Loki), that the writers managed to sneak in.

Supreme Headquarters International Espionage Law-Enforcement Division (S.H.I.E.L.D.) director Fury may not be in the heat of the action or standing around reading initiatives and barking out orders unlike military men in the heart of war. He is, however, the man who came up with the Avengers Initiative; deals with S.H.I.E.L.D.’s board of directors who are against the Initiative and strives to prevent a nuclear catastrophe while letting the Avengers go all out on the battlefield. For a human, he does possess nerves of steel to stand up to Loki when the exiled king makes his first appearance on Earth upon realising the existence of the Tesseract.

Fury’s number two Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) seemed to be a potential support character for Fury or the Avengers. Her quick reflexes and self-initiative was clear as day in the beginning of the movie, but died down as soon as the Avengers started appearing on screen. You’d expect Hill to be more of a kick-ass agent as the movie progresses but she instead deflates down to an underplayed role of carrying out any orders Fury throws at her.

The real man behind The Avengers is Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg), veteran S.H.I.E.L.D. operative (“Phil? His first name is ‘Agent’,” exclaims Stark to Pepper). He is known and seen to be Fury’s go-to-guy when it comes to dealing with Tony Stark or making the Avengers feel more at ease in S.H.I.E.L.D.’s flying fortress. He may be a Captain America fanboy at heart but he remains as cool as a cucumber in perilous situations, especially when dealing with Loki one-on-one. Ultimately, his moments of hero-worshipping and a trick from Fury will galvanise the conviction of the heroes.

The main leads are definitely Tony Stark, Thor, Steve Rogers and Bruce Banner. With these powerhouses, Black Widow and Hawkeye are perceived to be the supporting pillars of the Avengers. What is worth noting about the pair is their back-story. Other than that, their stars don’t quite cut it like the fabulous four.

The impenetrable Ironman (Robert Downey Jr.) remains as cocky as ever, his signature quick wit providing most of the comic relief in the movie, naming Thor as “Shakespeare in the Park” and describing himself as a “genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist” without his armor. Think of him as the smart and rich kid who can deliver a punch (with the help of the Mark II and subsequently Mark III armour, of course). Still, in the Avengers, the stakes are raised and emotions and desperation run deeper, Iron Man steps up to the plate and delivers it with his trademark charisma.

God of Thunder Thor (Chris Hemsworth) still possesses his “Shakesperean”/Asgardian way of speech, but plays a more conflicted role in this film. Hemsworth plays the struggling adopted older brother to Loki, seemingly troubled as to how is he going to tame his power-hungry sibling. It clearly shows, amid the formidable strength and ability to call upon lighting, that his motivation to reunite and reform his younger brother is a personal one.

The Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) is more mild-mannered with bursts of anger due to “the other guy”. This volatile being usually sets the intense atmosphere every time the an argument breaks out. It’s quite obvious that no one wants to set him off, except for Stark, who wants to see how much Banner can take. The relationship between Stark and Banner is interesting, when you see Mr. Ego push all of the Hulk’s buttons while complimenting him on his work in the scientific field at the same time with the latter trying to remain cool. (“Doctor Banner, your work is unparalleled and I’m a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster.”) But when it starts to get messy, this mild “man” casually rides a Vespa onto the scene and explodes into the incredible Hulk.

The ageless Captain America (Chris Evans) played on the recurring theme of being a soldier sent under the directive of his in-charge, in this case, Fury. A darker Captain is seen as compared to the character he plays in Captain America. Who can blame him? With his bad habit of referring to people as “soldiers”, you’d realise that he is but a former shell of himself who has lost everyone and everything he had came to love. In an interview with Insidemovies.com, Evans puts it simply, saying, “He was a soldier, obviously, everybody he went to battle with… they’re all dead. I think in the beginning it’s a fish out of water scene and … it’s a tough pill for him to swallow.”

With such overwhelmingly good characters, comes an equally strong counterpoint in the deviant Loki. 2012 BAFTA nominee for Rising Star Hiddleston embodies the role and fills it with devilish, malevolent delight, surpassing even his previous role as Loki in Thor. This menacing, megalomaniac isn’t all about destruction and power, he’s also the other half of the movie’s comical moment along with the Hulk.

And if you’re wondering about the chaos and destruction when it comes down to the nitty-gritty, this is no Transformers, but personally, it packs more of a punch, whether you’re a comic-book fan or not. When your favourite heroes face down armor-plated leviathans swimming down from space, you know that the oncoming fight is definitely something to look forward to.

The Avengers have been assembled, the fights have been fought and when they’re not trying to get at each other, they make a super team. In a fantasy world where such unlikely alliances are forged, you can’t help but wonder if any other heroes or famous villains lie in wait. But if they do turn up, we’ll keep our fingers crossed that The Avengers will heed the Captain’s words: “Hulk, smash.”

Movie: The Avengers
Rating: 4/5
Opens: May 1
Duration: 143 mins
Language: English
Age Rating: PG 13
Genre: Action, Thriller

When God loses faith in man, a legion (described as an army of between 3,000 and 6,000 by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary) of angels is sent to exterminate humankind forever and bring an end to the continued degradation of our society.

These angels, instead of swooping in to take us out with wings and all, possess the bodies of weak-willed people and give them razor sharp teeth (all the better to eat you with) and the ability to shape-shift into long-limbed fast moving humanoids (all the better to grab you with) to bring about the apocalypse.

Thankfully, one of those originally meant to destroy all life on planet, archangel Michael (Paul Bettany) turns against God to protect a certain pregnant mother (Adrianne Palicki) in a diner in the middle of nowhere whose unborn baby can “deliver what He (God) needs” instead of “what He wants”.

This is Legion, 2010’s first major disappointment.

Despite a relatively decent casting which includes Bettany (A Knight’s Tale, The Da Vinci Code), veteran actor Dennis Quaid (The Day After Tomorrow, Pandorum), rapper-turned-actor Tyrese Gibson (2 Fast 2 Furious, Transformers) and Lucas Black (Jarhead, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift), the movie provides little more than a few action scenes peppered with corny, predictable one-liners.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, except that with this flick, plenty of things don’t quite seem to make sense.

First of all, despite its apocalyptic plot, surprisingly few of the good, fangless people actually die, unlike in recent similar-themed films such as The Day After Tomorrow or 2012.

Traditionally speaking, movies such as this need a good mix of both compelling action and story telling. Unfortunately, Legion had neither.

Another contributing factor is the film’s length. At just 100 minutes, there are even animated films longer than it. This means that the depth the plot can go into is compromised.

Even so, the storyline ended up pretty draggy, a far cry from the amazing trailer that released in August last year.

Action scenes, while decently put together, came at weird junctures of the movie and were unusually spaced out; the first of which occurred right at the beginning before a whole lot of dialogue comes by to put you to sleep and a final battle wakes you up again just before the close.

The action wasn’t even particularly enjoyable, as it seemed that all it took were good ol’ automatic weapons to effectively stop every wave of angel-possessed people, despite Michael’s incessant warnings that “they’re coming”. You wouldn’t be blamed for expecting more from God’s army.

Even the final big fight, in which a sea of attackers surrounded the diner causing you to truly fear for human lives, ultimately didn’t even happen as another archangel, Gabriel, gets involved by busting into the diner for a one-on-one duel with Michael, leaving the rest of the angel army standing outside like, well, zombies.

It is little wonder the film turned out so wrong. While director Scott Stewart’s resume boasts recent hits like Grindhouse, Die Hard 4.0 and Iron Man, all of which he played the part of an uncredited visual effects senior staff member, this is the first full-length feature film of his career, and it really becomes clearer as the movie progresses.

For those expecting this movie to be similar to the 2005 flick Constantine, prepare to be sorely disappointed, as Legion displays none of the plot development and character depth that the former had.

Despite this, the main protagonists’ performances were admirable albeit restrained to a certain extent by the storyline and plot. This was showcased mainly halfway through the movie when the action came to a temporary standstill, allowing some kind of character interaction.

Still, the movie overall left too many questions unanswered, which most often points towards the possibility of a sequel, but with the first movie as it is, do we really want one?

Like the apocalyptic films of the past decade such as The Day After Tomorrow and 2012, a sequel wouldn’t be required so they really should’ve tied up as many loose ends as possible.

At the end of the day, Legion displays some traits of formerly successful end-of-the-world films, but fails to deliver that final sinking punch. What a way to kick off the new decade.

Release: Jan 21
Duration: 100 min
Language: English
Rating: NC16 (Coarse Language and Violence)
Genre: Action/Fantasy/Horror/Thriller
Director: Scott Stewart
Cast: Paul Bettany, Dennis Quaid, Tyrese Gibson, Lucas Black, Adrienne Palicki

We have ordinary humans mutate into Heroes on the small screen and comic book do-gooders flying across the big screen. Do we really need another superhero? The people at Marvel, who gave us X-men, Fantastic Four, Hulk and Daredevil think so. They’ve decided to pull out all the stops in this latest action flick by casting A-list Hollywood actors such as Robert Downey Jr. , Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges in and Iron Man, and wowing audiences with the latest technology in CGI (computer generated imagery).

Synopsis

Iron Man launches into action when Tony Stark played by Robert Downey Jr., head of Stark Industries, presents his company’s new weapon in an Afghan desert, and is ambushed by terrorists on his way home.

The captured Stark is forced to build, from scratch, his latest weapon – The Jericho.

Downey’s character later “changes” his mind and with the help of another captive scientist, builds himself an artificial heart to replace his original one that has been damaged during the earlier skirmish. Stark then builds an armoured suit to escape his predicament.

Tony Stark soon perfects his armoured prototype and goes on a one-man crusade to rid the world of those who misuse his company’s products while keeping the peace.

Direction

Director Jon Favreau, who brought to us the less commercially successful Elf and Zathura is wandering into unfamiliar action territory. With that said, the box office takings have still made the top 10 opening weekend ever, according to figures from Box Office Mojo. Given the course of the plot, there’s a huge possibility of a sequel.

In an interview by Rotten Tomatoes, Favereau wanted to make the effects in the movie “as photoreal as possible”. A huge part of the movie is dedicated to beautiful special effects and wonderfully drawn CGI. The awesome graphics of a flying Iron Man and the decimation of an entire mountain range are testaments to the talents of the production team.

Acting

Leading actor and Hollywood bad-boy, Robert Downey Jr., who is usually seen playing serious and thoughtful roles as shown in his more recent movies such as Good Luck And Good Night and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang treads on unfamiliar territory in his role as enigmatic billionaire tech mogul, Tony Stark, who becomes Iron Man- the superhero with an ultra sleek battle armour after it gets retrofitted onto his body. Surprisingly, he manages to pull the role off with aplomb as he transits smoothly from a charismatic, sauve, gentlemen to a brooding, solemn superhero. Donwney’s on-screen personification of a billionaire playboy somehow reminded UrbanWire of Batman’s alter ego, Bruce Wayne.

Adding more Hollywood glamour into the show is Gwyneth Paltrow. Playing Pepper Potts might be too safe a role for Paltrow. If she desires to ascend the ranks of performers like Jennifer Garner and Jessica Alba , who have both starred in Marvel films, she needs more than a dry, simple character. Steaming the screens up as Stark’s sexy assistant with an evening gown that shows off her svelte figure and witty speech, this Oscar-winning actress contributes a delectable performance to the testosterone-filled movie of explosions, military weapons and a very sleek superhero.

Their sparkly, sexed up conversations such as,

Pepper Potts: “What’s going on here?”
Tony Stark: “Let’s face it, this is not the worst thing you’ve ever caught me doing.

and unreciprocated love set the stage for entertaining banter, with Downey’s spirited acting adding immeasurable value to the scenes.

Jeff Bridges, as Stark’s mentor turned adversary, Obadiah Stane, cuts a new look with a bald cranium and a twirly mustache. He plays the character with charm and poise, without going overboard with it.

Terrence Howard as Jim Rhodes is a forgettable gap-filler compared to his on-screen buddy, Downey.

Verdict

UrbanWire is glad to say that Iron Man is one of the better Marvel movies in recent times, although 2 hours of running time may just be a little to long. The stellar performance of Robert Downey Jr. has already personified himself as Tony Stark, much like the way certain actors have become the face of certain popular characters, such as Harrison Ford to Indiana Jones.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Movie Details

Opens: 1 May 2008

Movie Rating: PG 13

Running Time: 126 mins

Language: English

Director: Jon Favreau

Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges, Terrence Howard