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Movie Review: 'The Avengers'

Did anyone really think it would work? Critically savaged, already an embarrassing failure at the box office, The Avengers is a big, spinning Wiffle ball of a movie. It’s worth remembering, though, before the picture vanishes from theaters entirely, just what this project’s evanescent allure was originally all about.

On television in the mid-’60s, Patrick Macnee, as John Steed, and Diana Rigg, as Emma Peel, would scoot around in a Bondian sports car, battling sci-fi crimes against the Empire. The ultimate action, though, consisted of the duo’s quips, sallies, and double entendres, many of which were tossed off during fencing practice that appeared to be more than a bit S&M kinky. The verbal sparring looked back over its shoulder to screwball comedy, but what people continue to remember with such affection is the way that the posh, winking savoir faire of The Avengers tickled the cusp of the sexual revolution. Steed, with his bowler hat, umbrella, and mischievous gleam, was a parody of the sort of trusty English gent who was on the verge of looking as out of style as Queen Victoria. Peel, embodied by the incandescent Rigg, was a Carnaby Street gamine in midriff-baring catsuits — a next-generation pixie. Though the characters remained platonic playmates, they seemed to be jousting across an erotic/cultural divide, and that was the show’s real romance — the image of arch British reserve giving way to swinging freedom.

All of which is to say that if you put Ralph Fiennes in a bowler hat and Uma Thurman in a catsuit and have them toss cute one-liners at each other, you can call the result The Avengers , but you’ve come about as close to capturing the eccentric, trapped-in-its-time sauciness of the TV series as you would by devoting a theme restaurant to it. The casting of Fiennes is particularly maladroit. He’s an actor of rare intellectual delicacy, but I’ve almost never seen him crack what could truly be described as a smile . As Steed, he seems less an ironic patrician superhero than an overly sensitive boy dressed up in his rich uncle’s clothes. Thurman, at least, is sultry, but she lacks Rigg’s teasing suggestion of innocence. Her Emma just seems like a runway model with attitude.

I’m only pretending, of course, that any two actors could have salvaged this movie. Directed by Jeremiah Chechik, The Avengers is too enervated to qualify as even a full-scale disaster. It’s like a Batman movie in which the villain forgot to show up, and Batman did too. Certainly, I can’t think of another film that has so thoroughly achieved the feat of making Sean Connery boring. As the evil August De Wynter, who launches a plot to control the weather, and with it the world, Connery rants and growls with monotonous nastiness. There’s a nifty scene in which Emma gets trapped in a marble stairway that folds back on itself like an M.C. Escher dreamscape. But that’s the only moment in the film with genuine visual charge. The Avengers is a package of slick nothing — pop nostalgia that can’t remember what it’s nostalgic for. D+

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Review: 'The Avengers' is retro-boring

No worse than average rubbish, 'everybody else' is doing it, 'badminton with a lead birdie'.

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‘the avengers’: film review.

Director Joss Whedon pulls off a stunning feat in bringing balance to this superhuman circus, engineered to charm the geek core and nonfans alike.

By Todd McCarthy

Todd McCarthy

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Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man is going to get the best zingers, but don't underestimate Chris Evans' spot-on portrayal of the Star-Spangled Avenger to win fans.

The All-Star Game of modern superhero extravaganzas, The Avengers is humongous — the film Marvel and its legions of fans have been waiting for. It’s hard to imagine that anyone with an appetite for the trademark’s patented brand of fantasy, effects, mayhem and strangely dressed he-men will be disappointed; not only does this eye-popping 3D display of visual effects fireworks feature an enormously high proportion of action scenes, but director Joss Whedon has adroitly balanced the celebrity circus to give every single one of the superstar characters his or her due. Worldwide box-office returns will be, in a word, Marvelous.

During the past several years, Marvel has, with accelerated speed, expanded its cinematic repertoire of over-muscled, generally double-identitied heroes not otherwise encumbered by exclusive contracts with other studios — most notably The Hulk, Iron Man, Thor and Captain America — to arrive at the point where this summit meeting of superhuman good guys could be assembled. (A prominent relative, Spider-Man, has his own reboot coming up this summer.)

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After this, the characters will go their separate ways — Iron Man 3 starts shooting next month, with second chapters of Thor and Captain America set to roll within the year — before gathering again before too many movie summers pass. With the bundle this one will make, the pressure will be on make it happen sooner rather than later.

As creatively variable and predictably formulaic as the Marvel films have been, this one will not only make the core geek audience feel like it’s died and gone to Asgard but has so much going for it that many nonfans will be disarmed and charmed. This is effects-driven, mass-appeal summer fare par excellence, that sought-after rare bird that hits all the quadrants, as marketing mavens like to say. As enormous as the production is, though, the appeal of the ensemble cast makes a crucial difference; you get enough but not too much of each of them, and they all get multiple scenes to themselves to shine.

To boil down the particulars of this latest attempt to bring ruin to all we hold dear, sinister Thor villain Loki ( Tom Hiddleston , looking like Richard E. Grant’s effete younger brother) has gained possession of the tesseract , an all-powerful substance contained in an opaque cube that not only provides unlimited sustainable energy but a portal to outer space. “I am burdened with glorious purpose,” Loki purrs while taunting eye-patched S.H.I.E.L.D. master Samuel L. Jackson (finally with something to do in a Marvel film) with the promised arrival of his army of outer-space warriors.

Down but not out, the good guys begin assembling on board one of the cooler modes of transport seen anywhere in a while, a giant (and beautifully rendered) aircraft carrier that can rise out of the water to become an invisible space ship — hence, a helicarrier — and serve as a first-rate staging area for operations against Loki. Among those arriving on board are Bruce Banner, otherwise known as The Hulk ( Mark Ruffalo , the third actor, after Eric Bana and Edward Norton , to give the green giant a big-screen go); Natasha Romanoff /Black Widow ( Scarlet Johansson ), a sultry, scarlet-haired assassin first seen turning the tables on nasty interrogators despite being strapped to a chair; Thor ( Chris Hemsworth ), Loki’s long-locked brother and bearer of the universe’s mightiest hammer; and Mr. Old School himself, Steve Rogers, aka Captain America ( Chris Evans ), a World War II hero who’s not quite up to speed on all the latest super-technology but carries an impenetrable shield. For his part, Robert Downey Jr. ‘s Tony Stark, better known as Iron Man, joins incipient girlfriend Pepper ( Gwyneth Paltrow ) for a brief tete-a-tete before deigning to lend his special expertise to the cause.

Although they really should be saving their energy for the battle against Loki and his minions, the Avengers team can’t resist getting into it with each other from time to time. One could say that this is just gratuitous time-killing, but it could as persuasively be argued that watching The Hulk duke it out with Thor for bragging rights as to who’s tougher is what such a film is all about; at least there’s nothing perfunctory about it, as there is when superheroes routinely dispatch aliens and enemies who exist just to get blown away. The friction between Iron Man and Captain America, for example, is all about style and attitude; the former is far too irreverent and glib for the latter, for whom patriotism and coming to the rescue are not laughing matters.

With only one feature directorial credit to his name, the middling 2005 sci-fier Serenity, Whedon of Buffy fame would not have been the first name on most people’s lists to tame a potentially unwieldy project. But from a logistical point of view alone, he imposes a grip on the material that feels like that of a benevolent general, marshaling myriad technical resources (including an excellent use of 3D) while, even more impressively, juggling eight major characters, giving them all cool and important things to do.

Never, though, does the film stall to dwell on individual characters just to give them screen time; the heroes are almost always doing something that relates to the challenge at hand. Even when the impudent Loki is held prisoner in seemingly inescapable circumstances, there is still forward movement, which crests and then crashes with tsunami force near Grand Central Station in Manhattan; uncountable numbers of alien warriors arrive from the skies, accompanied by strikingly designed metal leviathans that undulate like skeletal monsters of the deep as they cruise over New York seeking targets.

In this titanic battle, which occupies most of the film’s final half-hour, all the Marvel heroes’ talents are put to the test. In addition to Iron Man making a quick trip to outer space to deal with an incoming missile, special agent Clint Barton, or Hawkeye ( Jeremy Renner ), is so good with a high-tech bow and arrow that you imagine they’ll have to dragoon Katniss Everdeen into the sequel as a guest star just to see who’s better. For his part, Jackson’s Nick Fury has his hands full restraining army generals from nuking the Big Apple in order to off the aliens.

It’s clamorous, the save-the-world story is one everyone’s seen time and again, and the characters have been around for more than half a century in 500 comic book issues. But Whedon and his cohorts have managed to stir all the personalities and ingredients together so that the resulting dish, however familiar, is irresistibly tasty again. A quick coda reveals, to well-versed fans at least, who the new adversary in the next installment will be, underlining a reality as absolute as the turning of Earth: Especially after this, Marvel movies will go on and on and on.

Venue: Tribeca Film Festival Production: Marvel Cast: Robert Downey Jr. , Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo , Chris Hemsworth , Scarlett Johansson , Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston , Clark Gregg, Cobie Smulders , Stellan Skarsgard , Samuel L. Jackson, Gwyneth Paltrow , Paul Bettany Director: Joss Whedon Screenwriter: Joss Whedon Story by: Zak Penn, Joss Whedon Producer: Kevin Feige Executive producers: Alan Fine, Jon Favreau , Stan Lee, Louis D’Esposito , Patricia Whitcher , Victoria Alonso, Jeremy Latcham Director of photography: Seamus McGarvey Production designer: James Chinlund Costume designer: Alexandra Byrne Editors: Jeffrey Ford, Lisa Lassek Music: Alan Silvestri Visual effects supervisor: Janek Sirrs Rated PG-13, 142 minutes

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The Avengers

Where to Watch

Ralph Fiennes (John Steed) Uma Thurman (Dr. Emma Peel) Sean Connery (Sir August de Wynter) Patrick Macnee (Invisible Jones) Jim Broadbent (Mother) Fiona Shaw (Father) Eddie Izzard (Bailey) Eileen Atkins (Alice) John Wood (Trubshaw) Carmen Ejogo (Brenda)

Jeremiah S. Chechik

Two British Agents team up to stop Sir August de Wynter from destroying the world with a weather-changing machine.

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The Avengers 1998

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Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune : This movie -- gaudy, grandiloquent and often staggeringly silly -- is one more example of how bloated and top-heavy many "event" action movies have become. Read more

Gene Seymour, Los Angeles Times : The movie lets [Fiennes and Thurman] down with a patchwork climax that feels rushed and perfunctory. Read more

Jay Boyar, Orlando Sentinel : The Avengers is, without a doubt, the worst movie of the summer. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer : Somebody call Austin Powers, quick! Read more

Keith Simanton, Seattle Times : To answer the question at hand, yes, The Avengers is pretty bad. Not slip-a-disk-running-from-the-theater kind of bad, but a shift-in-your-seat, "oh-for-goodness'-sake-get-on-with-it!" kind of bad. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine : Some bad movies are bold outrages; many others become hits. This one hasn't the juice to be either. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club : This big-screen version of the classic '60s TV spy show The Avengers can be added to the ignominious heap of updates, remakes, and adaptations that really didn't need to be made. Read more

Lisa Alspector, Chicago Reader : Neither elegant nor macho nor elegant-and-macho, Fiennes is terribly cast; Thurman at least provides the equivalent of a dressmaker's dummy on which to hang neo-mod fashions. Read more

Paul Tatara, CNN.com : Your guess would be as good as mine as to exactly what's supposed to be going on in Jeremiah Chechik's The Avengers, and that's even if you haven't seen the movie. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly : Did anyone really think it would work? Critically savaged, already an embarrassing failure at the box office, The Avengers is a big, spinning Wiffle ball of a movie. Read more

David Ansen, Newsweek : It seemed like a good idea, but the more you think about it, the clearer it becomes that The Avengers should never have been turned into a movie. Read more

David Bianculli, New York Daily News : This Avengers film is so horrendously, painfully and thoroughly awful, it gives other cinematic clunkers like Ishtar and Howard the Duck a good name. Read more

Janet Maslin, New York Times : At a pared-down, barely rational 100 minutes, The Avengers is short but not short enough. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews : This film is an absolute mess. It looks like the regurgitated leavings of something watchable, a cinematic abomination that got pulled apart and put back together so many times that it lost all semblance of coherence. Read more

Charles Taylor, Salon.com : Maybe actors should be given some benefit of the doubt when they're directed by a total incompetent like Chechik, but everyone in The Avengers is stupefyingly awful. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle : It's a completely botched effort -- botched in its direction, its writing and editing. Read more

David Edelstein, Slate : As the eccentric master villain who controls the weather, even Sean Connery is flat-out terrible, acting high on the hog. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune : Why would this film's creative team start with one of the cleverest series ever and make such a limp, leaden movie? I fail to see the connection. Read more

Tom Charity, Time Out : The trouble is, the film's decadence isn't a put-on, it is, simply, depressingly, degeneratively, decadent. Read more

Godfrey Cheshire, Variety : What's missing is chemistry: the right blend of seriousness and whimsy, and charmingly compelling interplay between leads Ralph Fiennes and Uma Thurman, who turn in lackluster perfs. Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post : The new Avengers is dismal in dispiriting, dreary ways, and Ralph Fiennes, playing Macnee's part, is a particular disaster. Read more

The Avengers (1998)

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Review by Jason Gibner

Universally hated upon its release, The Avengers, Jeremiah Chechick's big-screen adaptation of the cult-classic British television series, is not as much of a disaster as audiences have been led to believe. Many of the points for which the very expensive and very low-grossing film was originally criticized are true. The film's plot, which finds our spy heroes trying to stop evildoers who wish to control the world's weather, is too downright silly to be as complicated and be taken as seriously as the film treats it. Uma Thurman, while having the perfect lean, mean body to fill Emma Peel's famous cat suit, has a shaky British accent that tends to come and go from scene to scene. Sean Connery, as the brilliantly named villain Sir August de Wynter, seems to be having the time of his life running around wearing a kilt and shouting out every line of dialogue he has. The film, however, moves along during its brisk 89 minutes at such a haywire, roller-coaster pace that it often fails to give the viewer time to register the madness that is happening onscreen. Beautifully shot by acclaimed cinematographer Roger Pratt and featuring gorgeous mod Swinging-'60s-style costumes by Anthony Powell, The Avengers is a film that is wonderful to simply sit back with, letting yourself be sucked into its ludicrous world. Besides, where else will you see an action-packed chase scene featuring a group of guys dressed in Technicolor teddy bear suits?

THE AVENGERS Review

The Avengers review. Matt reviews Joss Whedon's The Avengers starring Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, and Chris Evans.

Nothing like The Avengers has ever been attempted in Hollywood history.  No major motion picture has ever been the culmination of four different blockbuster franchises, each with its own protagonist, and crossing them over into one gigantic film.  It's bigger than a sequel or even a planned trilogy.  Marvel had to take pieces from their previous superhero films to assemble The Avengers .  The studio wedged set-up into Iron Man 2 , wove the covert government agency S.H.I.E.L.D. into Thor , and tacked bookends to Captain America: The First Avenger .  The plan for The Avengers was audacious to the point of near-hubris, but writer-director Joss Whedon has managed to deliver an absolute powerhouse of a payoff that's truly worthy of Marvel's astonishing ambition.

After being exiled from Asgard, the villainous demigod Loki ( Tom Hiddleston ) makes a bargain with a shadowy, malevolent entity.  Loki must go to Earth, capture the fabled Tesseract (a cosmic cube of immense power), and use it to open a portal that will allow the alien Chitauri army to invade our planet and make Loki our ruler.  S.H.I.E.L.D. has the cube, but Loki quickly takes it along with agent Clint Barton aka "Hawkeye" ( Jeremy Renner ) and Dr. Erik Selvig ( Stellan Skarsgård ) by using a mind-controlling scepter.  Barton has access to S.H.I.E.L.D. resources, Selvig has the science to open the portal, and the only ones who can stop Loki's plan are Earth's mightiest heroes: Tony Stark aka "Iron Man" ( Robert Downey Jr. ), Thor ( Chris Hemsworth ), Natasha Romanoff aka "Black Widow" ( Scarlett Johansson ), Bruce Banner aka "The Hulk" ( Mark Ruffalo ), and Steve Rogers aka "Captain America" ( Chris Evans ).

Iron Man , Iron Man 2 , Thor , and Captain America all provided an essential ingredient in helping the plot of The Avengers by allowing it to skip character introductions.  Thor and Captain America get a couple brief moments to recap the key events of their movies, but The Avengers doesn't waste time with exposition.  Instead, the film devotes most of its energy to bringing a bunch of superheroes together and expanding their individual stories.

Writer-director Joss Whedon does a wonderful job of taking the characters other people built, staying true to their personalities, and then adding his unmistakable spin.  Captain America in The Avengers is essentially the same pure-hearted, unflappable do-gooder from Captain America: The First Avenger , but through Whedon, we get a character emotionally struggling to adjust to being ripped out of 1944 and awakening over sixty years later.  At the same time, Whedon still has the good comic sense to let the character get giddy at recognizing a pop culture reference.

Almost every character gets this strong blend of comedy and drama.  Thor provides the emotional grounding for Loki, who would simply be a moustache-twirling supervillain without his superhero half-brother.  Black Widow gets plenty of screentime to expand her individual story to the point where it feels like a heavy prep for a great spin-off.  As for Hulk, The Avengers manages to deliver the best on-screen adaptation of the character.  In addition to having the Hulk kind of look like Mark Ruffalo, this is the first time the Hulk is actually fun .    Whedon and Ruffalo turn Banner away from the brooding loner, and turn him into a bashful, nerdy guy who will only acknowledge the Hulk as "The Other Guy."  In The Avengers , The Hulk is Chekhov's Gun if Chekhov's Gun were a howitzer tank.  When that blast finally goes off, we see the Hulk realized in the best way possible.

However, Whedon can't quite shower everyone with this lavish attention and development.  Robert Downey Jr. has so thoroughly defined the character of Tony Stark that no one, not even a writing master like Whedon, can leave an imprint.  S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury ( Samuel L. Jackson ) has been a presence in all the previous Marvel movies, but he still doesn't get to be the all-out badass we've been itching to see.  As for Hawkeye, he spends half the movie being Loki's slave, so there's not much room to build a character.

Despite the varying levels of development, The Avengers succeeds on a character level because the story is about bringing these superheroes together.  It's an absolute joy to see these distinct personalities play off each other.  When Iron Man fights Thor, it's not just a geeky thrill to watch the showdown, but to also see how each hero retains their noble intentions while having a genuine conflict.  Whedon operates with an understanding of how someone with the unshakable morality of Steve Rogers is going to handle a wild card like Tony Stark, or how Thor's arrogance hasn't completely diminished since his solo movie.  However, one of the film's few flaws is jumping into some of the conflicts without providing an adequate set-up to the scene.  The second act of the film lacks the flow to move from conflict to conflict so the arguments feel slightly manufactured even though Whedon has stayed true to the characters.

The movie may stutter a bit in the middle, but when The Avengers swings into the third act, it becomes a blockbuster picture at its finest.  Joss Whedon has absolutely realized the geek dream we've been waiting for since Nick Fury introduced himself to Tony Stark after the credits of Iron Man .  The scope of the final battle makes it perfectly clear that no individual superhero could handle this challenge solo.  More importantly, the battle had to be constructed so each superhero was a valuable addition.  The film's climax needs Iron Man's speed, Captain America's on-the-fly tactics, and Hulk as the unstoppable weapon.  Every superpower is an instrument in Whedon's grand symphony of delightful destruction.

The opening set piece raises doubts about Whedon's ability to direct action since it's difficult to tell where characters are in relation to each other, but after this initial misstep, the action scenes are an absolute blast.  Whedon swooshes his camera around the battlefield, embraces the magnitude of the situation, and makes the audience feel every hit.  The 3D provides a little bit of depth to the climactic finish, but the effect doesn't add much to the overall picture.  The third act of The Avengers bears a resemblance to Transformers: Dark of the Moon , and while Michael Bay has a greater mastery of 3D, Whedon has mastery over creating a coherent narrative featuring characters you care about.   I'll always take the latter over the former.

Leading up to The Avengers , every director had left a stamp on their Marvel movie, but not to the point where he was inseparable from the material.  Kenneth Branagh provided a fantastical grandeur to Thor (along with superfluous canted angles) and Joe Johnston imbued Captain America with an old-fashioned, patriotic vibe.  These are styles, and they can be recreated.  But there is only one Joss Whedon, and The Avengers wouldn't be as strong without him.  He understands how to develop meaningful relationships between his characters, has a surprising talent for crafting epic action scenes (a welcome surprise considering his only feature film before Avengers was the modestly budgeted Serenity ), and his humor is second-to-none.  There are some one-liners and visual gags that still have me giggling when I think about them.

The Avengers is why we go to the movies.  The film will work fine on a big-screen TV, but it's the kind of gigantic blockbuster fare that sends us back to every summer we went to the theater and were absolutely wowed.  By crafting a winning combination of wonderful characters, brilliant comedy, and spectacular set pieces, Whedon hasn't simply created the biggest superhero movie; he's created one of the best.

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The avengers, common sense media reviewers.

Lackluster spy spin-off has sexism, some violence, language.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

The movie has a generic "good guys taking down the

Characters lie and double-cross each other, even t

Frequent mild violence includes punching, kicking,

Constant innuendo. Characters kiss. Partial nudity

Language is infrequent but includes "arse," "basta

Greed is depicted by some.

Characters drink alcohol, including wine and champ

Parents need to know that The Avengers is an action-adventure movie based on the popular '60s TV spy show, and features peril, mild violence, and constant innuendo. An all star-cast finds British agents John Steed (Ralph Fiennes) and Dr. Emma Peel (Uma Thurman) teaming up to stop evil genius Sir August de…

Positive Messages

The movie has a generic "good guys taking down the bad guys" plot, but the good guys are flawed and unlikeable. Sexism is played for laughs.

Positive Role Models

Characters lie and double-cross each other, even those on the supposedly "good" side, including British agents John Steed and Dr. Emma Peel. Evil genius Sir August de Wynter plans to hold the world to ransom and is motivated by greed and money. The tongue-in-cheek banter of the original TV show doesn't land in this version, leaving some scenes feeling sexist.

Violence & Scariness

Frequent mild violence includes punching, kicking, and knocking people unconscious with objects. There is also the throwing of and threatening with knives, sword fights, explosions, car chases, jumping through glass windows, gun fire, and moments of peril from great heights. Dead bodies are shown, but with very little blood or gore. Characters are killed with poisonous darts, and a someone is drugged with the intention of sexual assault (which isn't carried out). Scenes also involve a straight jacket and padded cell, and a character being thrown from a wheelchair.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Constant innuendo. Characters kiss. Partial nudity is shown.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Language is infrequent but includes "arse," "bastard," and one use of "f--k."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Drinking, drugs & smoking.

Characters drink alcohol, including wine and champagne, though nobody is seen to be drunk. Cigarettes are smoked on occasion. Drugs are used to render people unconscious and to cause death.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Avengers is an action-adventure movie based on the popular '60s TV spy show, and features peril, mild violence, and constant innuendo. An all star-cast finds British agents John Steed ( Ralph Fiennes ) and Dr. Emma Peel ( Uma Thurman ) teaming up to stop evil genius Sir August de Wynter ( Sean Connery ). The violence includes punching, shooting, and sword fights. A female character is also drugged with the intention for sexual assault implied -- although the attack doesn't materialize. A mainstay of the original TV show, the constant innuendo and sexism feels outdated with the "jokes" failing to land. The language is infrequent, but there is use of "arse" and "bastard," and one use of "f--k." Characters drink alcohol -- but no drunkenness is depicted -- and cigarettes are smoked on occasion. The plot is muddled and difficult to follow, and the action and banter fails to capture the fun of the original, which could lead to viewers -- particular a younger audience -- losing interest. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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• Parents say (2)
• Kids say (1)

Based on 2 parent reviews

Not too bad.

What's the story.

In THE AVENGERS, British agents John Steed ( Ralph Fiennes ) and Dr. Emma Peel ( Uma Thurman ) team up to stop evil genius Sir August de Wynter ( Sean Connery ). The duo are tasked with preventing de Wynter from using a weather-harnessing machine as a weapon against governments around the world. But things get tricky when Peel is implicated in an in-house sabotage, leading the pair on a mission to uncover the truth behind the real culprit and how it ties into de Wynter's villainous plan.

Is It Any Good?

The pieces of the puzzle are all in place, yet none of them work in this 1998 spin-off of the hugely popular 1960s TV series. The cast of The Avengers is impressive, but never seem to settle into their roles. The screenplay is full of innuendo, yet it's killed by the lack of chemistry. The runtime is relatively short, but nowhere near short enough. There's no energy or momentum, yet the plot unfolds laboriously regardless. The only saving grace is the aesthetic, which goes some way to capturing the flair of the original, with stylish set pieces injecting at least some traditional action spirit into proceedings.

For those who haven't seen the classic '60s series, this movie just about holds together as light entertainment. But most people will recognize it for a lazy, misguided Hollywood punt at making a few dollars out of a great British institution -- and falling woefully short.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the way in which gender is represented in The Avengers . Did you find the movie sexist? The film uses the same tone as it did in the 1960s TV version. How, and in what ways, has what was deemed acceptable then changed today?

Discuss the ways in which stereotypes are used in the movie. Why is it important to identify and see through stereotypes? Tips for battling stereotypes .

Discuss the movie's violence . Was it all necessary to the story, or did any of it seem excessive? Would its impact have been different if the movie's tone had been more serious?

What are some other spin-offs or remakes that have been successful? What did you think made them so?

Movie Details

• In theaters : August 14, 1998
• On DVD or streaming : December 29, 1998
• Cast : Ralph Fiennes , Uma Thurman , Sean Connery
• Director : Jeremiah S. Chechik
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studios : Warner Bros. , Warner Home Video
• Genre : Action/Adventure
• Topics : Adventures
• Run time : 89 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : brief strong language
• Last updated : January 10, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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The avengers.

1998 Directed by Jeremiah S. Chechik

Saving the World in Style.

British Ministry agent John Steed, under direction from "Mother", investigates a diabolical plot by arch-villain Sir August de Wynter to rule the world with his weather control machine. Steed investigates the beautiful Doctor Mrs. Emma Peel, the only suspect, but simultaneously falls for her and joins forces with her to combat Sir August.

Ralph Fiennes Uma Thurman Sean Connery Patrick Macnee Jim Broadbent Fiona Shaw Eddie Izzard Eileen Atkins John Wood Carmen Ejogo Keeley Hawes Shaun Ryder Nicholas Woodeson Michael Godley Richard Lumsden Solly Assa Nadim Sawalha Christopher Godwin David Webber

Director Director

Jeremiah S. Chechik

Producer Producer

Jerry Weintraub

Writer Writer

Don MacPherson

Casting Casting

Susie Figgis

Editor Editor

Mick Audsley

Cinematography Cinematography

Roger Pratt

Executive Producer Exec. Producer

Susan Ekins

Production Design Production Design

Stuart Craig

Art Direction Art Direction

Andrew Ackland-Snow Mark Harris Michael Lamont Lubo Hristov Jim Morahan

Set Decoration Set Decoration

Stephenie McMillan

Stunts Stunts

Composer composer.

Joel McNeely

Sound Sound

Mike Prestwood Smith Adrian Rhodes Ian Wilson Clive Winter Stuart Wilson

Costume Design Costume Design

Anthony Powell

Makeup Makeup

Jeremy Woodhead Daniel Parker Peter Swords King

Hairstyling Hairstyling

Paolo Mantini Kay Georgiou

Jerry Weintraub Productions Warner Bros. Pictures

Primary Language

Spoken languages.

English Spanish

Releases by Date

13 aug 1998, 14 aug 1998, 19 aug 1998, 20 aug 1998, 26 aug 1998, 27 aug 1998, 28 aug 1998, 03 sep 1998, 04 sep 1998, 09 sep 1998, 11 sep 1998, 17 sep 1998, 18 sep 1998, 23 sep 1998, 24 sep 1998, 25 sep 1998, 30 sep 1998, 02 oct 1998, 03 oct 1998, 08 oct 1998, 09 oct 1998, 15 oct 1998, 30 oct 1998, 05 nov 1998, 06 nov 1998, 13 nov 1998, 28 nov 1998, 20 jan 1999, releases by country.

• Physical 13
• Theatrical PG
• Theatrical 12
• Theatrical 12+
• Theatrical 15
• Theatrical K-12

Netherlands

New zealand, philippines.

• Theatrical G Manila
• Theatrical G Davao
• Theatrical M/12

South Africa

South korea.

• Theatrical APTA
• Theatrical 11

Switzerland

• Theatrical PG-13

89 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by Mary Conti ★★ 4

Where's Iron Man and Thor?

Review by Matt Singer ★ 4

The IMDB.O. List #1

Casting Uma Thurman as Black Widow makes sense, I guess, but who decided on Ralph Fiennes as Captain America? Where is his shield? And Jim Broadbent as Nick Fury? Don’t even get me started on Sean Connery as Loki. He doesn’t even look like Loki! Where’s his scepter? Had the people who made this movie even read a Marvel comic?

I’m going to watch and write about every movie on IMDb’s Bottom 100 List. This is the first installment.

Review by Jaime Rebanal 🇵🇸 ★★

EDIT 2/9/2024:

Still better than Avengers: Endgame .

Review by pd187 ★★★½ 15

i loved this as a kid & would go around telling ppl its a surrealist masterpiece like a nerd so kinda dreaded a rewatch but even tho its a mess it almost works like toys '92 as a series of weirdo short films, actual experimental cinema bursting with ideas that only 9 or 10% work not just as escher mindfucks & alice-mirrors, monarch doppels & afx cares bcz you do bearsuits but actual spy stuff as well (great intro). mostly frontloads any intentionally weird & creative scenes so the rest is accidentally confusing in a way that stops being interesting around the finale but i love how all this baffling wacko shit gets thrown at you without any audience stand-in like agent-whatever in hellboy going…

Review by megan ½

i was subjected to this film at least 5 times as a child

Review by Wash my coat, but, don't get me wet. ★½

Me and two friends caught this one on TV at 1.30am am, and it was very fun. Pretty much everything about it is dogshit, but it was the most fun I've had watching a movie for a long time. We got really fucked up so I don't really remember much about it, but from what I do remember everything was just presented really awkwardly and everything looked shitty as which added so much to my overall enjoyment. Anyway this is probably my worst review I've ever posted but it's understandable given my current state.

Review by colin... ★

Watched for the podcast.

Me at the beginning of watching: I mean, sure this is corny, but it seems like your average British spy flick thing.

Me the EXACT moment Sean Connery comes onto my screen: Oooohhh. I'M IN DANGER.

Review by TheAzhdarchid ½

Forget Godzilla, this is the worst remake of 1998.

Clunky and obnoxious dialogue that tries too hard to be witty and features even more stupid and annoying quips than the films in the other Avengers series? Check. An inconsistent tone which doesn't know whether the film should be somewhat serious or completely pulpy? Check. An utterly and predictable boring story, which somehow still has only about two actual set-ups and payoffs? Check. Romance scenes so passionless and creepy that they make The Room's sex scenes look masterful in comparison? Check. A villain with the most stupid plan possible? Check. More 180 degree rule breaks than Madame Web? Check. Some of the worst editing in Hollywood history? Check. An opening credits…

Review by PT99 ★

Oh my God, literally shut the fuck up and die.

Review by Jesse ★½ 4

I used to rent this all the time and would never miss a showing on HBO. What was I thinking???

I was balls deep in boredom watching this thing and from the looks of the cast, it looks like they were too. Sean Connery looks lost. Ralph Finnes tries to class up this production. Uma Thurman, why was she cast in this? Everyone looks like they’d rather be doing something else. Gaudy looking special effects are only moderately helped by some decent miniature work. 

If your having trouble sleeping, don’t take Zzzquil or Melatonin, just pop this on and you’ll fall asleep in no time.

Review by MAGE ★★½ 7

There’s this scene in MST3K’s viewing of Mitchell where Joe Don and some random kid are having an inane, childish argument and Tom Servo LOSES IT listening to their grating back-and-forth. Thats pretty much how I felt enduring Fiennes and Thurman’s coy banter this largely forgotten 1998 misfire is positively permeated with. The whole damn script is riddled with asinine one-liners and cutesy double entendres. 

I saw this once in theaters a quarter of a century ago and remember thinking it was a goddamn mess. That’s still pretty much the long and the short of it. It’s kind of entertaining in a baffling-train-wreck sort of way (like Sith Lords for Anakin and Obi-Wan, studio-ending Hollywood clusterfucks are my specialty). 1998’s…

Review by Mark Cunliffe 🇵🇸 ★ 2

If you think that Eddie Izzard and Shaun Ryder as a pair of thuggish henchmen knowingly named Donovan and Bailey, driving a Mini Cooper at high speed along Britain's country lanes and controlling Black Mirror: Hated in the Nation style robotic wasps is all some kind of nightmarish fever dream, then you've never seen the 1998 big screen remake of the classic 60s TV series The Avengers.

And if you've never seen the 1998 big screen remake of the classic 60s TV series The Avengers...well, count yourself very fortunate indeed.

It's been some years since I last subjected myself to this unholy, Razzie-heaped mess, but I was intrigued to revisit it after stumbling across a nice instagram profile devoted to…

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Marvel's the Avengers

2012, Action/Adventure, 2h 23m

What to know

Critics Consensus

Thanks to a script that emphasizes its heroes' humanity and a wealth of superpowered set pieces, The Avengers lives up to its hype and raises the bar for Marvel at the movies. Read critic reviews

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Where to watch marvel's the avengers.

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Marvel's the avengers videos, marvel's the avengers   photos.

When Thor's evil brother, Loki (Tom Hiddleston), gains access to the unlimited power of the energy cube called the Tesseract, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), director of S.H.I.E.L.D., initiates a superhero recruitment effort to defeat the unprecedented threat to Earth. Joining Fury's "dream team" are Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner).

Rating: PG-13 (Intense Sci-Fi Action/Violence|A Mild Drug Reference)

Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Sci-fi

Original Language: English

Director: Joss Whedon

Producer: Kevin Feige

Writer: Joss Whedon

Release Date (Theaters): May 4, 2012  wide

Rerelease Date (Theaters): Aug 31, 2012

Release Date (Streaming): Jun 22, 2014

Runtime: 2h 23m

Distributor: Walt Disney

Production Co: Marvel Studios

View the collection: Marvel Cinematic Universe

Cast & Crew

Robert Downey Jr.

Tony Stark, Iron Man

Chris Evans

Steve Rogers, Captain America

Mark Ruffalo

Bruce Banner, Hulk

Chris Hemsworth

Scarlett Johansson

Natasha Romanoff, The Black Widow

Samuel L. Jackson

Jeremy Renner

Clint Barton, Hawkeye

Tom Hiddleston

Stellan Skarsgård

Professor Erik Selvig

Clark Gregg

Agent Phil Coulson

Gwyneth Paltrow

Pepper Potts

Cobie Smulders

Joss Whedon

Screenwriter

Kevin Feige

Executive Producer

Jon Favreau

Louis D'Esposito

Patricia Whitcher

Victoria Alonso

Jeremy Latcham

Seamus McGarvey

Cinematographer

James Chinlund

Production Design

Alexandra Byrne

Costume Design

Jeffrey Ford

Film Editing

Lisa Lassek

Alan Silvestri

Original Music

News & Interviews for Marvel's the Avengers

The 50 Highest-Grossing Movies of All Time: Your Top Box Office Earners Ever Worldwide

The Best Superhero Movie of Each Year Since 1998

Marvel Movies Ranked Worst to Best by Tomatometer

Critic Reviews for Marvel's the Avengers

Audience reviews for marvel's the avengers.

The Avengers was so much fun and Marvel absolutely nailed it! Let me explain what I loved! Positives: 1. The characters; this is a no brainer! Without these awesome characters this film would be nothing. They honestly shape this film and their banter and chemistry with one another is awesome! There are a lot of humorous as well as heartfelt moments which all lend to an awesome film! 2. The villain; Loki in my opinion is the best villain of the MCU. He has motivation you understand and his rivalry with Thor is mesmerizing! Tom Hiddleston once again does a fantastic job as this character and he was the perfect villain for this movie. 3. The action; all of the action is done well! There is quite a lot of CGI, but it doesn't get in the way of the film, and because of these awesome characters all the action and explosions have weight to them. If these characters hadn't been characterized properly, and it didn't have a well made story then this film would've probably turned out like a Transformers movie. Thankfully that was not the case and all the action was awesome! Overall: I have no cons with this film that I can think of. The Avengers is one of the best comic book films I've ever seen! It is by far one of the best things Marvel has ever done and it was one of the most fun I've had watching a movie! Even if you aren't a comic book fan I guarantee you will enjoy this film! Don't go into this movie expecting a mindless action movie like Transformers, this film is a lot more deep than that.

This is without a doubt the most well-made movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe so far. With the great visionary known as Joss Whedon at the helm and with a lot of rich characters already set up previously in their own solo films (with the exception of Black Widow and Hawkeye, who appeared as secondary characters or cameos in the previous films). It is one of those movies that is always worth watching again and it's definitely deserves the title of one of the highest-grossing films of all time.

Thank's to Joss Whedon's brilliant scripting and directing, The Avengers succeeds as both a stand alone picture and a great ensemble crossover for the fans. The action is non-stop, yes, but after 5 movies of build up I think it's warranted and accepted.

By far the best MCU film and one of the best superhero films of all time. The Avengers is action packed, smart, funny and filled with delicious popcorn fun!

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• Standard DVD

The Avengers (Ultra HD 4K Blu-ray)

Review by: Matt Brighton and Dan Pulliam

Plot: What’s it about?

Well, here it is, folks: a review that may well be the most pointless exercise of my short-lived journalistic career.  Sure, there are films you don’t feel particularly compelled to totally recount in your reviews, but in the case of The Avengers , the question “what’s the point?” simply can’t help but be raised.  I still remember talking with a friend of mine the weekend before all hell broke loose and this behemoth began devouring box office records as if they were candy.  I made the (I thought bold) prediction that The Avengers would be the first film in history to crack $200 million in its first weekend.  He contemplatively shook his head, guessed it was possible, and said “well, we’ll see”.  But I already knew.  I knew because I’d been to the cons.  I’d read the blogs and seen the tweets from a comic book and science fiction and even television community that was collectively and increasingly geeking out in a way that perhaps it never had.  The Marvel brand had played its cards absolutely beautifully.  They’d strung together a series of lead-in films that were pretty much all terrific popcorn entertainment, and a few that were actually very strong films in their own right.  But somehow there didn’t seem to be a truly rotten apple in the bunch.  It was all building to something more, something larger, something more amazing than anything we could possibly anticipate.  If all this sounds a bit hyperbolic, it’s only because we’re all lying now at the bottom of the ruins left by the crashing wave that reached its greatest crest of sci-fi geek anticipatory glee last summer.  This was truly the “Summer of Batman” for a new generation.

We can all look back now with 20/20 hindsight and see just how genius the marketing strategy for The Avenger s was.  This was the ultimate long con, played on an audience increasingly caught up in immediate and ever-emptier cinematic gratification.  With “The Incredible Hulk”, “Iron Man”, “Captain America” and “Thor”, each of these heroes were thrust back into contemporary, mainstream pop culture in a way that, looking back now, seems almost effortless and inevitable.  Even if you hadn’t seen one of these films, you were of course aware of each of them.  You didn’t need to see “Captain America” to know who Captain America was.  But you knew there was a movie out there about him, and you knew it was a big deal.  And that fact alone made the character socially relevant again.  Even people who weren’t really paying much attention sensed the surging tide of superhero films at large, and it was simply unstoppable.  That trend wasn’t going anywhere, and people were more than interested in where this was all headed.  The sole question left was just how amazing this movie that it was all building toward would have to be.  As anticipation grew linearly, expectations seemed to heighten exponentially.  Nothing could pay off the carrot that Marvel had dared dangle for so long.  Nothing could possibly please nearly everyone at this point.  The stakes had been raised to stratospheric levels.  Pulling this off was going to take nothing even an inch short of a miracle.

The Avengers was a miracle.  It certainly wasn’t the smartest blockbuster of the summer, it didn’t carry the substantive weight of the truly great achievements in comic book movies like “The Dark Knight”, and it wasn’t even ashamed enough about being a comic book superhero movie to ground itself in neo-noir, gritty realism.  And the fans ate it up.  Then they came back for seconds.  Finally, here was a comic book film made for comic book fans that made absolutely no excuses for what it was.  It relished in being colorful, light, bombastic, and in throwing everything but the kitchen sink at you in an audacious attempt to shake you from your apathy at seeing too many sinks in too many other blockbusters.  I sat in that theater opening weekend with the biggest smile plastered across my face I can ever remember having at the movies.  Somehow, every character got their chance to shine, with no one being particularly short-changed.  Somehow, the writing was sharp and the action rousing.  Somehow, it all came together and we were given one of the best, most crowd-pleasing pieces of entertainment I’d ever seen.  It was the kind of movie that was so much darned fun to watch that you simply had to go tell everyone you knew about it and drag them back to share the experience to prove to yourself that you weren’t crazy.  Would they react as positively as you had?  Would they laugh at the same moments?  Would they think the same things were awesome?  Well the rest, as they say, was history…and a truckload of money in the bank.  And while the younger generation would soon be watching the film, mouths agape with wonder, it was we aging geeks everywhere around the world, staring up at the magic brought so fantastically back to the big screen who knew the truth.  Our hero wasn’t any one of The Avengers.  It was Joss Whedon.

Video: How does it look?

The Avengers finds its way to the Ultra HD/4K format sporting a 1.78:1 HEVC transfer that’s nothing short of amazing.  Having said that, the film simply embodies anything and everything that can be associated with an outstanding image.  The detail is second to none, contrast and black levels are rock solid, obviously there are a lot of CGI shots and all look down right amazing.  So what’s the catch?  There isn’t one.  If you’re looking for a movie to put in your player and show whoever happens to be watching an outstanding picture – look no further. Additionally, the inclusion of HDR has given a bit more “pop” to the film as can/should be expected for anything on the 4K format. This is one good-looking movie.

Audio: How does it sound?

The previously-released DTS HD Master Audio sound mix has been usurped by the new Dolby Atmos mix. It is the epitome of what an uncompressed soundtrack should (and does) sound like.  Simply put, it just blows you away.  Do you have a subwoofer?  Yes?  Good.  No?  Go buy one.  The LFE are so active in this movie you’re doing yourself an injustice is your room doesn’t shake.  Vocals, for what they’re worth, sound clear and precise.  Surrounds are so ridiculously active that I don’t think I ever heard them stop humming.  Bangs, booms and everything in between are covered here and I’m probably running out of things to say that exemplify how good this soundtrack is.  Granted, it does suffer, a bit, from the “Disney mix” in that it’s a bit shallow and never quite seems to reach its full potential in some areas. That’s me being nit-pickcy, though. Sit back, relax and enjoy it.

Supplements: What are the extras?

While the Ultra HD disc contains no supplements, the included Blu-ray carries over all of the supplements from the previously-released disc. Nothing new has been added, of course.

Disc One (Ultra HD 4K Blu-ray)

Disc Two (Blu-ray)

• Marvel’s  The Avengers : A Second Screen Experience – A feature that’s present on some other Buena Vista titles is the Second Screen experience so while watching, fire up your iPad or iPhone (or any other device) and you’ll be treated to some information about what’s going on screen.
• Audio Commentary – Director and ultimate fanboy Joss Whedon who manages to keep the track entertaining for the duration of the film.  He’s got a very dry sense of humor and it makes for a very informative, yet entertaining, listen.
• Marvel One-Shot: Item 47 – In this 11 minute feature, two thieves stumble onto a piece of gadgetry that might prove to be just a little more than they bargained for.
• Gag Reel – Shenanigans on the set – Avengers style!
• Deleted & Extended Scenes – Eight deleted and extended scenes are included.
• A Visual Journey – Director Joss Whedon discusses some of the things he wanted to accomplish visually with the film. I’d say he succeeded.
• Assembling the Ultimate Team – A look at the robust cast in the film. Little did they know it would pale in comparison to the forthcoming sequels.
• Music Video : “Live to Rise” by Soundgarden

The Bottom Line

The Avengers showed the world that the Marvel Cinematic Universe was here and here to stay. Even at that point in time, there was no stopping the MCU. Since its release we’ve now been treated to two other Avengers movies (with more on the way). This 4K release was wisely released with The Avengers: Infinity War , but for those that want and/need a 4K counterpart to all their MCU films – you’re one step closer.

Disc Scores

• Video Codec: HEVC (H.265)
• Audio: Dolby Atmos
• Theatrical Trailer
• Audio Commentary
• Deleted Scene(s)
• Documentary
• Digital Copy

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Thursday, March 29, 2012

The avengers (1998): a review, no comments:, post a comment.

Views are always welcome, but I would ask that no vulgarity be used. Any posts that contain foul language or are bigoted in any way will not be posted. Thank you.

Avengers (1998) – movie review

Movie Review by Nigel A. Messenger

Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Uma Thurman, Sean Connery, Jim Broadbent Director: Jeremiah S Chechik

Loads of potential ” so what happened?

The Avengers TV series was a cult classic. John Steed (Patrick McNee) has three female partners throughout the original series and a fourth, Purdey (Joanna Lumley) in the revival series ‘The New Avengers’.

The movie when it was finally made was awaited with huge expectations, the fan base was there, the famous Avengers music was at hand, so why did it end up like this?

I have to say, don’t believe everything you’ve heard about the movie version, critics love to pull films apart and given the chance to lay into a cult classis is just too irresistible for most. The ‘Avengers’ movie does try to follow the theme of the series, which had many weird and unusual episodes, but it just doesn’t really come together.

The new Steed (Ralph Fiennes) does seem to try to copy some of the mannerisms and attitude of the original character and to some extent and to some degree succeeds. The new Emma Peel (Uma Thurman), the partner picked out of Steed’s original four for the movie also does a fairly good impersonation of the original except the wrong original. Uma Thurman seems to be playing Purdey from the ‘New Avengers series! This is no bad thing as it ’happens but why not call the character Purdey. Sean Connery playing the villain is just about acceptable.but only because Connery can act.

The visual weirdness does not really work though and in this respect the film should have been updated to reflect what a modern Avengers should be, in a way that’s more acceptable to the audience. The storyline of Sean Connery’s character taking control of the weather and holding the world to ransom is so thin it’s transparent and any Bond movie (or Austin Powers) has done this better by a mile.

But when it really comes down to it, Ralph Fiennes although he tries just does not make an acceptable Stead, and this with the extremely poor storyline is the movie’s failing.

Ironically Patrick McNee does play the part of an invisible man, so if he was available why not make the movie a follow on to where the New Avengers series left off just as the ‘Mission Impossible’ franchise has done? Why not get Patrick McNee’s ‘Stead’ to take on a more senior lead character. Part the character with a new female lead, possibly Uma Thurman who can do a lot better than she does here and what have you got……a brand new ‘Avengers’ movie franchise.

This could still happen. Do what the ‘Highlander’ franchise has done and ignore this movie that didn’t work, pretend it didn’t happen and make another one.

Go on just get on with it, the fans are waiting.

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10 controversial avengers movie moments that divide fans most.

Although The Avengers films are among the most beloved in the MCU, they contain 10 notable moments that divided viewers.

• The Avengers films divided fans with controversial moments, touching on source material changes and character choices.
• Wanda & Pietro's altered backstories and Smart Hulk's introduction sparked debate among viewers over MCU adaptations.
• Endgame featured divisive decisions, from Thor's comedic portrayal to Steve Rogers passing down his shield.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe ’s Avengers films may have made the superhero film genre a dominant force in pop culture, but the series has plenty of controversial moments that divided viewers. Marvel’s in-house film studio, Marvel Studios, gradually built its shared movie universe, starting the MCU timeline with 2008’s Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk and eventually leading to 2012’s The Avengers , an overwhelming success that popularized comic book-style shared universe storytelling. While the success of the MCU in general and the Avengers films in particular changed the film industry, the movies are not without their share of controversies.

2012’s The Avengers was a massive crowd-pleaser, leading to two more Phases in what would be known as the MCU’s Infinity Saga . The following two Phases would see the Avengers roster significantly grow as the overarching narrative gradually brought them toward their ultimate conflict with Thanos . The following three Avengers movies – Avengers: Age of Ultron , Avengers: Infinity War , and Avengers: Endgame – would each feature moments that divided fans, due to factors like source material changes or questionable choices for major characters.

All Avengers movies are available to watch on Disney+

All Marvel Movies Releasing In 2024

10 wanda & pietro maximoff’s new backstories, whitewashed jewish characters & left little room for them to be retconned into mutants, avengers: age of ultron.

After a post-credits tease at the end of Captain America: The Winter Soldier , Age of Ultron introduced the twins Wanda and Pietro Maximoff, better known in the comics as the mutant children of Magneto, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. The two were welcome additions to the MCU, with viewers and critics praising the performances of Elizabeth Olsen and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, respectively, yet the twins underwent major changes from their comic incarnations, one unavoidable and the other perpetuating a harmful trend in the film industry.

Wanda and Pietro had their ethnic Jewish and Romani identities erased in Age of Ultron , with only Pietro being played by a Jewish actor and both being rewritten as members of the nazi-aligned terrorist group Hydra for a time. While some viewers took issue with this, many ignored this change. The Twins no being longer mutants was similarly controversial, with some being indifferent to the change – since Marvel Studios did not have the rights to connect them to the X-Men – and others lamenting it since a vaguer origin would have left room for them to eventually be retconned as mutants.

Marvel's Fantastic Four Casting Announcement Finally Breaks A 19 Year Old Casting Trend

9 ultron’s tony stark-like quips, a departure from the comics that made him a unique take on the character.

In Marvel’s comics, Ultron is one of The Avengers’ greatest threats, requiring the combined efforts of the entire team to stop his many world-threatening schemes. Age of Ultron reimagined its titular villain in numerous ways, including reconfiguring him as the creation of Tony Stark and Bruce Banner rather than Hank Pym . With Ultron’s co-creation by Stark also came a significant change to his cold and calculating demeanor.

Voiced by James Spader, the MCU’s Ultron is depicted as somewhat of a foil to Tony Stark, sharing Stark’s witticisms. Of course, many viewers handwaved this change, since Ultron was still a menacing figure in the film whose new personality humanized him and made him a unique take on the classic villain . Others, however, took issue with Ultron’s significant departure from the source material and yet another quippy character in a film already full of snarky heroes.

8 Black Widow & The Hulk’s Romance

Was this relationship underdeveloped.

Age of Ultron also divided viewers with its romantic subplot for Black Widow and Bruce Banner. Throughout the film, Black Widow is tasked with turning The Hulk back into Banner and the two gradually form a romance that is, of course, doomed by the end. There was the kernel of a genuinely good romance for the two in Age of Ultron , but some viewers nevertheless took issue with it.

Critics of Natasha and Bruce’s romance feel that the subplot was rushed and underdeveloped. Moreover, Bruce Banner already had an established romance with Betty Ross in his The Incredible Hulk debut, making the subplot even more out of place . Viewers who appreciate the romance cite Bruce and Natasha’s conversation in Avengers Tower, noting that Bruce’s kindness and aversion to violence (all things considered) draw the two together.

7 Black Widow Calling Herself A “Monster”

Arguably age of ultron’s most controversial moment.

her inability to have children is what she considers monstrous

Possibly the most controversial moment in Age of Ultron comes from another conversation between Black Widow and Bruce Banner. Natasha explains to Bruce that her training and indoctrination in the Black Widow Program also included involuntary sterilization , referring to herself as a “monster” seemingly for her infertility. The moment has been widely criticized as extremely reductive to Black Widow’s character, especially when combined with her arguably out-of-nowhere romantic subplot with Banner.

Critics of the scene do not necessarily take issue with Black Widow mourning the lost potential for a family, but rather that, of all the horrific circumstances involved with her history as a Soviet spy and assassin, her inability to have children is what she considers monstrous. Black Widow’s problematic portrayal is exacerbated by the fact that she also happens to be the one tasked with reigning in The Hulk . Viewers do defend Natasha’s line, taking her self-description as referring to the entirety of her sordid past rather than exclusively her infertility.

6 Shuri & Bruce Banner Discuss Vision

Was this infinity war moment disrespectful, avengers: the infinity war.

Infinity War saw key MCU characters interact for the first time, with one notable scene involving Bruce Banner, Vision, and Shuri. Bringing Vision to Wakanda to have the Mind Stone safely removed from his head, Banner notes the task’s difficulty . Shuri quickly figures out a method that, while complex and time-consuming, could remove the Mind Stone without harming Vision.

Banner is surprised by the ease at which Shuri solves the conundrum, to which she quips “ I’m sure you did your best .” Shuri’s witticism is consistent with the way she is portrayed in 2018’s Black Panther : a snarky super genius whose confidence occasionally becomes cockiness (not unlike Tony Stark) . Some, however, felt that the scene – particularly the line – perhaps needlessly trounced one of the original Avengers heroes, even if Shuri is canonically the smarter of the two.

5 Star-Lord Attacks Thanos

Consistent characterization or lazy writing.

Some viewers argue that the moment was a lazy way for the heroes to fail

One of the tensest scenes in Infinity War involves a small group of Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy devising a plan to remove the Infinity Gauntlet from Thanos. The coordinated attack nearly works, but the revelation that Thanos killed Gamora causes Star-Lord to lash out and attack Thanos , interrupting his allies and allowing the Mad Titans to regain the Gauntlet. The moment was extremely frustrating for many viewers, considering how close the heroes came to defeating Thanos, yet how accurate it was to Star-Lord’s character is another matter.

Some viewers argue that the moment was a lazy way for the heroes to fail, while others believe that Star-Lord’s outburst was consistent with his established characterization. The latter argument uses Star-Lord’s well-established love for Gamora and mission to rescue her as evidence . Moreover, Star-Lord has a proven track record of impulsivity in the previous Guardians of the Galaxy films.

4 Bruce Banner & The Hulk Become “Smart Hulk”

What some see as natural progression, others see as an unsatisfying resolution, avengers: endgame.

Following the five-year time jump in Endgame , a new form for Bruce Banner is revealed: Smart Hulk. Combining his two personas, Smart Hulk has Bruce Banner’s intelligence and The Hulk’s strength, allowing him to utilize all his skills within The Avengers . The new Smart Hulk persona is one of Endgame’s many sources of humor, and it allows Banner to undo Thanos’s omnicidal use of the Infinity Stones since Banner can survive the gamma radiation in his Smart Hulk form.

Smart Hulk’s introduction, however, did divide viewers, even with his role in the plot and comic relief. A large part of the appeal of both The Hulk and Bruce Banner is their duality and the latter’s attempts to reconcile with and control the former . Smart Hulk arguably removed this element of Banner’s character without earning it.

3 Thor’s Downward Spiral Into “Bro Thor”

Thor’s infinity war progression was arguably undone.

Viewers were, for the most part, pleased with Thor: Ragnarok’s drastically different take on Thor and the Thor mythos, but Infinity War , thankfully, brought much-needed gravitas back to Thor’s character. After the five-year time jump in Endgame , however, Thor was once again a parody of himself , with the MCU doubling down on Taika Waititi’s interpretation of Thor. Most viewers considered Thor’s following appearance in Thor: Love and Thunder – which took the comedy even further – to be a bridge too far, and some saw the writing on the wall with Endgame’s “ Bro Thor .”

Endgame arguably takes the Waititi-style comedy too far with Thor, undermining the goodwill he and his side of the MCU built with viewers since their collective debut in 2011’s Thor . Thor’s character trajectory in Infinity War , which put him back on track, was debatably tarnished for the sake of cheap laughs in Endgame , which some longtime Thor viewers took issue with. Others defended – or at least forgave – “ Bro Thor ” by citing his worthiness of Mjolnir and his satisfying final confrontation with Thanos.

2 Avengers: Endgame’s Heroine Ensemble

Was it too overt.

The brief yet cathartic moment pleased many viewers, while others criticized it

In Endgame’s action-packed finale, nearly the entirety of the MCU’s established pantheon of heroes battle Thanos and his minions to prevent him from using the Infinity Stones again. In one notable moment, all living MCU heroines gather to defend Spider-Man (the temporary custodian of the Infinity Gauntlet) . The brief yet cathartic moment pleased many viewers, while others criticized it.

The MCU has gradually diversified its properties and characters over the years – though Age of Ultron and the more recent Moon Knight have shown that there is still plenty of room for improvement. This moment in Endgame highlighted how far the franchise had come by 2019 , yet despite its good intentions, some viewers criticized it, feeling it was too overt.

1 Steve Rogers Passes Down His Shield To Sam Wilson

Would bucky have been any less controversial.

In one of Endgame’s final scenes, Steve Rogers passes down his shield – and thus the title of Captain America – to a successor: Sam Wilson. This touching moment closed the book on Rogers’s MCU story and set up a bright future for another beloved MCU hero . For better or worse, there would have been controversy no matter who Rogers chose as his successor, and many viewers felt that Bucky would have been a more appropriate choice for the next Captain America.

In Marvel’s comics, both Bucky Barnes and Sam Wilson have wielded the shield as Captain America at different points, so Endgame would have been loosely adapting the source material with either one . If Bucky had been chosen as the next Captain America, there likely would have been just as much division among viewers who would have wished to see Sam Wilson succeed Steve Rogers. Both heroes have well-established friendships with Steve Rogers and the necessary qualities to use his shield and lead The Avengers in his place.

The Avengers

The sixth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers is an action superhero film that sees the heroes assembled across the franchise face off with a deadly galactic threat. With the arrival of Thor's brother, Loki, heroes such as Captain America, The Hulk, Iron Man, and Black Widow are brought together to stop him from unleashing an alien race upon earth.

Key Release Dates

Deadpool & wolverine, thunderbolts (2025), the fantastic four (2025), avengers: the kang dynasty, avengers: secret wars.

X-Men '97 Spoiled An Avengers Cameo That Could Be More Dangerous Than It Seems

"X-Men '97" Season 1 has wasted no time upping the narrative ante, proving itself a strong continuation of the trend-setting "X-Men: The Animated Series." In a mere few episodes, there's team infighting, clashing ideologies, love triangles, and, sadly, loss of life. Not to mention, it has even tossed in some fun Easter eggs, such as a cameo from series creator Beau DeMayo -- despite his firing -- and a secret "What If...?" cameo that could change everything . A new teaser has even spoiled the appearance of an Avengers staple whose presence could mean dangerous things for the X-Men and their allies.

In a teaser posted by Marvel Studios on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Captain America's shield is shown buried in snow-covered ground. While this could be nothing more than a cameo by the Star-Spangled Man himself, there could be more to the story. With a conflict between mutants and humanity seemingly inevitable, and Jean Grey's (Jennifer Hale) sudden return, it's entirely possible the X-Men could come to blows with the Avengers a la the 2012 Marvel Comics crossover event "Avengers vs. X-Men." In the story, the two teams clash over their views of the Phoenix Force -- which very much exists in the "X-Men '97" continuity -- and what its existence means for the future of Earth. Perhaps this could even be folded into the ongoing "E for Extinction" and potentially Krakoa era-inspired story.

It'll be interesting to see what this Captain America tease leads to on "X-Men '97." In the meantime, it's worth looking back at Cap's history in this animated universe.

Read more: 20 Strongest Superheroes Ever, Ranked

Captain America Has Appeared In The X-Men '97 Continuity Before

"X-Men: The Animated Series" had a lot on its plate during its run from 1992 to 1997. It took time and effort to develop each member of the team, their numerous enemies, and those on the sidelines who occasionally get swept up in the action. Still, the minds behind the program managed to toss in other Marvel icons from time to time. Among these individuals was Captain America (Lawrence Bayne), who gets a spotlight in the Season 5 episode titled "Old Soldiers" -- an episode dedicated to his and Wolverine's (Cal Dodd) World War II exploits.

The bulk of the episode is shown through flashbacks, where Logan recalls a mission he took part in way back in 1944. Cap joins him, even coming up against his greatest adversary and one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's most unlikable villains, Red Skull (Cedric Smith), before he's trapped in a vortex. According to other animated Marvel shows of the era set in the same universe, notably "Spider-Man: The Animated Series," Cap eventually escapes the vortex to live in the modern era. Thus, it only makes sense that he's fair game to appear in "X-Men '97" and maybe lead the Avengers.

Time will tell what's in store for the animated Captain America and the X-Men as "X-Men '97" Season 1 continues.

Read the original article on Looper

The Sympathizer Review

There’s nothing to sympathize with here..

The Sympathizer premieres April 14 at 9 p.m. Eastern on HBO and Max, with new episodes airing on Sundays.

The protagonist of the new HBO series The Sympathizer is haunted by a recurring question: “Is this necessary?” Every new task he undertakes in his role as a North Vietnamese communist plant within the South Vietnamese secret police: Is this necessary? The atrocities he witnesses while straddling the line of the conflict known alternately as The Vietnam War and The American War: Is this necessary? The ordeal of re-education, the casual racism of his U.S. contacts, the tests of his loyalty: Is this necessary? Unfortunately, the same question doesn’t seem to have occurred to creators Park Chan-wook and Don McKellar. And so, as viewers weather The Sympathizer’s jarring tonal shifts, detrimental departures from its source material, and the miscalculations of Robert Downey Jr.’s multi-part performance, they just might ask themselves: Is this necessary?

Told in flashback, The Sympathizer centers on an unnamed double agent known only – as he is in Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel – as “The Captain” (Hoa Xuande). As the espionage thriller and culture-clash satire follows The Captain from childhood to his employment with the CIA and South Vietnamese government to the Fall of Saigon and life as a refugee in Los Angeles, it suffers from a lack of cohesion and off-kilter pacing. In a standout performance, Xuande exudes the wit and charisma one expects from a spy and a “man of two faces,” which in this story means a variety of things: his biracial identity as the son of a Vietnamese mother and a French father, his commitment to his “blood brothers” (one a South Vietnamese soldier and the other a communist comrade), and figuring out his place in both his home country and the United States following the Vietnam War.

The Sympathizer Gallery

Much of The Sympathizer’s own identity crisis comes down to its succession of directors. Co-showrunner Park takes the first three episodes, which feel like a completely different series from the rest in their emphasis on the novel’s satirical edge. Things pick up in the Fernando Meirelles-directed fourth episode, which finds The Captain working in Hollywood as a cultural consultant on The Hamlet, a movie set during the Vietnam War. But it isn’t until Marc Munden comes on for the home stretch of Episodes 5 through 7 that the series finds a good balance between grim humor and the reality of the Vietnamese refugee experience.

Though Park’s attention to detail is stellar, his sardonic direction overlooks the characters' deep and dark layers of emotional loss and trauma. During a scene where Vietnamese soldiers flee an attack by the Viet Cong, there’s a vibrant backdrop of colors, indirectly calling out romanticized Hollywood visions of war. It’s a clever idea (and one that ties back to Nguyen’s initial inspirations for The Sympathizer as well as Meirelles’ superior Episode 4), but it takes away from the human element of the moment. The Captain’s childhood best friend, Bon (played by a graceful Fred Nguyen Khan) suffers tremendous losses as he flees the country, yet it’s hard to focus on this moment of despair amid the cinematic trappings. Under Munden’s direction, the series finally gives a face to the painful, lingering aftermath of the war. As the Captain becomes more invested in American culture – as a result of his relationship with his Japanese American boss, Miss Mori (the always fantastic Sandra Oh), and a yearning for Vietnamese representation in American media – he struggles to reconnect to his communist ideals.

What's your favorite Park Chan-wook movie?

While the series hews closely to the novel, it takes some creative liberties to fit such hefty themes into seven episodes. Tasking Robert Downey Jr. with playing amalgams of the book’s minor white characters makes thematic sense, but the changes involving Asian characters feel out of place. Some of what Nguyen wrote for Bon is given to The Captain instead, advancing the latter’s story while diminishing the former’s role as a symbol of the damage wrought by history. Meanwhile, a tweak to the casting of The Hamlet undermines The Sympathizer’s barbed commentary on studio executives who view all Asian actors as interchangeable.

Sadly, Downey’s role – or rather, roles – is the series’ most disappointing. Park had envisioned Downey playing various white characters in The Sympathizer, a flip of the film-industry bigotry spoofed in the Hamlet subplot. Besides: These white characters represent the problems and obstacles of the Vietnamese people, so why shouldn’t they all be played by the same guy? But this particular guy chose to go full Tropic Thunder , dialing up the absurdity in his personification of inane, racist ideals. Opposite the more grounded characterization and performances of Xuande and Khan, it just doesn’t work – particularly in the cumbersome, Nutty Professor -esque dinner scene that pits Xuande against four Downeys.

These characters are meant to be caricatures, but they didn’t have to lapse into ugly stereotypes like The Captain’s former professor, Dr. Avery Wright Hammer. Though Downey has respectfully played gay characters before, his portrayal of Hammer deploys exaggerated effeminate mannerisms to an uncomfortable, distracting degree. Hammer engages in racist exchanges with Mori and fetishizes Asian culture, but none of that is as offensive as how Downey plays him.

The Sympathizer is a complex story that’s difficult to tell in such a short span of time. Though the main cast gives strong performances and the novel’s main theme of dual identity is present throughout, there’s still something off about the series. The tragic events and aftermath of the Fall of Saigon left many Vietnamese people displaced and largely forgotten in the Western world, yet through Nguyen’s words, they are given a voice and visibility in their plight. McKellar and Park’s series only tackles the topic at a surface level, focusing on aesthetics and dark humor rather than people.

The Sympathizer has the makings of a successful limited series: a prominent Asian filmmaker as a co-showrunner, an Academy Award-winning actor playing multiple roles, and actors of Vietnamese descent leading a story steeped in the Vietnam War and its aftermath. But it fails to deliver a cohesive and thoughtful story. While Hoa Xuande and Fred Nguyen Khan stand out in their roles, The Sympathizer does a disservice to its source material by leaving out specific themes and key plots that leave the characters feeling empty.

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