Saturday Matinee - The Avengers

Well unless you have been hiding in a cave for the past month, you will probably have heard about the release of Marvel's Avengers Assemble and if like me you have teenage boys, then it is a must see.  Not that I had any problem with going to see it you understand, but at their age I watched the original Star Wars movie and this may be the same kind of watershed moment that comes along so rarely.

Actually I am not brave enough to suggest that this will match the longevity of Star Wars, but if anything can then this is it.

The film revolves around the assembly of Earth's greatest Superheroes in an attempt to defeat an alien invasion led by a rather powerful chap named Loki.  You will probably be familiar with most of the main characters, Iron Man, Captain America, the Hulk and Thor being the best known, Loki is actually Thor's brother, which if you have seen the earlier films will make perfect sense.

In fact what Marvel have done is to link up their recent films to create this blockbuster, which appears to be something that they have had in mind for sometime.  Certainly the recent Captain America film had several clever touches to bring it into line with what was to come, the introduction of Stark senior, Iron Man's dad and the appearance of Samuel L Jackson's character at the end, were obviously included with this in mind.

However none of this detracts from the quality and fun of this film.  It has a strong story line, combined with plenty of action and plenty of Iron Man's trademark dry humour from Robert Downey Jr.  My eldest son thought it started a bit slowly, but in many ways that was due to the need to draw all of the threads together in the story.

Once it gets going though it is pretty much non-stop action which keeps you on the edge of your seat.  There are a few twists along the way to keep you guessing and there is never any sense that victory for the Avengers is a done deal, although you may have your suspicions.

Overall a great film, hopefully there will be more, ideal for teenagers and forty six year old's, well I enjoyed it anyway.  In fact my only disappointment is that people might think it slightly strange if I start running around the garden with my homemade Captain America shield, don't laugh you're going to want one as well after seeing this.

Have a great weekend

Drew.