The Avengers

Smashing! That’s what I say. Marvel Comics come to life, what was anyone thinking! Superheroes, dynamic duos, big green guys who bounce off walls and crush aliens like flies? Absolutely loved the fact that this bunch of unlikely collaborators: Captain America, Ironman, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Thor and The Incredible Hulk; come together and deliver the goods many times over. It’s a great start to the summer movie season, even though you couldn’t prove it by the weather here in the Great Northwest as anything more than a very soggy spring. We’ve sprung a leak and so has the sky by bringing back Thor’s nasty old adopted bro—Loki-- to wreak havoc on Earth. Gadzooks, how will he ever be stopped from destroying life as we know it and most of Manhattan in the process? All of the players: Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury), Robert Downey Jr. (Tony Stark/Ironman), Scarlett Johansson (Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow), Chris Evans (Steve Rogers/Captain America), Mark Ruffalo (Bruce Banner/The Hulk), Jeremy Renner (Clint Barton/Hawkeye), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Tom Hiddleston (Loki and Johnny Weir’s Irish twin), Clark Gregg (S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Phil Coulson), Colbie Smulders (S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Maria Hill), and bringing up the rear, Stellan Skarsgard (Dr. Selvig) rip a new one in the space/time continuum. Comicon will be having a field day with all of the characters, actors, and writers trying to find out what’s next, much like the comic books that this film is drawn from (sorry, that was a pun). Not recommended for small children and even though it’s difficult for some people to realize that your five year old doesn’t get it as being a fantasy, they do see violence, blood, destruction of tall buildings and in this case, the aftermath, as very real and scary. So parents, even though it’s from a comic book, remember, it’s rated PG-13 for a very good reason. We had to convince my brother that flying monkeys weren’t real, too. His comment, and I quote, “It’s only trick fertography, it’s only trick fertography” as he went running out of the room scared out of his mind. I’m also one of those people who don’t leave until the credits are completely over. You never know what you might see before the last logo hits the screen. Just sayin’. Rating: to the moon, Alice – 4 stars and stripes