The kind of superhuman effort it must have taken to coordinate the schedules of the major actors so they could participate in Marvel’s The Avengers would be worthy of Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, the Hulk, Hawkeye, and the Black Widow’s powers combined. Marvel’s epic assemblage of their top tier superheroes doesn’t disappoint in terms of the overall action and eye-popping stunts of the power players, but there are only glimmers of the humanity and character investigation with the team members present in this herculean group effort. One must ultimately wait for their next individual film adventures in order to delve more deeply into the inner recesses of their souls and minds.
Marvel’s The Avengers 3D (Blu-ray Combo Pack)
Directed by Joss Whedon
Studio: Marvel/Disney/Paramount
Year: 2012
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 1080p AVC codec
Running Time: 143 minutes
Rating: PG-13
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 English; DTS-HD HR 7.1 French; Dolby Digital 5.1 Spanish
Subtitles: SDH, French, Spanish
Region: no designation
MSRP: $ 49.99
Release Date: September 25, 2012
Review Date: September 24, 2012
The Film
4/5
Worldwide global immolation is imminent when the Tesseract, a cube of unfathomable energy, is stolen by Thor’s (Chris Hemsworth) brooding, black sheep brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston). Against the wishes of the murky governing body S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) assembles an eclectic bunch of superheroes: Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor, the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) to retrieve the cube and prevent whatever dastardly warlike plan Loki is hatching with the aid of Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Professor Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard), both of whom have been hypnotized into following Loki’s master plan. But the superheroes’ differing views of handling crises bring them into direct conflict with one another, and with their lack of a united front, Loki is easily able to set his plan for world domination into motion.
With all of his principal heroes and the film’s major villain already introduced in prior films (though Black Widow and Hawkeye were only briefly seen in the others’ franchise entries), co-writer/director Joss Whedon doesn’t have to waste an inordinate amount of time on backstory, all the better to get things hopping early with Loki’s assault on a couple of good guys and turning them to his own Dark Side (or in this case Blue Side). Viewers will have their favorites among the heroes, but the initial face-offs between the snarky, self-involved Tony Stark/Iron Man and the painfully forthright and patriotic Steve Rogers/Captain America give the film just the right amount of dry humor and groundedness. And the age-old questions about who would beat whom in a fight end in stalemates time and again as each hero’s strengths often works to the advantage of the others. With so much of the movie involving face-offs and battles and full-out destruction, it’s to director Whedon’s credit that these scenes don’t run on too long or become the movie’s only reason for existing. And even in the midst of the most serious moments can come something hilarious like the Hulk’s one punch response to one of his compatriots or Loki's being forcefully slammed into submission with a subsequent groan. And Whedon is wise enough to know there have to be casualties among the good guys, a sad but inevitable fact which also gives the film some additional grounding in reality amidst the overpowering fantasy elements.
With most of the actors already adept in their parts, it goes without saying that Robert Downey, Jr.’s martini-dry way with a line and Chris Evans’s forthright earnestness remain tremendously appealing. Mark Ruffalo’s first turn as Bruce Banner/the Hulk after two previous actors each had a go is very effective and makes one eager for him to get his own franchise entry. Chris Hemsworth makes for a realistic, very god-like Thor, and Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury is as commanding as Jackson typically is with most of his roles. Scarlett Johansson fits right in with the boys amid the tumult and testosterone of her surroundings while Jeremy Renner is fine if just a trifle underwhelming as Hawkeye. Clark Gregg and Cobie Smulders as S.H.I.E.L.D. agents each handle the roles with aplomb.
Video Quality
4.5/5
3D implementation - 4/5
The film has been framed for home video at 1.78:1 and is presented in 1080p using the AVC codec. Sharpness and clarity are superlative throughout the presentation, and color is dynamic but always under control even with the vivid colors of Captain America’s uniform or Tony Stark’s armored suit. Flesh tones are always realistic and persistently appealing. Black levels are superb and really help the darker images to pop even watching in 3D while wearing polarized glasses. There’s just a touch of aliasing and a bit of moiré in tight line structures which prevent the image from being reference quality. But those moments are very few and not intrusive. The film has been divided into 20 chapters.
Though Whedon began filming in real 3D, he quickly balked at the cumbersome set-ups and opted for 3D conversion for the movie. The sense of depth within the frame is quite often very startling and gives the heli-carrier set an almost infinite sense of space. There’s interesting placement of people and objects on separate planes, too, which makes for arresting compositions. Subtitles also seem to float impishly in front of our eyes when they appear. The many places where outward projections would have worked spectacularly in real 3D (Loki’s spear and horned helmet, rifles and arrows, sparks, broken glass, and tons of destroyed buildings and vehicles with pieces flying everywhere) are all pretty much missed opportunities. Little to no crosstalk was glimpsed during the film's running time.
Audio Quality
5/5
The DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 sound mix will not disappoint offering a three dimensional soundfield that’s completely immersive and involving. Split effects are a common occurrence throughout the running time of the movie, and the LFE channel gets a thorough workout with thundering bass at quite frequent intervals. Alan Silvestri’s music enhances the action rather than distracts from it. Dialogue has been superbly recorded and is always intelligible residing in the center channel.
Special Features
3.5/5
The 3D disc contains no bonus features at all, not even a 3D trailer for the film.
The bonus features are contained on the 2D Blu-ray disc in the case (layered below the 3D disc in the package I received). The video supplements are all in 1080p.
The audio commentary by Joss Whedon is comprehensive. He keeps a steady stream of chatter going about all aspects of the filming which fans of the movie will certainly want to hear.
An Easter egg on the left of the “Play Movie” button brings up a screen of dossiers on each of the principal characters of interest to S.H.I.E.L.D.
“Marvel One Shot: Item 47” is an 11 ¾-minute short with a follow-up adventure featuring a weapon from the film proper in the hands of two bandits.
The gag reel (according to the liner notes, the first ever for a Marvel film) runs 4 minutes.
There are eight deleted/extended scenes which can be viewed individually or in one 15-minute grouping.
“A Visual Journey” features director Joss Whedon, three producers, co-stars Samuel L. Jackson and Scarlett Johansson, and cinematographer Seamus McGarvey discussing the look of the film, particularly the use of a real NASA location and the heli-carrier set where much of the action in the film’s first half occurs. It runs 6 ½ minutes.
“Assembling the Ultimate Team” is a love letter for the actors as each of the principal stars of the film shower affection on one another’s talents in this 8 ¼-minute puff piece.
“Live to Rise” music video is performed by Soundgarden and runs 4 ¾ minutes.
The movie also offers the Second Screen experience for those with iPads, iPhones, or computers synched to the movie.
The Blu-ray disc has promo trailers for Frankenweenie and other Marvel-related films and discs.
The third disc in the set is the DVD copy of the movie.
The fourth disc in the set is the digital copy of the movie/digital album with an enclosed code which works on Mac or PC devices.
In Conclusion
4/5 (not an average)
A comic lovers’ nirvana film, Marvel’s The Avengers gives fans of the Marvel universe pretty much everything they might want from a film that combines the firepower of their favorite characters into a single movie. With near reference video and reference audio, this Blu-ray package earns a definite recommendation.
Matt Hough
Charlotte, NC
