The Avengers (2012)

Summary

A crew of superheroes begrudgingly band together to save the world from an angry Norse god and his space alien cohorts.

Director

Joss Whedon

Downey Factor

Medium

Character

Tony Stark, world's coolest billionaire.

Looks

Like Tony Stark

Performance

Generous yet generally scene-stealing and snarky.

Line

It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner. Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster.

Love & Sex

He has some banter with Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow).

Dies, Gay or Villain

Though any or all of these would make an intriguing plot twist, you know it's a no to all three.

Cast

Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Gwyneth Paltrow, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, Jeremy Renner, Clark Gregg, Tom Hiddleston, Cobie Smulders

Connection

Gwyneth Paltrow in Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Iron Man 3, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.

Mark Ruffalo in Zodiac, Iron Man 3, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.

Samuel L Jackson in Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Hail Caesar, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.

Scarlett Johansson in Iron Man 2, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Chef, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.

Clark Gregg in Iron Man and Iron Man 2.

Chris Evans in Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.

Jeremy Renner in Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War.

Joss Whedon's Avengers: Age of Ultron and Avengers: Endgame.

Chris Hemsworth and Cobie Smulders in Avengers: Age of Ultron and Avengers: Infinity War.

Paul Bettany in Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Iron Man 3, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.

Stan Lee in Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Iron Man 3, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man: Homecoming and Avengers: Infinity War.

Tom Hiddleston in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.

Stellan Skarsgård in Avengers: Age of Ultron.

RDJ Says

What made the original Iron Man—the origin story— work so well, is that it was plausible, and then we had a bunch of fun doing the second one, and this time I feel like, speaking of alternate realities, there's a way that Tony can interact with The Avengers because he's already had hints that this Nick Fury guy is clearly stringing him along, and so he's in the dark about it so it shouldn't be that big a surprise. I think it's kind of through Tony's eyes that you have to see and buy into some of these bigger ideas ... My favorite 'fight move' as Tony Stark is how I can fall out of buildings and survive—you notice that move involves no one but me and myself ... I think [Tony is] curious, it's hard for him to ingest what's going so he wants to go see it firsthand for himself. Probably in storytelling, John Campbell-mode, he's searching. With Rhodey he realized he's not an island, and so there was kind of a partnership outside of his with Pepper, and I think this time it's about that group-mind and that "we is better than I." ... Aside from casting, the thing that Marvel does best is picking the right directors for their projects and it's always an exciting announcement, but it always has that extra thing oh, I wouldn't have necessarily thought that, but in retrospect it makes perfect sense ... it's no surprise to anyone who works with [Joss Whedon] for just a couple days that he is a profound technician. Even the Buffy series and his other films have always been visually kind of their own thing, but I think what he's doing is he's drawing everything he needs to draw on to make it his own ... I'd always felt that Mark [Ruffalo] was the guy to play Bruce Banner, because there's something kind of immensely introspective and affable about the guy that makes that curse or that opportunity, or that karma that he has, that is not of his doing but his responsibility to manage some way and he's also a really funny, quirky guy but he's a straight-shooter. I think that's probably the most important thing.

Time & Place

Present (2012), mostly Manhattan, with other assorted locations included outer space and in the sky.

Lit Reference

Marvel's The Mighty Avengers comic book series.

Gossip

At Robert Downey Jr's suggestion, they added the 'shawarma' line during a quick reshoot done after the Hollywood premiere. It caused a continuity error with Stark's special effects makeup, but helped shawarma vendors sell a lot more sandwiches.

Availability

Released in theaters 4 May 2012. On Blu-Ray and DVD 25 September 2012.

Foreign Titles

Argentina: Los Vengadores (The Avengers)
Brazil: Os Vingadores (The Avengers)
Croatia: Osvetnici (Avengers)
Estonia: Tasujad (Avengers)
Finland: Kostajat (Avengers)
Lithuania: Kersytojai (Avengers)
Portugal: Os Vingadores (The Avengers)
Vietnam: Siêu Anh Hùng Báo Thù (Revenge Super Hero)

Rotten Tomatoes

93% fresh | 277 reviews

Critical View

Anthony Lane, The New Yorker: Downey and Ruffalo [are] two A-grade actors who are damned if they are going to be smothered by a two-hundred-million-dollar B movie. Downey realized, in Iron Man, that spectacular pap could be made piquant only if the central icon was a jerk—a narcissist with a roaring cash flow, rescuing not Earth from destruction but, way more important, his own soul from fidgety ennui.

Dana Stevens, Slate: It might more accurately be described as the opening-night cocktail party at a corporate superhero retreat. There's a lot of competitive wisecracking and jockeying for status among the assembled luminaries. Some of this dialogue, especially in the scenes of pseudoscientific one-upmanship between Tony Stark and Bruce Banner, is quite funny.

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: The star is Robert Downey Jr. His Iron Man is certainly a team player, but Mr. Downey comes to the party with two insuperable superpowers: a character of established sophistication—the industrialist/inventor Tony Stark, a sharp-tongued man of the world—and his own quicksilver presence that finds its finest expression in self-irony. The Avengers begins to lighten up figuratively, if not literally, only when Iron Man appears.

Michael Burgin, Paste: Thanks in large part to the Downey Jr.-powered snark-generating machine, the friction between the heroes actually makes sense.

2 Reasons to See It

1. If you've seen all the other Tony Stark movies, this finishes some things they started.
2. Tony Snark quipping at his co-stars, especially Mark Ruffalo.

Overall

The box office record-breaker is overlong but entertaining and greatly enhanced by every moment of Robert Downey Jr's moderate screentime.

If You Like It

You might also like Iron Man (2008) and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Photos

Video