The Avengers corrects everything about the superhero genre long before any of us knew it needed correcting. 

Hundreds and thousands of years from now people might look back on today and believe us to be a civilization that worships superheroes. And should that occur, it will be The Avengers they hold up as absolute proof of our devotion.

This is the new mythology blazing across the big screen like the promise of the second coming — shot in 3D, no longer scrawls on fading parchments or etched onto the sides of cracked vases. 

Author and philosopher Joseph Campbell once said, “Mythology is what we call other people’s religion.”  And though I am not about to go on bended knee and kowtow to Thor, Hulk, Iron Man and the gang (well, maybe Black Widow), I confess that The Avengers has made me a believer. Tough task since I am not so easily converted having played the cynic since Christopher Reeve tried to make us believe a man could fly (I always knew there were strings). 

The Avengers resurrects the genre at a time when many didn’t even realize it had died. But the genre did pass on in that it had turned away from the kind of spectacle and fantasy that thrills child and adult alike in favour of the brooding introspective anti-hero held in such high esteem by leagues of comic book fan boys. 

Where there was darkness, The Avengers sheds light. And it’s a big proud impressive bright light; a near nostalgic action comedy that’s loud and ballsy and has all the explosions in the right place. I say ‘near nostalgic’ because, despite revisiting the hero-myth as a gleeful thrill-ride, I can’t quite recall a superhero film that has ever done it quite as successfully as The Avengers. 

But if The Avengers is the new mythology, then director Joss Whedon is its most devoted disciple. No question Whedon is stepping in as the confirmed prince of pop cinema. Combining Steven Spielberg’s instinct for matinee sensibilities and Quentin Tarantino’s skewed sense of genres, Whedon shakes up formats just enough to reveal the kind of edges lesser directors feel compelled to smooth out.  

The Avengers won’t change lives. It might, however, help some to understand why these heroes exist in the first place.  It reinforces Iron Man as a kind of stainless steel Errol Flynn, gives the newly arrived Thor greater dramatic range, makes perfect use of Captain America’s homeland patriotism and reinvents The Hulk into a scene stealing renegade. 

So in this new found faith of mine I offer up a prayer of thanks to whatever Gods oversee the Marvel movie franchise for fulfilling on a promise to create a blockbuster movie that truly deserves to be called a blockbuster:

Our superheroes who art in movies, how old be thy game? Thy heroes come, thy will be fun in film as you are in comics. Give us this summer more like The Avengers and forgive us our recent suspicions as we forgive you for Green Lantern. Lead us not into sensation and deliver us from a sequel. Truly Batman and Spidey will follow but I shall dwell in the after-glow of The Avengers for ever and ever.

Amen.

Director: Joss Whedon
Rating: 4.5/5
Run Time: 142 Mins

Related: Read Our Interview with Mark Ruffalo