Growing up as a kid, I definitely leaned to liking Marvel characters more than DC characters, with the X-Men being my ultimate favorite group of super heroes. But as Marvel began to release movies this past decade like Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor, I started to enjoy watching these characters more than Charles Xavier’s mutants. When the time came for “The Avengers” to assemble on the big screen this year, I had to be the first one in line to watch it and give you my take on this already mega-blockbuster film.

“The Avengers” opened the weekend before in many countries around the world and already raked in around $250 million! And these countries don’t include big markets like China and Russia, in which they will open the movie along with the United States on Friday, March 4th.

The movie begins with a major crisis in which Agent Nick Fury of the S.H.I.E.L.D. program, played by Samuel L. Jackson, calls on certain super heroes to ban together to fight an evil character named Loki who comes from outer space to take over Earth. You don’t need to have seen the previous films like Captain America or Thor to see this movie, but I highly suggest you do along with the other two Iron Man movies just so that you are familiar with back stories and characters. For instance, Loki is Thor’s brother and was also the main villain in the “Thor” movie.

The Tesseract, an energy force found on Thor’s home planet, connects a lot of the Avengers’ characters in the movie. I didn’t realize that Dr. Bruce Banner (the human form of The Hulk) was working on producing the same serum that gave Captain America his powers back in the 1940s.

As a movie reviewer, my mindset is to not give away any plot points. But when forming any group of super heroes in which some have big egos (Iron Man) or are uncontrollable (The Hulk), there are bound to be problems along the way. And, the movie surprised me in that one of the main good guys was evil for half of the movie!

The action sequences especially near the end of the movie are very impressive, especially in 3-D. And I’ve forgotten how funny Robert Downey Jr. is as Iron Man. He, along with some of Hulk’s barbaric fighting styles at the end of the movie, had the whole movie theater dying laughing.

I don’t give grades for movies, but my belief is that I would definitely spend $10 for a ticket, even a more expensive one to see in 3-D, and maybe watch it again if a friend or date wants to see it. No need to wait for it until it comes out on DVD…this one you have got to see! It fulfills your summer thirst for an action packed blockbuster.

Leave your comments below about your opinion of the movie!