Some movies make you smile and laugh, some make you sweat in anticipation, and others make you just feel darn good when leaving the movie theater. Marvel’s The Avengers is one of those movies that embody all of these emotions and more. From the moment the movie begins you are immediately glued to your seat and you eyes are fixated on the screen. The movie is somewhat complex as it quickly introduces a multitude of characters and plot lines that are seemingly on a converging course, but it does it in such a way that you don’t feel lost or confused. You have an immense feeling of anticipation as you have no idea where the movie will go. It is definitely a memorable start.

The interesting twist to this movie is it actually is a continuation of plots and characters from 4 other Marvel movies: Captain America The First Avenger, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, and Iron Man. Do you need to see these movies first to understand this one? Not entirely. The storyline is so well thought out that even though there are multiple characters, the story in and of itself is wonderfully entertaining. What is brilliant on Marvel’s part is if by chance you were living under a rock and did not see the other four movies, by watching this movie first you are compelled to watch the other 4 movies to enrich the plot and each of the main characters.

In Marvel’s The Avengers the main thematic thread is a mysterious orb called the Tesseract. As the plot unfolds, a stealthy government agency (S.H.I.E.L.D) is poking and prodding the Tesseract, only to unwittingly unleash the villain in the story (Loki), who happens to be a banished demigod from another universe on a quest to use the Tesseract for various evil deeds on Earth and then throughout the universe (…is that all…). S.H.I.E.L.D, in typical government fashion, panics and assembles a team of superheroes to fix what they broke. The Avengers team is made up of Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Iron Man, and the Incredible Hulk. Separately, each of the characters attempts to save the day alone, but alas, through massive battles and special effects, they realize in their darkest hour that the only way to defeat the evil Loki is to work together and combine their unique powers and skills.

The plot thickens somewhat when Loki unleashes his ravenous horde of six fingered (??) frog like humanoid creatures called the Jatari through a space portal to bring their full arsenal to bear on poor helpless planet Earth. (As an aside note, I pity the first completely alien species to teleport in to Washington D.C. on an intergalactic mission of peace. With the plethora of “evil alien” moves we are bombarded with I think the result will be to vaporize them first, ask questions later, but I digress…). The battle scenes are typical Marvel comic book story lines enlarged with unlimited budgets to the big screen – in short with a little imagination you can see, hear, and almost smell the action as if it was happening right in front of you. Pushed to their individual limits, the Avengers team up and fail miserably to save the Earth – all is lost. Of course not! In typical fashion the government panics, and what else, send a nuclear weapon to eradicate the frog-like humanoid creatures along with the entire city of New York. Thankfully the Avengers rally around the flag, come together as an efficient team and valiantly defend the Earth from the frog-like humanoid creatures (far more entertaining than calling them “Jatari”), and the errant nuclear weapon fired by our government (oops their bad).

Over the top does not adequately describe the special effects of this movie. More importantly there was much more to the Avengers than the previous four Marvel movies. The previous four movies were primarily about the action and special effects, which they do extremely well by the way, but in this movie they create an almost full-circle effect. For each of the Avengers team, Marvel expanded the human and emotional characteristics of each character; splattering their powers all over the big screen but also probing their faults, weaknesses, and imperfections. In the end, the Avengers was a great movie in and of itself. But, if we ever actually get a stormy rainy day in Arizona and you had a day indoors, what better way to spend it than to line up all 5 movies and be thoroughly entertained.