This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

Superheroes on Screen: The Avengers

     Avengers Assemble! With the sequel to Thor opening in theatres it seems like a perfect time to drop in on the Avengers. As a team they are a mixed group of mutants, human with very special skills,and a god. While the Avengers were brought together in the 2012 film The Avengers, many of the characters have had standalone films.

He’s big, mean, green, and don’t even think about making him mad. He’s the Hulk, better known as scientist Bruce Banner.

While the Hulk was seen on the small screen from the late 1970s until the early 80s, he finally made his big screen debut in 2003 in Ang Lee’s Hulk http://alpha2.suffolk.lib.ny.us/record=b3422382~S50. The film was an attempt to create a smart comic book film with a more complex back story for the Hulk’s origins. Eric Bana was cast as Bruce (the Hulk was computer animated) and Jennifer Connolly played Betty Ross, his love interest. The film received decent reviews from critics, but its darker storyline and lack of adherence to the original Hulk origin story angered fans.

Find out what's happening in Port Jeffersonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

While Hulk was not a success in 2008 there was an attempt to reboot the franchise with The Incredible Hulk http://alpha2.suffolk.lib.ny.us/record=b4074156~S50. Edward Norton played Bruce Banner with Liv Tyler as love interest Betty Ross. Banner is exposed to massive dose of gamma radiation and when his blood pressure goes over 200 he transforms into the Hulk. The film was a success. The Hulk would appear again on screen until 2012 when he was played by Mark Ruffalo.

Captain America http://alpha2.suffolk.lib.ny.us/record=b4408646~S50  arrived on the big screen in 2011 with Chris Evans playing the hero, who was once known as Steve Rogers. Rogers is frail and sickly, but wishes to fight in World War II. He is recruited by a government scientist whose experiment transforms Rogers from weakling into super soldier. The villain is a Nazi Officer, Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving). Schmidt also underwent a similar super soldier procedure, but with frightening side effects. Schmidt is better known as Red Skull. Schmidt wants to harness the power of a device known as the Tesseract to power weapons to destroy the United States. Of course that plan cannot succeed…

Find out what's happening in Port Jeffersonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Thor (2011) http://alpha2.suffolk.lib.ny.us/record=b4398551~S50 directed by Sir Kenneth Brannagh.  Played by Chris Hemsworth,Thor is more than just a superhero, he is a god. As a punishment for a bad decision Thor’s powers are stripped from him by his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins), and Thor is exiled to Earth. In Asgard- Thor’s homeworld, his devious brother Loki takes the throne while their father is in a healing sleep. Thor’s friends travel to Earth to get Thor home to take back the throne. Thor returns home leaving behind Dr. Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) his love interest. Perhaps the biggest hit of the film was Tom Hiddleston’s portrayal of Loki, the mercurial villain with some family issues Thor and company return in Thor: The Dark World (November 2013) There is a new enemy, the Dark Elk Malekith (Christopher Eccleston). Malekith takes advantage of a rare event called the Convergence to try to destroy Asgard. Loki’s help is needed and he is freed from prison to assist. Loki once again becomes one of the best parts of the film.

Iron Man is composed of three separate films Iron Man http://alpha2.suffolk.lib.ny.us/record=b4074886~S50, Iron Man 2 http://alpha2.suffolk.lib.ny.us/record=b4296172~S50 and Iron Man 3 http://alpha2.suffolk.lib.ny.us/record=b4644749~S50 The films follow a similar plot trajectory so they are being grouped together. Inventor, genius, and billionaire Tony Stark is CEO of Stark Industries. During a weapon demonstration Stark is kidnapped by a terrorist group. He nearly dies, but one of his fellow prisoners saves him by graphing an electromagnet to Stark’s chest so the shrapnel cannot reach his heart. Stark and his savior work on building a suit of special armor. Terrorists discover their plan, and while Stark escapes with the armor, his friend is killed. Once home Stark decides to build his own suit and becomes Iron Man. The second film film finds Stark fully embracing his role of Iron Man, but he realizes that the core of the reactor that keeps him alive and powers the suit is slowly killing him. Despite those obstacles Stark saves the day and defeats the bad guy. The final film is very different in tone than from its predecessors. It takes place after the events of the Avengers and Stark is suffering from PTSD. When his Chief of Security is badly wounded in attack by a terrorist called the Mandarin Stark decides to take action.

Last, but not least the movie that brings all the above together is The Avengers http://alpha2.suffolk.lib.ny.us/record=b4556826~S50. Superheroes rarely ever play well together. When their enemy is an angry god Loki and some seriously scary alien invaders they have no choice but to overcome their individual issues and save the world. If you are looking for a big rousing superhero movie the Avengers more than delivers!

Looking for any of these heroes? Ask the Librarian at the Reference and they will fly to your rescue!


We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?