Marvel's The Avengers on DVD Blu-Ray Combo – A review

Home Theatre
Marvel's The Avengers on DVD Blu-Ray Combo – A review
By Hervé St-Louis
September 25, 2012 - 09:00

Studios: Paramount, Marvel Studios
Starring: Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Clark Gregg, Cobie Smulders, Stellan Skarsgård, and Samuel L. Jackson
Directed by: Josh Whedon
Produced by: Kevin Feige
Running Time: 143 minutes
Release Date: September 25, 2012
Rating: PG13 (Parents Strongly Cautioned)
Distributors: Disney Buena Vista

The Avengers are freaks of myth, and experiments of science joined together by Nick Fury, Director is S.H.I.E.L.D. in case a threat comes to Earth that is too large for any single hero or the military to fight off. When Loki, the Norse god, and brother of Thor, finds himself exiled on Earth, he unleashes chaos by allying himself with aliens from another dimension. Only an unpredictable Hulk, a recovering Captain America, a bashful Thor and a full of himself Iron Man, along with two ordinary humans, the Black Widow and Hawkeye stand in his way. But Loki is smart and has disbanded the team before it even unites. What stands in his way?

If you haven’t seen the movie yet, I encourage you to read one of the full reviews at ComicBookBin. I want to focus on the review package I received first and help you making a decision about whether to purchase it or not. Here, Disney and Paramount continue the tradition of adding both a DVD and Blu-Ray release in the same package. Unlike Warner Brothers though, they didn’t include a digital release as part of the package. It’s available separately and On-Demand. Instead, they added a second screen app that allows iOS device users to interact with parts of the movie as it plays. Disney is proud of releasing a second screen app, but didn’t bother releasing it for other platforms such as Android or Windows Phone. That’s not very smart of them. This literally ignores over half of users using tablets and smartphones. I don’t have a current iOS device, so I didn’t bother reviewing the app. Disney doesn’t care about customers like me.

The Blu-Ray opens up with way too many previews one has to skip. Because Marvel Studios was a partner in the film’s production, parent company Disney’s features are featured in the previews. I wish companies would understand that if a client buys a film, it’s to watch the film and not being held hostage to a barrage of commercials. Previews are fine, but it’s best to let users decide on their own when they want to view them.

I did not like the navigation in the menu. It’s cumbersome to move from one subsection to another. Everything was horizontal and on the same level with little differentiation. It was a counter-intuitive user interface. There are many extras in this set. What I was really on the lookout for was for the Joss Whedon commentary track. Because Whedon was commenting alone, he lacked someone to bounce ideas and comments off. It felt like a boring monologue where instead of insights, viewers listened to self aggrandizing comments of the cult director.

I paid attention to the deleted scenes and they revealed that Whedon had a different framing structure for the story that he didn’t use. He was going to use S.H.I.E.L.D. vice-director Maria Hill in a prologue and epilogue explaining why Fury chose to create the Avengers. I’m glad that was left out of the edited film.
Now about the movie: Was it good? Yes, it was because the same formula used in the first Iron Man movie where the hero was funny and approachable, like Marvel Comics' characters usually are in comics, was used here again. There was a lot of tension between the characters, and each had a moment to shine. Loki was the perfect villain and provided enough funny scenes too. The rivalry of the various Avengers and their disparate personalities was highlighted quite well, allowing even the rumps that Black Widow and Hawkeye were to shine in a movie where they are surrounded by greater than life allies. I thought Thor was the weakest link, as in the least interesting, and the one who suffered the most from the actor performing him (Chris Hemsworth). Captain America’s costume looked silly and should really be rethought in the next Avengers’ film.

Rating: 7.5/10