Marvellously super

Dir: Joss Whedon

With: Robert Downey Jr, Scarlett Johansson

142 minutes

CALL it superhero inflation. Such has been the number of comic book legends taking to the screen in the last decade, something more was called for, something rocket-boosted, pumped-up, super-sized. Welcome, then, to Marvel's Avengers Assemble, in which the viewer gets not one, not two, but six titans for the price of a cinema ticket. All that and lots of laughs besides.

The secret of this superhero movie's success, the only factor that matters unless you are after Dark Knight-style brooding or are a fan boy keen to tick every box in your obsessively detailed knowledge of the genre, is its super sense of humour.

For that sense of fun, thank Thor for Joss Whedon, the film's writer and director. Of course there are stars such as Robert Downey Jr and Scarlett Johansson doing their thing, but without the humorous screenplay they, and everyone else in the piece, would simply be actors in danger of taking themselves too seriously while wearing very silly (and in the case of Johansson, sprayed-on) costumes.

After the success of The Cabin in the Woods, which he co-wrote, Buffy, and Angel, Whedon is having something of a moment in pop culture. Just as Mission Impossible III showed JJ Abrams was as much at home directing feature films as television, so Avengers Assemble will be Whedon's calling card for ever more lavish productions.

Marvel's Avengers Assemble –that overlong, mouthful of a title is the worst thing about the film –begins with an apocalypse wow. There's trouble not at t'mill but at t'old space portal, which has suddenly opened. Bodies can exit the Earth's atmosphere, but, and here's the rub, they can also come in. Enter the Norse villain, Loki.

If you don't have a Scooby who Loki is, you must have missed one of the many Marvel superhero movies that have been leading up to this grand get-together. Loki (played by Britain's Tom Hiddleston) appeared in last year's Thor, directed by Kenneth Branagh. Here, he's fallen to Earth in search of "the cube", which is not, strangely enough, the game show hosted by Phillip Schofield, but a source of unlimited energy. Hoping to defeat him is the ultimate special agent Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson), who is a sort of "M" of the Avenger world, with the sarcasm but without the heels.

So begins what, as in the recent Muppets movie, is a hugely enjoyable gathering of the clan. The Black Widow (Johansson) is recalled mid-interrogation, Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr) mid-date with Pepper Potts, and Thor drops in when he learns Loki is up to no good.

Finding Dr Banner, aka The Hulk, is the meatiest strand, and Mark Ruffalo, who plays the big green guy you wouldn't like when he's angry, gives by far the standout performance of the movie. The Hulk has been one of the more troublesome Marvel characters to pull off. Eric Bana had a go, and Ed Norton, but Ruffalo is the best Hulk since the Bill Bixby/Lou Ferrigno TV series combo (Ferrigno duly appears in the cast list as the voice of The Hulk). Like Bixby, he plays the character like a tortured, lost soul though, in keeping with the tone of the rest of the movie, one with a sense of humour about his failings. While the motion capture that allows Ruffalo to play both Banner and The Hulk for the first time isn't seamless, it's the best you'll have seen in a long time.

There are no failings in superheroes, just alternative sides to their character. Here, Whedon has fun bringing picking through the layers of billionaire playboy and reformed arms dealer Tony Stark, aka Iron Man. Downey Jr enjoys the biggest share of the film's funniest lines. Sarky old Starky is even sarkier than our own dear Dr Starkey (now there's an idea for a superhero character – Histo, the historian who can annoy the heck out of legions just by opening his mouth).

If you are heading to Avengers Assemble for the special effects you won't be disappointed. From the opening set-up to the frequent battles, Whedon gives the required amount of sound and vision. Sound is rattle-the-speakers loud. Vision is precision-engineered set pieces with enough destruction and kerpows to keep even the smallest of boys happy.

There are plenty of battles, which would normally be tiresome, but Whedon ups the dramatic ante and the special effects level with each one, so that you look forward to the next to see what he's going to pull out of the box of tricks. He's paid attention to 3D too (though the film is available in the cheaper-ticketed 2D as well).

All in then, a super, heroic effort by Whedon that should please the fanboy and non-fanboy audience alike. With superhero inflation now running higher than ever, Whedon and every other superhero film director will have a hard job topping this.

FEATURE: PAGE 22