A Marvel to behold as the gang’s all here

It took a nerd to create the ultimate comic strip action film. Film Critic Tony Earnshaw was there as superhero history was made... in Claridges, London.

Meet the gang because the boys and girls are here – and they’re out in force. The dais in Claridges’ ballroom strains beneath the weight of Iron Man, the Hulk, Hawkeye, Thor (sans hammer), Black Widow and Loki.

Facing them is an army of international journalists, critics, bloggers and general aficionados. It’s an impressive line-up for one of the biggest – and most enjoyable – films of 2012. The heroes and villains of Avengers Assemble – Robert Downey Jr, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson and Tom Hiddleston – represent 21st-century star power at its most blinding. Alas, fellow cast members Samuel L Jackson (Nick Fury) and Chris Evans (Captain America) are missing, as is übernerd writer/director Joss Whedon.

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But everyone knows such a film – packed as it is with wit and one-liners – wouldn’t have bagged the prize as the year’s most anticipated comic adaptation without Whedon at the helm.

“What was most impressive about Joss initially was the incredible way he wrote,” says 31-year-old Hiddleston, playing the fallen Asgard deity Loki. “His screenplay was simply phenomenal. All of us weren’t quite sure what to expect and it was the most extraordinary answer as to that first question of how you get so many superheroes in one film. I take my hat off to him on that. Everyone has a degree of ownership about the characters they play. He’s respectful [of that] and was constantly asking ‘Does this feel right to you?’ Most of the time I just switched off and said the brilliant lines.”

Most fans of the various franchises that have now morphed into one super franchise recognise that Whedon has succeeded in jettisoning any threat of ego and has delivered a stupendous ensemble picture.

Robert Downey Jr’s journey began with the first Iron Man adventure. Thor and Captain America followed. All were created to eventually bleed into the Avengers film, combining the might of Marvel Comics’ finest with new characters that will eventually spin off into their own worlds.

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“From five years ago, when we did the first Iron Man to today with all the folks you see up here, it honestly couldn’t have gone any better,” says Robert Downey Jr. “All three franchises that we launched so far had to work. If this hadn’t worked, it would have affected all those franchises extremely adversely. There’s also the potential for additional franchises based upon how strongly people are reacting to Jeremy and Scarlett and Mark.

“I just can’t understand why everything has gone this well but, in this one instance in my life, that’s the situation.”

The film – all 142 minutes of it – gives everyone space to breathe. For Johansson, Ruffalo and twice Oscar-nominated Renner it’s a chance to shine in some insanely violent scenes: two of them face the enemy with a marked lack of superpowers; the other pounds the bad guys into the dust.

“When we all first met Joss, he never said anything about my character’s gender,” recalls Johansson. “He is gender-blind. He wants his female characters to be dynamic and competitive and assured and confident and that has nothing to do with anything other than the fact that he celebrates those kinds of strong, female characters.”

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She adds: “I think that me, Renner and Tom probably spent the most amount of time in the stunt gym, just because we have these huge choreographed sequences. As actors we all have our burdens to bear but they paid off in the end. We decided we wouldn’t want any super powers. We’d rather be skilled because maybe the super powers would disappear and that wouldn’t be good.”

Renner, the twice Oscar-nominated star of The Hurt Locker and The Town, drags his jet-lagged form upright and considers Johansson’s comments.

“Yeah, if Thor lost his hammer? I mean, he’d probably still kick my ass, but I’d have a fighting chance.” Ruffalo took on the Incredible Hulk because his take on it chimed with Whedon’s. The consensus was less Hulk, more Dr Bruce Banner. It also went back to Bill Bixby, star of the 1970s television series, who was constantly on the move.

“People think actors seek out the material, but it’s more a matter of us being given something. I was offered Banner/the Hulk. I talked to Joss Whedon about it and he wanted to return to the weary charm of a man on the run but still trying to live his life and have a sense of humour about himself.

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“I loved Joss’s take on it and the idea of getting to burst out into a big green rage machine. I also liked the idea that I’d be the first actor to play both Banner and the Hulk.

“The process was motion capture and, yes, there was the element of wearing a leotard that reduced me to a Chinese checkerboard. The leotard makes all the wrong places look big and all the right places look small!” Ruffalo can laugh but having taken the role he hadn’t counted on fans’ reactions. There was a movement to bring back Edward Norton, who played Banner in 2008’s The Incredible Hulk. Norton said no.

“I was overcome by a moment of very poor judgment early on – [I went] online and saw the response to me coming on to play Banner,” says Ruffalo. “I won’t do that again. It wasn’t glowing. I found the fans’ exuberant passion to be very, very brutal. I hope we’ve amended that.”

Producer Kevin Feige sums it up: “We wanted the characters to shine more than the visual effects, more than the explosions. Joss never loses sight of that. It’s always the characters that rise above.”

Avengers Assemble (15) is on saturation release.

Whedon’s past successes

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Writer Joss Whedon is best known for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which ran for seven seasons. He also wrote Toy Story and has just finished directing a contemporary version of Much Ado about Nothing.

Samuel L Jackson, who plays S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Nick Fury in Avengers Assemble, first originated the role in Iron Man and has appeared in every film in the franchise. He is rumoured to be headlining his own Nick Fury movie.

The Avengers first appeared in comic form in 1963 and were tagged as “Earth’s mightiest heroes”. The label is used by Robert Downey Jr in the new film and 89-year-old comic book icon Stan Lee enjoys a cameo.

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