Review: Avengers Assemble

Joss Whedon kicks off blockbuster season with an awesome salvo of a movie

It is all about superheroes this summer. Well, more so than usual. We have the Spider-Man reboot coming up, and the climax to Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy on the way, but now, at the start of blockbuster season, the ante has been almost pre-emptively raised very high by the release of Marvel’s Avengers Assemble.

Your Avengers Assemble Crash Course

The long-awaited release of Marvel’s Avengers Assemble has come around, and it is already setting the box office alight, and getting fantastic reviews as well. For those who are none the wiser, here is your quick guide to the Avengers


Warning: this contains backstory (i.e. what happens in the other films)

The New Dilemma of 12A

After ten years of the 12A certificate, it is clear that it has solved one problem but created another

There has been no more regular discussion in British film over the last decade than the one over the 12A certificate. Created in 2002 after a furore over the rating for Spider-Man, the 12A has been described by the British Board of Film Classification as a recognition that parents know their children best, but it has courted a fair amount of controversy.

To Cut or Not to Cut?

So far this year, there have been two major hits at the UK Box Office. The Woman in Black and The Hunger Games have been huge commercial successes, cashing in on the wide audience allowed by the 12A certificate, which has now been with us for 10 years.

However, both films were originally rated at 15, and the distributors accepted minor cuts to the films in order to get the 15 certificate. These instances have highlighted a few issues surrounding our classifications system, the artistic integrity of filmmakers and alleged “censorship”.