Superhero fever takes over the twin cities

The Avengers premieres at The Arena and Cinepax.

ISLAMABAD:

Possibly the most awaited film of the year, Avengers finally hit the big screens in the twin cities along with the rest of Pakistan on Friday. Bahria Town’s newly-opened 3D cinema The Arena had people flocking to it to not only watch the movie but walk the red carpet and socialise as the cameras clicked away.

Many movie goers had high expectations from the movie and seemed excited about watching it. “If you want to know what epic is, watch this movie!” said Actor Hamza Ali Abbasi as he came out of the first screening.

The super hero film starts off with Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson), director of the S.H.E.I.L.D (an international peace keeping agency), bringing together well known heroes — Iron Man (Robert Downy Jr), Thor(Chris Hemsworth), The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Captain America(Chris Evans), The Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and Hawkeye (Jeremy Runner) to take down demigod Loki and his alien army.

The two-and-a-half-hour movie packs in a mixture of action, Sci Fi, and a pinch of comedy that had people laughing out loud in some of the scenes. While many would argue that the beginning was a little sketchy as it focused on introducing each action hero into the group, the movie gradually picked up pace.

What’s makes the film more relatable to the average Joe is that the heroes feel more human than super — their egos clash with one another, as Thor aptly smirks, “You humans are so petty! And tiny!”

Robert Downy Jr stole the show, with his Iron Man having more pizzazz than all the other super heroes put together. There was, of course, Scarlet Johansson who had the boys in the audience drooling over her flying kicks and bad-girl-turned-good attitude. One viewer laughingly stated after the movie, “If any girl doesn’t like the movie it will be because of Scarlet!”

The surround system of the cinema did complete justice to the movie’s loud bangs. While many appreciated the new cinema, others were concerned about the long distance from Islamabad.

“It’s too far away, it’s shameful the capital city doesn’t have its own cinema,” said Neelam, who had come from Islamabad.

The Hulk, besides being big and green, also took everyone by surprise with his comic timing and had people roaring with laughter.

A disappointing outing at Cinepax

Meanwhile at Cinepax, which boasts of having the twin cities’ first 3D screen, the audience were somewhat disappointed — not because the movie lacked anything that it promised, but because Cinepax could not deliver the film in the true splendour of 3D.

“[The movie] was blurred and jittery at times, and I don’t know if the projector was aligned improperly, but we could only see part of the subtitles,” said Azam Khan, who had booked tickets for the show four days in advance. “The last movie I saw at Cinpax in 3D was Transformers 3, and the effects were breathtaking, I don’t know what went wrong this time.”

Another Avengers enthusiast, Sardar Ali, said, “The film was very hard on the eyes. I thought it was just me but it turned out that all my friends had the same complaint.” His eight accompanying friend concurred.

Before the 9:30pm show, which had sold out, one could feel the anticipation in the air. Just minutes before the screening when all tickets for the show had been sold, an anxious young man was seen stalking for people willing to sell him tickets in black.

“If anyone is willing to sell his ticket for The Avengers I’m willing to pay more than their cost,” he asked politely. Much to his displeasure, he got a lot of stares, but no tickets.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 13^th, 2012.