Tribeca Film Festival announced today that Joss Whedon's upcoming film "The Avengers" will be the closing film of the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival, which takes places on April 28th. The film is one of the most anticipated films of the upcoming summer movie season. "The Avengers features an all star cast that includes Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner and Tom Hiddleston, with Stellan Skarsgård and Samuel L. Jackson. In conjunction with this announcement, Marvel Entertainment and Walt Disney Pictures has released a still of the film.


Press Release:

The Tribeca Film Festival (TFF), presented by American Express, announced today that Marvel’s The Avengers, presented by Marvel Studios in association with Paramount Pictures, will close its 11th edition on Saturday, April 28. Closing night will take place at Tribeca BMCC PAC and is sponsored by BOMBAY SAPPHIRE® Gin.

Honoring the spirit of the Tribeca Film Festival, the screening will allow the opportunity for Marvel’s The Avengers to celebrate everyday heroes from police agencies, fire departments, first responders and various branches of the U.S. military. These local heroes will have an opportunity to attend the screening and meet the cast.

Marvel Studios’ producer Kevin Feige says, "We are proud that Marvel's The Avengers is the closing film of this year’s Tribeca Film Festival and we are excited to welcome local heroes to the screening as special guests. We all know and love our iconic Super Heroes, but when it really counts, it's our real-life heroes who save the world every day by making it a better place for all of us."

Starring Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner and Tom Hiddleston, with Stellan Skarsgård and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, and directed by Joss Whedon, Marvel’s The Avengers is an engaging, character-driven story packed with action, adventure and special effects. When an unexpected enemy emerges that threatens global safety and security, Nick Fury, Director of the international peacekeeping agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D., finds himself in need of a team to pull the world back from the brink of disaster. Spanning the globe, a daring recruitment effort begins to assemble the iconic Marvel Super Heroes Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow. Marvel’s The Avengers is based on the ever-popular Marvel comic book series “The Avengers,” first published in 1963 and a comics institution ever since.

“Marvel’s The Avengers is an exciting ride that absolutely transports audiences,” said Jane Rosenthal, Co-Founder of the Tribeca Film Festival. “It is the perfect way to end our 11th Festival.”

Comments director Joss Whedon, “Showing at Tribeca is both an honor and a double homecoming for me, who grew up in Manhattan, and for the movie, which wrapped production there. I’m thoroughly psyched to be closing the festival with our intimate little think-piece.”

“Marvel’s The Avengers” is produced by Marvel Studios’ Producer Kevin Feige and executive produced by Alan Fine, Jon Favreau, Stan Lee, Louis D’Esposito, Patricia Whitcher, Victoria Alonso and Jeremy Latcham. The story is by Zak Penn and Joss Whedon, and the screenplay is by Joss Whedon. The film releases May 4, 2012, and is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

The 11th annual Tribeca Film Festival will take place from April 18-29, 2012.

Visit www.tribecafilm.com/festival for more information about TFF’s 2012 programs and the full line-up of films.

Quick note before I start this review: Be sure to stay through the end credits! Many of you may already be planning to sit through them, but everyone else needs to understand this when they enter the theater. There is a very special surprise for everyone at the end!

“Captain America: The First Avenger” succeeds where “The Green Lantern” utterly failed; it gives us a superhero (one from the Marvel Comics universe) that is distinct from all those of his ilk, and its character is one we quickly come to care about and root for. Steve Rogers isn’t just some cocky kid from Brooklyn with an overinflated ego to match. He’s a sickly young man who desperately wants to fight for his country, but who has been rejected from serving in the military countless times. But what he lacks in health he makes up for in spirit. Steve wants to fight for his country not because Uncle Sam wants him to, but because (and he said it himself) he never backs down from a fight.

I also liked how the movie didn’t shy from its American roots the way “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” did. While it shied away from saying the slogan “a real American hero” out loud, “Captain America: The First Avenger” doesn’t do that. At the same time, it doesn’t just beat you over the head with blind American patriotism that would make Roger Ailes at the Fox News Channel proud. It has its share of American pride, but it’s really about the spirit of this unlikely soldier which keeps him sane after he is transformed into a super soldier. The outside may be different, but the inside of the man remains the same (almost sounds like “Robocop”).

Playing Steve Rogers/Captain America is Chris Evans who you may remember him from those dopey “Fantastic Four” movies. As for myself, I remember him best for doing a grind down an icy railing which led to his ultimate doom in “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.” Chris is perfectly cast and does great work in keeping his character from becoming just another clichéd war hero. His heart shines throughout the entire movie, and he never allows Rogers to become laughable or indulge in behavior that’s easily cringe inducing.

Once Steve is turned into the super soldier that is Captain America, you root for him to go into battle and defeat the Nazis. But seeing him become a pawn for the United States’ Government in hawking War Bonds is depressing even when his irrepressible spirit and love for country shines through. We understand his desire to prove himself, and out spirits rise along with his.

Of course with every superhero movie we get a vicious villain. In this case, that would be Johann Schmidt, Adolf Hitler’s right hand man who is later revealed to be Red Skull. This particular Skull has his own plans for world domination through his own organization of HYDRA, and he gets his followers to raise both hands instead of just the one for Hitler. With a stolen tesseract, HYDRA can eliminate their foes faster than those phasers that vaporized the red shirts on “Star Trek.”

Hugo Weaving portrays Johann Schmidt/Red Skull and gives “Captain America” the formidable villain it needs. Still, after being in all “The Matrix” and the “Lord of the Rings” movies, I kept waiting for him to say:

“Welcome to Rivendell Mr. Anderson!”

“Captain America: The First Avenger” also has the other requisite characters like the Army drill sergeant and the beautiful woman who dares the most macho men to treat her as a woman instead of the soldier she is. It’s not hard to guess who gets their ass kicked here. But director Joe Johnston succeeds in getting the best actors available to inhabit these roles and give them life beyond the mere clichés they could have been.

Tommy Lee Jones is highly entertaining as Col. Chester Phillips, a character we’ve seen in plenty of movies; a gruff, no nonsense military leader who expects nothing but the best from his soldiers. Jones however gives Phillips a wry sense of humor which much like the one Sam Gerard had in “The Fugitive.” Watching him being subtly dismissive of others and later coming around to see Steve Rogers is the man is a hoot, and he never ends up screaming all over the place like R. Lee Emery in “Full Metal Jacket.”

Then there’s Hayley Atwell who plays Peggy Carter, the female officer who of course becomes Steve Rogers’/Captain America’s love interest. But I really liked how her character was drawn out to where she doesn’t just exist for the sake of Chris Evans’ character. Hayley sells us completely on her tough demeanor which is no act, and she travels across the screen with an assured confidence that is not easily faked.

Joe Johnston got the job of directing “Captain America: The First Avenger” based on period movies he made like “The Rocketeer” and “October Sky.” There’s a lot of attention placed on the detail here (the story takes place 1942 to be exact), but it isn’t held prisoner by it. Heck, many of the tools HYDRA ends up using seem far removed from the 40’s, and they look like they came out of a sci-fi movie that has yet to be made for another 20 or 30 years. While he hasn’t made a great movie with this, he still has given us an undeniably entertaining one. It didn’t even need another terrific film score by Alan Silvestri to prove that!

In terms of the 2011 summer movie season, “Captain America: The First Avenger” isn’t better than “Thor” which for me had far more interesting characters, but it easily outdoes “The Green Lantern” which is one of this year’s biggest disappointments. Thanks to Chris Evans’ performance, Captain America finally gets the cinematic respect long since denied to him. It all serves as an entertaining prelude to next summer’s eagerly awaited “The Avengers.”

* * * out of * * * *