One of the biggest summer blockbuster movies made its way to DVD and Blu-ray Tuesday.

Marvel’s The Avengers unites beloved superheroes like Captain America (Chris Evans), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) to fight against Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and his army. Loki is on a quest to acquire the Tesseract in order to take over Earth and become its ruler. With the help of Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), the Avengers are united with Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) to stop Loki and his corrupted dream of becoming a ruler.

While the plot is a rinse and repeat, the characters bring a different view of how it’s difficult yet rewarding to team up with people who have superpowers. What sets this movie apart from other superhero movies is the way it is able to balance the story, action sequences and the comical scenes without making the film seem boring at any point.

If you haven’t seen The Avengers, I recommend seeing previous Marvel movies, like Iron Man 1 & 2, The Incredible Hulk, Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger to get the backstory of each superhero. If you haven’t seen the previous movies, don’t worry; The Avengers is good by itself, and you will have a fun time watching it.

I was planning to review the Phase One Edition of the movie (which included the six films and a replica of the Tesseract), but due to a lawsuit against Marvel by German luggage company Rimowa, this edition has been delayed. A similar version of this edition is expected to hit stores spring 2013.

For this review, I picked up the standard edition of the movie. The extras in the DVD include audio commentary from director Joss Whedon and a discussion between the cast on the experiences they had when bringing their characters to life. It is great to have the viewpoint of the director and the cast and to hear what they think about the movie and what they did to get the best shots during filming.

Overall, if you are a fan of the movie, I recommend buying the Phase One Edition. But if you can’t wait, this standard version will do. If you have a Blu-ray player, get the Blu-ray edition because it comes with more extras, such as an extra featurette called A Visual Journey, deleted scenes, a gag reel and Soundgarden’s music video for Live to Rise.

The Avengers is a fantastic film that will provide fun and action-packed entertainment for everyone.

4/5 stars