The Avenger (1962)

The Avenger covers the story of Aeneas and how he led some survivors of Troy into exile on the Italian peninsula. Steve Reeves repeats his role Aeneas from The Trojan War as the exiled Trojans look to make a new home.Unfortunately in Etruscan Italy their addition complicates what looks like a delicately balanced situation among a lot of petty kings. One of them covets the land the Trojans have been granted on to settle.In the tradition of the Trojan War the film is cut above a lot of the Peplum epics that the Italians were churning out in the early 60s, taking advantage of those sets left over from Ben-Hur and Quo Vadis. It's all based on Virgil's Aeneid.And we get to see more of Steve Reeves physical development. That's what many were plunking their money down to see/

*Spoiler/plot- 1962, A young wandering Aeneas finds Italy after the Trojan war. He helps the country with his best abilities.*Special Stars- Steve Reeves, Carla Marlier *Theme- Inside a bodybuilder, there's a political leader trying to get out.*Trivia/location/goofs- Italian film. Dubbed in English. Mr. Reeves (an award winning international bodybuilder) becomes the icon for this type of legendary hero role and later helps Arnold Swartzenegger to take over Mr. Reeves cloak of strongman stardom. Horses' saddle stirrups and cornfields are not of this early Roman period.*Emotion- A boring and too long 'sword and sandal' film. I tend too like these epics. But, even Mr. Reeves appearance can't help the simplistic and one dimensional plot and script action.

Wow! This is the only word i could describe. This is definitely one of the best peplum movies i've ever watch (only for Steve Reeves movies) so far. I've watched all Steve Reeves movies except 3; Sandokan The Great, The Slave @ Son Of Spartacus, and A Long Ride From Hell. So, from here so far The Avenger remains as the second best movie of Steve Reeves while the Trojan Horse remains the best. Oh wait! I've seen most of the comments in Steve Reeves movies are saying that The first Hercules movie in 1958 is the best Steve Reeves movie among all...is that true?? I don't think it is, because to me, i think it is only OK to watch, not very good indeed. Hercules Unchained is better than the first, but if you wanna watch something better in Steve Reeves movies, then check out The Avenger and the Trojan Horse. Others which is also good is Morgan The Pirate, Thief Of Baghdad, Last Day Of Pompeii, Duel Of Titans and Sandokan The Pirate Of Malaysia..try to avoid Goliath And Barbarians and Giant Of Marathon(not very good indeed,huhuhu).As for this movie; sure it's not a perfect movie, but still i'm giving it a chance, so i'm giving it a 9.5/10 stars... :)

I discovered the sword and sandal films of Steve Reeves about 12 years ago, and this is easily the most wooden and boring one of all. Most of Reeves' muscleman acting efforts are compelling enough and have a couple of good supporting actresses and veteran Italian actors. The VHS tape I have was of poor film quality, I believe it was even B&W. This one fails to keep your attention either on Reeves himself or a decent storyline. Better efforts are obviously Hercules, Giant of Marathon, Duel of Titans (massive hero role), Morgan the Pirate, and Thief of Baghdad (good costume roles w/solid story lines). This one will put you to sleep - it was a rushed afterthought of this genre.