Having Just seen the Avengers, I thought I would post my review.

Overall, I would say it is a good movie. You certainly won't be bored for lack of action, and the dialogue had the entire theater laughing at times. The special effects were breathtaking, especially once the invasion happens. I can't say the same about the Hulk however. To me, he looked out of place, and I think they took a tiny step back from The Incredible Hulk. That being said, Mark Ruffalo provided a very convincing portrayal as Bruce Banner, and in one scene even seemed scarier than the Hulk. Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Jeremy Renner, and Scarlett Johannson all provide solid performances; however, that may be due to the fact that the movie doesn't really provide for them to stretch out their acting legs. Out of all of them, I'd say it's Johannson and Renner who have the most to do in regards to dialouge and character development. 

Now don't get me wrong. The other actors get a chance to develop their characters, as well as their relationships with each other, but the development didn't feel organic. It just seemed that they grew closer because, well it was time for them to do so, and in my opinion if you can catch on to that, then the development doesn't do it's job well enough. At least with Renner and Johannson you get a development which is not only interesting to watch, but makes you care about them; because, let's face it, in a team of a god, a man with a suit of armor which can outgun most aircraft carriers, a super soldier, and the Hulk it's the humans with no super-powers which you care about. 

And to me, that is ultimately the problem with the Avengers. There's no sense of foreboding danger. Even in all the scenes where it looked like one of them might be down for the count, one just needs to remember they have super-powers and sure enough, they get back up again. I found myself only being concerned about Hawkeye and Black Widow, because...they don't have super powers. If they get hit hard, they might not get back up. That being said, I think the other performance which caught my eye was that of Agent Phil Colson. Besides Ruffalo, he really tied the movie together nicely. Samuel Jackson was...Samuel Jackson. And Tom Hiddleston carried his performance over from Thor and played the villain nicely...to a point.

My problem with Loki is that with Thor still fresh in memory, I just couldn't buy him as the villain the Avengers wanted to portray him as. It seemed every time he kills someone (people will die) it was just the movie saying, "Oooh he's really a bad guy now!". This hurt my willingness to believe him as the type of villain that they wanted him to be; the cold, heartless tyrant who is willing to do anything to get his way. No matter how much they push that version of Loki at me, I'm still reminded of Kenneth Brannagh's brilliant portrayal of him as a conflicted villain. I wish Joss Whedon had continued with that portrayal, because otherwise...Loki is just cartoonish. It really hurts the movie.

So, overall the movie will provide with lots of good action, but unlike Renner and Johannson, the cast doesn't provide enough character development to care about them. Perhaps, Marvel was thinking people would remember the previous movies and let the character development from those take precedence. To me, that's cheating. If you want us to care about the fate of the Avengers, you have to make me care about them in this movie. They had 3/4 of the movie to do so, and instead Whedon decided to turn it into Sarcastic Slap Down with each character doing their best to out-witty retort the other. An unfortunate choice, which may give the audience a couple of laughs, but ultimately won't make it get to know or care about these characters when they're supposed to.

So as the culmination of a plan to introduce each individual Avenger and then team them up for a blockbuster action movie, Marvel did it's job almost as well as it could have done. I wasn't bored, but walking out of the movie one thing was on my mind, and it was, "The Dark Knight Rises is going to be much better." How can I know? Well, it certainly won't provide as big a scale of combat as the Avengers will, but I think no one can argue that we won't be fidgeting when the fights happen in that film. 

Matinee/Low Full Price.