The best Superhero movie i have seen

Rating: 9/10 (28 April 2012)

This was one hell of a mind-blowing, fantastic ensemble. I entered the theatre with some trepidation. Don't get me wrong, I love Joss Whedon. His Firefly, Dollhouse really impressed me with their thoughtful insights to complex subjects and excellent stories with witty dialogs. But this being a superhero movie with characters so diverse, I suspected this may just be a mash-up of said characters with some good battles with Whedon's trademark one-liners. Boy was I stumped.
This movie never failed to keep my mouth open with shock and sheer awe at what I was watching. Also laughter. This was a movie I will not forget. Or be satisfied with watching only once.
Witty dialogs punctuate every minute every one of which are neither clichéd, overdone or badly timed. But humour is only part of its brilliance as story too is pretty good with some amazing, some awesome, some sad and some thoughtful moments. The movie is very well paced, so much so that I barely realised the 140 minutes passing by.
The casting was perfect, with all the characters coming over from their respective movies. Except Bruce Banner who was now played by Mark Ruffalo taking over from Ed Norton. In the Hulk movies, Bruce was a scientist struggling with his inner demons threatening to release his darker (greener) alter ego. But here, he needed to be confident, funny, witty, smart (which was seriously downplayed in the 2 Hulks) to have any chance against such powerful characters. Mark Ruffalo carries his character with remarkable panache and delivers a memorable character.
The rest of the cast were amazing. Robert Downey Jr as Tony, the self- loving, arrogant and over-smart playboy, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, the regal guardian come to stop his brother in his tracks, Chris Evans as the out-of-place hero who tries to fit in, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow who has a substantial role to play (not just eye-candy though she delivers plenty of that too), Jeremy Renner as the stoic and unshakable Hawk-eye and of course, Samuel Jackson as the enigmatic commander, Nick Fury. Tom Hiddleston, on the villainous side is amazing as the nihilistic, ego-maniacal Loki who is now stylish, confident and devious in contrast to his Thor persona where he is more childish in his harried quest for revenge. Every character is given a major role with no-one sidelined or underused. All these characters from different eras, locations and occupations are blended beautifully though not without conflicts which are highlighted as a major plot point. This was a much better idea than merely bringing them to save Earth and explaining away these differences which any other director would have easily done.
This brings me to Joss Whedon. With Spielberg giving us mediocrities like Tintin, Indiana Jones and War of the Worlds, this comes as a respite from old and boring directors who have been ruling big-budget screen-space for far too long. With X-Men: First Class bringing forth Matthew Vaughn, this too will bring Whedon to the limelight and hopefully, spur producers to give this underrated talent more opportunities.
This has been my movie of the year(so far) and the best Superhero movie I have EVER seen. Batman does not count to me as a "superhero" movie which is why this wins the title.