Painfully Formulaic

Rating: 5/10 (13 May 2012)

No, I don't think The Avengers is entirely horrible: in fact, it's a perfectly decent escapist type movie, but don't expect to walk away from the theatre with a new found love for life or a fresh perspective that any real movie will deliver.
The Avengers is the current water-cooler movie, for good reason: it's easy to talk about. "The CGI!" "The action!" "The comedy!". It's easy, and might as well have a laugh track it's so instructive. From start to finish, the plot carries the same formula - INYOURFACEACTION, comic relief, INYOURFACEACTION, comic relief. Repeat until done. The jokes were painfully predictive and obvious; I felt like cattle being herded along the movie, all too aware of the cheap tricks used to get the audience laughing. At a budget of over 200 million, it felt cheap and without substance.
I also think it's insulting this movie carries such a high IMDb rating. I suppose most don't realize they're cattle.