If you're already a fan you'll love it, if not it's yet another well crafted superhero CGI flick

Rating: 6/10 (26 May 2013)

The Avengers (2012)
First: this is high energy stuff with lots of superhero fighting. Lots. Beyond that I had to pick and choose what I liked and what seemed to be dragged out a bit. It was never slow, but it was often a bit uninteresting.
the real downside to the movie was, well, the plot, which had yet another super huge super awful enemy that required our local team to go out and find a way to conquer. It never really mattered why these bad people were coming (though they do explain why, with a spacey glowing cube and Thor's half-brother having some childhood issues unresolved). The set design, however, was really ambitious, not only with the huge scenes and big CGI effects, but the range and diversity of interiors with a deliberate variety of styles that related to the different characters. And some of the actors and actresses were terrific to watch, even if they didn't really have much to say or do that mattered (besides save the world, of course).
If this sounds like I'm not cut out of this type of movie you are mostly wrong. I have loved, for example, the three Nolan "Batman" movies, a couple of the "Spiderman" ones, and a few oddballs here and there, all of which work on some of the same principles of super villain and a modified New York (Gotham, etc.) as a city of resilient victims to save.
Small (relevant) confession: I loved the Iron Man movies and never saw any of the other Marvel character movies like the Hulk. In this all-star get together of a half dozen famous super-heroes I naturally loved the Iron Man parts and was neutral on the rest. Mostly because Robert Downey Jr. is a huge cut above the others of the cast in presence, in humor, in making the whole enterprise a comic book come to life, not a serious save-the-world epic. By contrast, the leader of the bad guys is a wan, half-hearted baddie who didn't create the chills or fear the movie badly needed.
As a movie of characters taken from various Marvel comic book (and movie) series, it was how fully the characters were realized that made the difference. Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk was pretty great, though restrained a bit. The Black Widow in the hands of Scarlett Johansson was stunning to look at but also weirdly restrained (except the fighting of course). Thor was a bore, taking his old school power thing too too seriously. And Captain America, though a likable, cute guy, was also a bad casting job--he had to do more than look good (unlike, say, Gwyneth Paltrow, who simply had to look good since she unfortunately had nothing much to say or do).
You'll know if this movie is your thing before you read this or see a trailer. It's a boiler plate super hero action movie with lots of computer effects and a standard villain from the universe menace. (The computer effects, like these skeletal ocean monsters swimming through Manhattan wrecking lots of buildings, are actually, surprisingly, a bit clunky once you start watching the details.)
Overall, director and writer Joss Whedon seems a bit overwhelmed here, and has co-written a predictable bit of very expensive contemporary Hollywood stuff and then directed it without quite making it special. Or surprising. I mean, even Samuel L. Jackson is stiff and preachy. The movie has its moments for sure, but that's not enough. Disappointing.