The Avengers Dissassembled

Rating: 6/10 (11 May 2012)

By now it's probably all been said before, so I'm really just adding weight to the views on both sides of the nerd-gasm that was The Avengers.
Entertainment is the name of the game here, and Whedon doesn't hold back for a minute, throwing brawling superheroes, invading aliens, and wide-scale destruction at the screen throughout its running time.
Some of the character interplay, particularly between Tony Stark (Iron Man) and Bruce Banner (Hulk) are a joy to watch, with the former's acerbic put-downs (Thor is dubbed 'Point Break', and Captain America is renamed 'Rock of Ages') injecting fun into what could have otherwise been a joyless jaunt between explosions.
The acting is credible overall, with Mark Ruffalo perfectly characterising Bruce Banner as the embodiment of all that the Hulk is not (awkward, reserved, quiet), Robert Downey Jnr channelling Stark's usual suave arrogance, and Tom Hiddleson's Loki permeating charm and menace in equal measure (Banner comments "you can smell crazy on him" at one point).
These are all positives I'd been expecting from the man who wowed me with Firefly and Serenity, and my wife with Buffy.
Unfortunately, there are quite a few problems as well, even for a comic book fan such as myself.
Firstly, there's some seriously lumpen exposition, particularly the juvenile intro scene where the alien 'plan to invade' is bullet-pointed for the audience, in case we can't follow the basic premise. I fully expected a white board and felt markers to be used at any second. The end-credit scene is in a similar vein, and is equally cringe-worthy.
A pet-hate of mine (and my wife's) is a lack of logic, and The Avengers excels in this area, with 1. The base explosion near the intro, completely unexplained, just to be accepted, 2. Loki brainwashing/controlling his 'minions' by tapping their hearts (rather than their heads, where their 'minds' are (doh!)) with his staff, and 3. Why there are numerous scenes in which the invading aliens don't open fire at the clearly exposed cops, civilians and heroes they are flying over (are they saving ammo?).
Another point to consider is the absence of the National Guard. Were they off on holiday that day?
By some margin, though, the greatest gripe I have with The Avengers, is the lack of genuine threat that Loki and his army poses to, not just the Avengers themselves, but to any modern army.
While Loki is more than capable of taking care of Captain America (then again, who isn't?), he is quite clearly no match for Hulk, Thor or Iron Man, who each take turns in highlighting this fact. In my experience of superheroes, it's paramount to play the 'heroes' as the underdogs, who must face and overcome a challenge that, at first, seems beyond them. This is what makes for exciting (and unpredictable) entertainment.
In The Avengers, there's no point at which we're under any illusion that Loki and his horde will fail, nor is there any need for concern over our heroes, since they are the overwhelming favourites to rise triumphant.
All that said, I didn't feel short-changed when I left the cinema, and this is coming from someone who generally avoids Hollowood movies. Maybe some of the more abrasive critics of the movie are right - some of us are just nerdy and want to see characters with incredible powers knock the crap out of each other.
Although I can understand where a rating of 8.8 has come from (over-enthusiastic fan-boys fresh from the cinema, typing up their reviews BEFORE changing their trousers), I can't add to it. The Avengers isn't Pan's Labyrinth, or Amelie, and in this context, it can't reach top spot or anywhere near it. If you're giving a movie with this numerous faults a full score, you're clearly in need of watching some genuinely well-crafted movies.
It's not clever, but it is BIG!