Over all... EXCELLENT!...

Rating: 9/10 (6 May 2012)

I first have to say I saw the film in 2D (none of this 3D nonsense for me) and even so I did find some of the scenes very dark. Also, the aspect ratio at 1.78:1 seemed totally wrong to me, most films these days are shot in a ratio of 2.35:1 and I can't see why this one had to be different (it may be a 3D thing, but it niggled me slightly). As far as performances go, well everyone did a great job but I particularly liked Tom Hiddleston as Loki.
Of course there are plot holes here, as there are in all superhero films and I'm not going to chime on about them now, I'm sure there are many out there that are better qualified than me so I'll leave it to them. What I took away from it was a very entertaining film with a lot of (sometimes subtle) humour and I really enjoyed it. The narrative did seem to get a little stuck in a couple of places though, like when Thor arrived and ended up having a fight with Iron Man, but I can forgive these because as a whole it all worked pretty well. I was a little disappointed with the back-story to Black Widow and Hawkeye, it was only alluded to quite briefly and, I guess because they are more minor characters, I wanted to know a little more about them. But over all I must say it's well worth the admission fee!... Highly Recommended.
My score: 8.9/10.
IMDb Score: 8.8/10 (based on 65,676 votes when this review was written).
MetaScore: 69/100: (Based on 40 critic reviews provided by Metacritic.com at the time of going to press).
Rotten Tomatoes 'Tomatometer' Score: 93/100 (based on 230 reviews counted at the time of going to press).
Rotten Tomatoes 'Audience' Score: 96/100 (based on 199,821 user ratings counted at the time of going to press).
You can find an expanded version of this review on my blog: Thoughts of a SteelMonster.