Cinematic comic book joyride

Rating: 8/10 (4 May 2012)

We waited a long time for this movie. An extremely long time. After years of waiting (Have I emphasized the waiting part yet?), years of hits (Iron Man, Thor), misses (The Incredible Hulk) and disappointments (Iron Man 2) we get the long-awaited reunion of all of the (accessible to Disney) Marvel heroes that eventually form the league of heroes known as the Avengers. This film is blockbuster fanfare at its finest, as this will please the newbie new-school Marvel fans as well as your hardcore old-schoolers.
The Avengers' plot is very straightforward, very simple. Loki (you know him from Thor) has arrived in the United States and steals this ultra-powerful sphere to attempt to take over the entire planet. Your classic comic book tale. Nick Fury attempts to unite several of the well-known superheroes that had remained under the watch of SHIELD over the years in order to bring Loki to intergalactic justice. It's a good ol' good vs. evil plot that paces like a comic book in terms of withholding the juicy content until the final act.
What makes this movie work is the superb script that is full of one-liners, full of complex interactions between our heroes that all come from very different backgrounds, and contains more than enough room to allow for action and mayhem to conquer the screen. Joss Whedon's style can clearly be heard through the dialogue, and his rabid cult following (which is the strongest in media aside from Tarantino) will devour every moment of it.
What also makes this movie work is the phenomenal amount of action that you'll see from the beginning to the end. Plenty of fights, plenty of carnage, plenty of heroes working together, and best of all they make up for the recent Marvel movies that had been sorely lacking in material. Every hero has their moment to shine, from the fan favorite Iron Man to even the weaker Hawkeye. And Hulk gets to smash, a lot, and boy does he deliver in ways you wouldn't expect. An added bonus is that our heroes despite having flaws and limitations are definitely likable enough for you to root for them—even the Hulk, who had been extremely poorly characterized over the yea-decades in media. You have the great acting ensemble to thank for that.
But....
The Avengers is a great movie, don't get me wrong, it will be worth your pennies. But, you can tell they were quite limited.
Part of the appeal of The Avengers comic books were the cameo surprises and supervillians as well as the heroes. Instead, we have a villain that already was featured in a prior movie as well as nameless faceless boring baddies. And no cameos. One can only imagine if Disney actually pushed for the ability to bring in the Marvel characters already owned by other movie companies. Then, the potential will explode and reach levels of awesomeness that we see only in the comic books.
And for those of you that tell me movie companies working together is not possible, I bring Exhibit A: Who Framed Roger Rabbit---A Disney movie.
If we ever were to see The Avengers reach its full potential, we need to see Hollywood work together and be willing to bend a few rules. Until then, we get this: a great fun movie (and potentially great franchise) marred by its limited resources.