Was it great? No. Good? Only just...

Rating: 5/10 (25 April 2012)

Lots of money, lots of CGI, high-powered cast, half-assed story. That about sums up the latest Joss Whedon extravaganza.
**spoilers** The story: clunky. It doesn't flow easily. Joss Whedon's script is okay, and even hints at deeper themes, but is ultimately a bit tacky and shallow. Some welcome laughs here and there, but pretty average scripting.
IMDb at time of writing has it at 8.6. 8.6? Not even close. Flat 7 at best. I'm giving it 5 because, for all that money (and there was a hell of a lot of it), it's a pretty poor effort.
Big time films seem to be in a trend of having convoluted stories rather than great storytelling, and The Avengers follows that trend. The whole "causing dissension among the ranks" fails significantly because it relies on the super-heroes forgetting all the struggles & personal growth they've been through in previous films. The Avengers tries to present them as reluctant, and egotistical (which of course they luckily overcome), but they've already been through things like this in their own films. Why have they regressed? Perhaps the reason is that Hollywood largely eschews the time-tested concept of character growth for flashy SFX that the kiddies like so much. It's sad, and results in hollow films. Like The Avengers, for example.
The CGI: Pretty good, but has flying worms ala the latest Transformers flick, but not as cool.
The cast: Not too bad. Scarlett Johansson in a tight outfit, and the usual cast of Robert Downey Jnr, Chris Evans etc etc.
Overall, it's got high-wattage stars, lots of CGI, and not much impact, tension or heart.
Better than Battleship (as if that was hard), not as good as Iron Man 1. Enjoyable and immediately forgettable. It'll make loads of money and probably even a sequel.