"... he's adopted."

Rating: 7/10 (13 May 2012)

Perhaps one of the most fun elements of the IMDb is seeing newly released films achieve high entries on the Top 250 chart, before wider recognition gradually sees them slip down. At date of writing Avengers Assemble is just outside the top 30 of all-time greatest movies, yet still sits comfortably above supposedly inferior efforts like Rashomon, Taxi Driver, M, Modern Times and Citizen Kane.
I can only assume that it will eventually slip into a more realistic level, though it's been four years since the release of The Dark Knight and that's still in the top ten. That's not to say that this movie or Nolan's Batman sequel aren't good films, but they probably aren't GREAT films, and the lightweight and ultimately draining Avengers picture isn't really able to sit there with the classic artistic works of cinema's entire history.
This is not to be snobbish about the IMDb's Top 250... well, much. Although populist, and seemingly never tiring of Freeman-Roberts (again, a good film, and worthy of top forty perhaps, but all time No.1?) it does generally have a rewarding regard of the classics. Rashomon's struggle to break the top 50 even on a good day remains puzzling, but no more so than this somewhat hollow popcorn-fest being so feted.
It doesn't help that after so much build up - including five movies leading into this one - it can't possibly pay off all the pre- expectations. And then there's Joss Whedon's two-joke schtick, all predictable instant reverses (including the title quote) and largely uninspired deconstruction. Nowadays every film is so relentlessly post- modern that it doesn't come as a surprise, but then every film these days is also 3D, so that doesn't come as much of a surprise either.
Ultimately it's an okay movie... the jokes entertain the masses, Johansson looks stunning, and even though Downey Jr.'s schtick in the Tony Stark role already looks tired just three movies in, Mark Ruffalo does well as the new Bruce Banner. Chris Evans, used to stealing weak superhero movies with the Fantastic Four, here finds most of his character pieces on the cutting room floor, though Chris Hemsworth manages to salvage something as Thor. As the most commercially successful superhero movie of all time, its chances of repeating that sentence with the word "superhero" removed also look pretty high. But an all time classic of the medium? No, not quite.