Can't be great because the basic plot line is so tepid

Rating: 4/10 (3 July 2012)

First off, you have to be naive way beyond Pollyanna to think that the orgasmically, hyperbolically glowing reviews were NOT churned out by a PR machine.
It's getting easier to decide what makes a flick great or not. I was just rewatching Nights of Cabiria, and it's a great case for how a rock solid story and labor-of-love direction more than compensates for flaws in other areas.
The problem with Avengers is that it's a hollow concept/myth ginned up with some admittedly clever writing and CGI. The difference is that, to me, the writing and production don't compensate for a lousy core plot line.
The classic deus ex machina resolves inextricable gotchas in plot development: In Avengers, the deus ex machina is the villain, introduced at the beginning to set the plot in motion and give the writers a reason to get up in the morning. Loki touches people with a weird stick and they magically become his partisans; how lame could a plot point possibly be? I will again mention that, once forces contrive to bring our good guys into some kind of alliance, the writing is remarkably good; even enjoyable.
But I have to mention a few more of my personal bugaboos.
First off, being a sort of closet Discordian, my ears prick up when a "troublemaker god" is maligned. Loki as an evil nemesis strikes me a bit incongruous. I like troublemaker gods! They keep us on our toes, and keep us from devolving into protoplasmic sludge. I don't like seeing the glorious tradition of troublemaker gods as agents of change being blasphemed like this.
Next, look at Loki's statement of intent: He wants to take away our freedom, thereby making us free.** Why do I feel like I'm watching Dr. Evil ask for "ONE MILLION DOLLARS!" all over again? Don't the writers know that human beings have been giving up their freedom to become free as long as there has been civilization? Are you in a relationship in which you've abdicated your principles for the short term gain of freedom from abject loneliness? Are you locked into an economic system that takes away more and more of your freedom? Haven't you already internalized the view that this kind of enslavement is freedom? Don't you pay taxes so that bombs can be dropped on benighted wedding parties full of men, women, and children who haven't yet bought into this precise species of freedom? The "Loki" of this flick is laughably and lamely late to the game! You can see it's difficult to get behind the ensuing Sturm und Drang when there's nothing truly relateable at stake, on the table, in play.
** BTW, revealing this info isn't a "spoiler": It's the beginning point of the plot, not a revelatory middle or endpoint.