It all fits together

Rating: 10/10 (22 June 2012)

The most recent Marvel comics film efforts have had several things in common - excellent casting, just spot on casting; great characters developed for years through the Marvel comics; good dialogue; but often muddled and/or derivative plots, and usually overlong. For example, Spiderman 3 had chunks of useless segments and a plot shamelessly recycled from earlier Spiderman movies, interspersed with some gorgeous moments of action. This one is interesting. It wouldn't have been as effective without all the introductory movies for many of the characters, including Captain America, Iron Man and Thor, which actually set the table for this main course. The collection of heroes make this movie greater than the sum of the individual works, it just fits like a glove. There are so many good performances - Evans is good again as Capt. A; Downey has made Iron Man his own, and he's got most of the best lines; Ruffalo is amazing as The Hulk; Johannson is solid as the Widow; Jackson and Gregg fit as Nick Fury and his top agent; and just maybe Renner trumps them all as the unflappable Hawkeye. I saw this with my youngest in 3-D, the next night I went back with both my kids and saw it again in 3-D and enjoyed it just as much. Hiddleston does an admirable Jaye Davidson-esque turn as the bad guy, with some help from an other-worldly invasion force. The CGI stuff works, interspersed with some eye-opening live action. The best moment comes when the camera does a slow 360 degree circuit of the Avengers circling the wagons in NYC. There's a lot going on here, and there still is some fat mixed in with the meat, but as a whole this thing just works grandly. Very highly recommended.