An absolutely BREATHTAKING experience. Nothing sort of entirely remarkable

Rating: 10/10 (8 May 2012)

I am a relatively new convert to the world of Marvel. I did not grow up reading comic books, or knowing ANYTNIG about these iconic characters. My experience with Marvel began in 2008, when I first saw "Iron Man" in theaters, and fell in love with it. I was blown away by the level of storytelling and ESPECIALLY by Robert Downey Jr.'s phenomenal performance as Tony Stark. That movie shaped my idea of what storytelling and what movies could be. I kind of put that movie in the back of my mind for two years, but, when Iron Man 2 released in 2010, I TRULY began my love of Superhero movies. Over the next two years, I immersed myself in the Marvel universe. I have been blown away by Iron Man 2, Thor, AND Captain America: The First Avenger. All of those movies have been fantastic as stand alone movies. But, Joss Wheadon, the man who gave us the TV adaptation of "Buffy The Vanpire Slayer", "Firefly", and it's follow-up "Sernity", SOMEHOW finds a way to bring all these standalone characters and the elements of the past movies in the Marvel Universe and combines them perfectly together to make something wholly original, intelligent, and extremely breathtaking.
After Loki (Tom Hiddelston) comes to Earth from the otherworldly kingdom of Asguard and decides that these new people, and this new planet, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), the leader of a government agency called S.H.I.E.L.D., is forced to bring together the world's most powerful superheros, Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Dr. Bruce Banner/The Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) together in order to combat his menace. Along with S.H.I.E.L.D. agents Natasah Romanov/Black Widow (Scarlett Johannsen) and Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jermey Renner), the heroes must battle Loki's "Army".
What makes this movie GREAT is the fact that the Avengers don't get along well, at ALL, when they first meet. Captain America and Iron Man take an immediate dislike to one another, and no one seems to like Thor, as he disagrees with Cap. and Iron Man on just about everything. These confrontations make for some of the FUNNIEST scenes in the movie. THis is a deeper, more philosophical and mature Super hero movie, while STILL being an entertaining, fun, popcorn movie, while STILL being the BEST Superrhero movie OF ALL TIME. This is more than JUST an action/adventure/popcorn movie. This is every sense of the term, a MASTERPIECE of filmmaking. I would say that this movie is worth seeing if you've seen ANY of the other Marbel films, or even if you've never seen the movies, Wheadon does a damn good job filling in all the blanks of the past movies perfectly for those who haven't seen them. Either way, SEE THIS MOVIE, see it in 3D, if possible.