Enjoyment does not equal quality

Rating: 4/10 (16 May 2012)

I wasn't intending to write a review about The Avengers because I consider it to be one of those movies with a life spawn equal to it's running time.After the credits roll it's "out of sight,out of mind" for me.But seeing the praise this mediocre movie gets in most reviews and how it has managed to hit top 50 with an average of 8.7 I felt the need to even up the balance a little.
First of all ,I want to say it is OK to enjoy/like/love any movie.But before claiming it to be "the best thing ever" take a moment to think if enjoyment and quality actually overlap.
I can guess why The Avengers is so popular:
-it has a cast of well-known,loved actors.
-it's a comic book adaptation.
-it's path has been paved by 4 prequels(without the Hulk movies)
-it features a team of 6 superheroes so everyone can take his pick.
-it's a light-hearted movie.
-it's an action-oriented movie with flamboyant special effects.
-it's targeted at the most impressionable audience:children and teenagers.
Having all these ingredients the movie only had to play safe in order to be a box office success.I must congratulate the producers for perfectly anticipating and manipulating the public's expectations.Because people are indeed claiming The Avengers to be the pinnacle of super hero movies.
Seriously,people? As much as I dislike Batman I still consider The Dark Knight to be way more deserving of this title.However there seems to be an overall consensus that The Avengers had brilliant,amazing,like never seen before action and humor.I must ask you,have you had your memory deleted when you entered the cinema?It's true that the movie doesn't screw up in a blatant way, and has an enjoyment factor due to the reasons I've enumerated earlier, but it consists undoubtedly of the same old clichés which are endlessly used and reused in super-hero/action movies:
The bad guy threatens Earth->heroes are gathered to defeat him->they don't get along->the bad guy gives them a little beating->now they get along->the bad guy is defeated by the heroes.And guess where the final fight takes place?Manhattan Island.And guess what the government does without knowing the outcome of the battle?Tries to nuke the island.But let's forget the plot.Action movies almost never bother with it.
Let's talk about the battles.Choreography and imagination were almost absent.At times it felt like watching a turn based fighting game.And when that huge metal worm made it's entrance I really thought they will fight it together using some cool combos, but no,Hulk simply punched it in the face.And there was an interval of several minutes during which Loki was absent from the final battle.But he was probably busy commanding his army,too bad his troops were randomly flying around,uncoordinated and without using any tactics.Maybe some BGMs would've helped the battle scenes a little, but the OST war rather shy.
Not much is to be said about the characters,each have one or two defining traits(excepting Loki maybe) and that's pretty much it.The dialogue is shallow,consisting of cheesy one liners and typical lame jokes.
Maybe this movie has your favorite superhero, maybe you're a big fan of the comics, maybe you ship Captain America and Iron Man or you have fantasies with Loki ,maybe you liked the 3-D ,but think before rating this movie a 9 or a 10.