The cinematic equivalent of Heaven.

Rating: 10/10 (25 April 2013)

The Avengers is unbelievable. Not only is this the best comic book movie ever made, but this is the best movie I have ever seen, period, in my opinion.
The Avengers was a masterpiece put together film by film, starting with Iron Man. It slowly continued to assemble as The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger came(with all of them being great movies). The first hint appeared after Iron Man 1's credits. It showed Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, speaking to Tony Stark about joining Avengers Initiative. In that one short scene, an masterpiece was dramatically building.
Director Joss Whedon, known for Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, takes the foundation that was built in the prior films and brought forth the Avengers themselves: Iron Man/Tony Stark(Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America/Steve Rogers(Chris Evans), Thor Odinson(Chris Hemsworth), Hulk/Bruce Banner(Mark Ruffalo), Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff(Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye/Clint Barton(Jeremy Renner), as assembled by Nick Fury. Whedon's scripts usually include clever banter, gripping action sequences and an air of mystery, and The Avengers is no exception. Whedon has an extreme love for comic books, and he proves it in this movie.
The acting is spectacular. They literally bring the characters to life! Robert Downey Jr. does Iron Man almost effortlessly, delivering his lines with relative ease allowing his charisma, charm and smugness to glow through; Downey IS the definitive real-life Iron Man. Chris Evans does a great Captain America. Chris Hemsworth as the God of Thunder has some awesome battle scenes and delivers the funniest moments. Scarlett's Black Widow has a backstory, and she's far more than a pretty face; she's twice as deadly as a real black widow. She also plays her character very well. Although Jeremy's Hawkeye has the least depth, he also did a great performance. Now to the 'jolly' green giant, Mark Ruffalo. By far, he's the best Hulk actor, more so than Eric Bana and Edward Norton. He does both characters perfectly, and he's the actor that stands out. Samuel also did a fantastic job on Fury. Clark Gregg's Phil Coulson comes back(sadly for the last time), and Codie Smulders makes her debut as Maria Hill(and she's a welcome addition). The villain is Loki Laufeyson(Tom Hiddleston). Tom plays the God of Mischief masterfully, and he gets the most fanbase, too.
The story is also really well-done(sorry if this spoils it for you!). It shows Loki trying to get the Cosmic Cube(or the Tesseract in this universe), so that he can have a Chitauri army as promised by The Other, so he can invade Earth. In response to this, Nick Fury assembles the Avengers to save the world. Exciting, isn't it?
The Avengers is also well-paced, at a running time of 2+ hours. The acting is perfect, the effects are perfect, and the script is especially perfect. For those that haven't any of the other films(You need to before you get to this), we've provided you just enough information to bring everyone up to speed without feeling overdone. Mr. Whedon provides far, FAR more than just a standard comic book film, but a story with extreme reason that's teamed up with incredible action and humor. Although the film is filled with larger than God characters, none are short-changed; each character is given at least one great scene to work with, and the opportunities stay fresh. The film's finale provides a amazingly deafening crescendo of action that is beyond breathtaking. Like the other films, be sure to stay around for the post credit sequence, which provides a surprising reveal. So don't walk out!
I went into The Avengers with quite high expectations, since there's a lot of hype and the films before this were great. After viewing the initial trailers and felt interested(and slightly blown away), this would be like the others. It was only a matter of minutes after the film started that I was put at ease, and just minutes later when the film CRUSHED my expectations into the roof(to death, by the way). I never would've imagined that it was possible to put this kind of magic onto the screen, what I was watching. I'm so happy that Marvel had the sense to keep these properties to themselves and to move forward with these characters in the manner in which they did proudly. Marvel Studios and Disney truly deserves the film's praise and the 1 billion that this masterpiece made. This is THE movie. The ultimate feature. It can't get better than this. See this on theaters on every showing; buy this on DVD; buy this on Blu-Ray, do all this with every chance you got. It will be entirely worth the money.
Rating: Infinity/10