Epic, But Certainly Not The Best Marvel Film (For Its Time)

Rating: 6/10 (11 May 2017)

Everything that the Marvel Cinematic Universe was culminating to leads up to this. And it certainly doesn't disappoint. Except story-wise.
What made the previous Marvel films compelling was how they managed to write a unique and realistic story that became the primary focus of the films rather than the overused hero-villain structure. Watching Tony Stark grow from arrogant billionaire to humbled hero, torn by war. Watching Bruce Banner suffer with his internal Jekyll-Hyde in a modern society. Watching Thor Odinson learn from Earth and become humbled. And finally seeing Captain America use his sense of duty to the US to cope with his new superhuman powers. The MCU films' most attractive feature, in my opinion, was the storyline.
I felt Marvel's The Avengers strayed from the character-driven storyline. The main conflict and growth in the film is getting the heroes to adjust their agendas as a team. But a majority of the film is also dedicated to the action, the one-line jokes, and the special effects spectacles that take up at least a third of the film. With The Avengers, we get a fun movie that diminishes the realistic take on heroes that the previous MCU films employed and puts more emphasis on the comedy and epic spectacle that is the film. There's much less room for the typical character development and storyline that we came to love through the MCU. While it's amazing to see these heroes finally come together on the same screen and work as a beautiful team, the story falls flat to a basic heroes-fight-villain structure.