How to Play It Safe, by Joss Whedon

Rating: 7/10 (16 August 2013)

Walking into the movie theatre, I didn't expect very much. I'm glad I didn't, or I would've been disappointed. The movie starts off slowly, and from the get go, everything about it seems... for lack of a better word, dull. With the success of DC Comic's The Dark Knight, the shoes for superhero flicks were large to fill. Marvel's counterpart failed to deliver the same grandiose style, riveting story, and memorable performances.
To start off with, the story felt like a patchwork of scenes put together simply to bring earth's mightiest heroes together for what would turn out to be a forty-five minute, Transformers-esque brawl. Some people may say, "That sounds awesome! Why are you complaining?" If you said that, this movie is for you. If you want a little more than "HULK SMASH!", look somewhere else.
To Joss Whedon's credit, he saw that he had a potential home run and did everything possible not to screw it up. If his goal was to make as much money as possible, he was extremely successful. However, because of this "playing it safe" philosophy, the movie relies far too heavily on unexplained coincidences in the plot, character backgrounds found in previous Marvel flicks and also, without giving away any spoilers, blatantly ripping off the ending to a certain Star Wars movie that was panned by critics. The Avengers is a decent popcorn flick that killed at the box office; however, it does not transcend the superhero genre to become a truly great film.