What's $200 million without a good story?

Rating: Null/10 (20 October 2012)

What an utter disappointment. Expected so much more substance from Joss Whedon. With so many great characters w/ great stories, you'd think the writers could have put together a good story. But no--that's not what obscenely budgeted films with the sole purpose of setting up a franchise care most about. Everyone's already pointed out all the ridiculous plot problems, so I'll just say that the writers had NO excuse when there's an entire comic series worth of stories to supply all they needed to work things out. A waste of some decent actors and lots and lots of money. (Pretty clear that the only moment Samuel Jackson actually enjoyed was when he got to walk out and blow up one of the jets. He looked bored or in pain for every other mediocre line.) I enjoyed most of the witty one-liners...and that's about it.
Shallow on so many levels...who cares how shiny the CG was or how many things got blown up? The studio may have raked in disgusting amounts of cash based on the hype (and the promise of a great story), but will anything else about this film be memorable? Can't see how Stan Lee would have been pleased...