Excellent, though they could have done better with the bad guys

Rating: 8/10 (6 May 2012)

Loki has come to Earth and stolen an ancient artifact that will give him unlimited power. S.H.I.E.L.D. gathers a group of superheroes, which they call the Avengers, to defeat the evil. Okay, the villains and their goals are kind of lame (disappointing because Loki was a great villain in Thor - although, I must say, Tom Hiddleton is still very good in the role), but the focus of this film is mostly the superheroes. Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, the Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye - with all of these guys, this movie should be a total mess. But the screenwriters (Joss Whedon & Zak Penn) have handled it beautifully, meting out dozens of great moments for all of them, not letting any one of them take over (although the Hulk almost does just because he's so awesome - funny, as he's never had a successful solo movie) nor fall behind, and never seeming too hard like it's trying to do that. There are times when the film is too thick with exposition, but the characters and the actors are all so good that it rarely drags (there's one long sequence where a bunch of characters are fighting amongst themselves that I thought felt a tad forced). The heroes' personalities and histories are utilized in impressive ways - I especially love the way they use Captain America's datedness (one particularly hilarious gag - and Whedon does a great job with the comic moments - has Captain America feeling overjoyed at finally getting a reference when someone refers to The Wizard of Oz). That this movie is anywhere near as good as it is is something of a miracle. It's pretty much the perfect summer movie - everything else this summer is going to have a lot to live up to.