Your standard popcorn flick - nothing more, nothing less

Rating: 5/10 (11 January 2015)

I like Marvel, I really do, and there is a lot done well with this movie. However, once fans get over the fact that "OH MY GOSH ALL OF THE HEROES ARE TOGETHER AND THERE'S LOKI AND 'HULK SMASH' IT'S SO COOL AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH," you begin to see a lot of underlying problems beneath the standard eye-candy of action movies.
First of all, I have to admire how they built this film (and the entire Cinematic Universe). Giving each hero their own stand-alone film really establishes them as tangible parts of this world, regardless of how extraordinary they may be. It was a long term investment that is just incredible to look back on. If only it didn't culminate on such an average note.
Essentially, the premise is that Loki (from "Thor") has come back from the dead and has magically transported himself to Earth using the tesseract - that cube-thing from "Captain America" that can open inter-dimensional space-portals...somehow. Loki plans on stealing the tesseract (somehow knowing exactly what it is, where it is, and how to control it) in order to send a generic alien army to Earth to destroy it...for some reason. Honestly, I've seen it several times and I'm still confused as to his motivation. Is it because Thor likes Natalie Portman? Whatever.
In order to stop Loki, Nick Fury brings the Avengers together. Here we have a few more problems. Firstly, the Avengers are supposed to be practically every single Marvel hero ever printed. I totally understand that that would be impossible, but out of the few that are included, why on earth do we have Black Widow and Hawkeye? They have no powers; they're not superheroes. We're already getting so few Avengers; why not make them all super-powered? That's not to say that either sharpshooter is bad, but that they're just disappointing in comparison.
Secondly, nobody develops at all as character. I know that there are a lot of heroes to showcase, and honestly I'm astounded at how evenly the screen time is divided between them. However, without any development, there's nothing to connect to. Sure they developed in their own movies, but this is a whole new film, and as such it needs some character too. Basically, the characters just go from "Okay, I don't really like these other guys for some reason" to "Team Avengers!!" It's so generic, and it doesn't feel satisfying as a result.
After the heroes get together, Loki gets himself captured...for some reason. He then busts out, launches the alien invasion, and the Avengers go to stop him. Hulk magically learns to control his powers...somehow, and they save the day.
So overall, there's really no character development, and the villain lacks any motivation. Some effects don't even look finished; Hulk is still looks really fake, and some shots are terribly obvious greenscreen (notably when Thor and Hulk are fighting on an alien spaceship).
It's basically your average action flick: explosions, fights, destroyed cars, etc. Other than the fact that Marvel brought these heroes together, there's nothing spectacular about the film, and it's become overrated thanks to the love of fans. Nothing terrible, but nothing extraordinary either.