Left me breathless with excitement.

Rating: 8/10 (6 May 2012)

Joss Whedon finally gets an enormous budget to play with as he co-writes and directs this slab of super powered fun. Highly watchable from the first scene to the inevitable 'Easter Egg', Whedon made the crucial decision to please the fans. At no point during the mammoth 142 minutes play time does it feel unnecessarily dragged out. Robert Downey Jr. again excels as Tony Stark/Iron Man, however the other cast members deserve a lot of credit for not letting his performance overshadow theirs. Mark Ruffalo is near perfect as Bruce Banner/The (Incredible) Hulk, taking the role from Ed Norton who played the less than jolly green giant in his last big screen outing. As a friend said, 'At last they got Hulk right'. Indeed! The Hulk provides two moments of pure comedy, without insulting his mythos, a hurdle lots of comic hero adaptations fail to clear. CGI is used to enhance rather than substitute for plot, something other blockbusters should take note of. People unfamiliar with the Marvel characters could be confused as to who's who and why. But I'm sure after a little bit they'll be able to sit back and enjoy. There is a glaring continuity error though. In some scenes, the arc reactor in Stark's chest can clearly be seen glowing beneath his T-shirt, as it should be because if it wasn't glowing he'd be dead. Then in other scenes whilst Stark's in 'civvies' no arc reactor can be seen. In a film of this magnitude and budget this seems quite negligent. 'Avengers Assemble' will be the movie to beat of 2012 in terms of sheer entertainment. We saw it in I-Max which, unlike normal 3D is worth paying for. If you love Super Heroes, you'll love this movie.