Disappointment that still catches up with me.

Rating: 1/10 (22 July 2014)

Anyone that has seen my activity on The Avengers boards know my opinions of the film aren't all that high. To fully explain how disappointed I was, I have written up 4 reviews on IMDb and yet none of them, I feel, have fully captivated what I felt among leaving the theater. I saw IMDb reviews, I saw the ticket line that went out the cinema, through the food court and out the door, I saw the name of a man I idolized creatively tied onto this, Joss Whedon, and I saw that this would be what my childhood went into (because, believe it or not, Marvel, in part, was my childhood). To say I came out disappointed is like saying people got hurt at Hiroshima, understatement of the millennium.
Before I start, I will name some good things about the film. The cinematography did get the lighting and framing right that looks like an actual comic book come to life, the acting, for what they're given, is okay, and for the most part the CGI is actually pretty well done in terms of making things like the Helicarrier, the alien army and The Hulk come to life.
So with that in mind, what would be my complaints? Okay, have you ever seen a Joss Whedon TV show? Then you'll know the formula of "they argue and a tragedy strikes to make them band together", have you seen an alien invasion film? Then you'll know the routine of "the world is in danger, we need the best we can get". Have you ever seen a comic book film? Then you'll know the routine of "the hero(es) face a threat, they stop it and yet come out victorious". I don't know, I was expecting more from this film especially considering at the time I saw it, it had the IMDb rating of 9.1/10.
When it comes to a fun film, of course you don't need to make it dark, serious and as depressing as all hell but when it comes to the greats; Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Die Hard, Batman 1989, Superman 1 and 2, you get the idea, they all had elements that did make people say "something is at stake". In Superman 2, we had this all mighty and strong hero reduce himself to a weakling while others who are like him take over the world. In Star Wars (Empire and Return), that film tested the hero morally in the sense that he couldn't kill his own father for obvious reasons but it was brought back with the humor (which, unlike this film, didn't go too overboard). In this film, the only one that dies is someone who is brought back to life later so not only did that rule out the thought of "there's something at stake" but it made the motivation for the team to band together, eventually, entirely pointless.
However, I need to address something else, the humor. Oh God, the humor. Now, I'm not against humor in films but this film threw every joke it could in the way of the audience to get any giggle it could but keep in mind the best joke is "I am a God you dull creature, I will not be bullied by-" *beats the crap out of him*. That joke got an applause in the theater I was in, that gives you an idea of what the humor of this film is like.
Another problem is that Loki is too weak to be matched with The Avengers, sure, he has his army but before they invaded he was beaten in combat 3 times, once in an earlier film. Not exactly feeling the weight of him as a villain if the heroes have demonstrated that they can defeat him at every turn they've encountered him! Oh and Thor is in this film, if you remember the first film you'll see that the only means of teleportation between worlds was destroyed, they made a sequel to Thor and do they explain in the sequel or this film how he managed to get back to earth for the events in The Avengers? Establishment, whats that?
Essentially, the major problem with this film is that it plays way too safely and its predictable. Nothing happens in this film that makes you feel like "I care for these characters, I want them to make it out okay" nor "this villain is way too powerful for any of them to take on alone, I hope they make it out okay". If you want your audience member to be invested, you NEED these things to be going through the mind of the viewer. This is not on the basis of a Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders or Stanley Kubrick film, this is on the basis of Star Wars, Superman 1 and 2, Die Hard etc. Basic films that had these elements in them that made them classics.
Overall, I have bitched and moaned about this film for ages but nothing can really capture how disappointed I was with this film. It basically turned me into a cynical bastard that was aware of all the tricks and manipulative tools used to make this film have so much hype. To be fair, it could be okay for any die hard comic book fan but for those that expect this to be anything more than "another comic book film" or "another Joss Whedon film" or "another blockbuster"...you're better off not seeing this.