Unbelievably over-hyped!

Rating: 7/10 (7 June 2012)

I don't believe anyone wouldn't enjoy it and so I would recommend it, but at the same time, I felt the urge to write a cautionary review to try and add to the expulsion of some of the 9/10 star hype (and the ridiculous 1 star reviews).
I felt a little tired the night I went to watch this film, but since I'd booked tickets I went anyway. I think this might be why I came out feeling it wasn't awe-inspiring. My tiredness stopped me from enjoying the non-stop 'conceptual interfaces', the flash and the CGI, when you are less aware of these aspects what is underneath is not as high-concept as is made out. What I found was a slightly bumbling first half and an action-packed second half. I believe if you got this home when it comes out and watch it on an average TV on DVD you wouldn't be as impressed.
With so many stories to include there isn't much exploration of any particular area, we have a fair bit of time dedicated to learning a little about each character but given it does nothing more than glance across the surface, why bother at all? Why not give us more in-depth insight into the 'mechanics' of the how and why, a creative discussion on, well, something - anything and let the audience infer the rest by showing us in character reactions etc. Then let the second half let-rip.
I'm no film buff but it seems to me that when you stop and actually compare films of IMDb's claim to be equal in calibre - we have The Avengers being better than Taxi Driver, Alien and only 0.2 behind Empire Strikes Back - obviously you can't really compare the films because they're so different but it's a point about the ratings.
In the characters we see half interesting and half one-dimensional, with a strange amount of time, relatively speaking, being given to aspects that don't really push the film forward. Sorry for the lack of pro-critique - like I said, I'm not a film buff.
I didn't know this was a Joss Whedon film until after I watched it and this makes sense - a lot of his stuff is amazing and deep, subtle and telling, yet then you get other work like Dollhouse which falls down by picking the wrong kind of area to focus on.
It's worth a watch though, and if you like comic book films like Iron Man (obviously) you're going to enjoy this. For those less interested in that stuff, don't expect 9 or 10 stars.