Great film to open up the summer

Rating: 8/10 (6 May 2012)

When I first saw the trailer for The Avengers, I was a little worried that it would just end up being a large special effects feature. Part of this is because this film has so many big name actors who play so many important roles, that one would worry that there would be little character development. However, this film did not fail me, as it kept me on the edge of my seat for all two hours.
Despite all of the big names playing big roles, I felt that the characters in this movie all seemed to interact quite well with each other. This is especially true regarding the conflict that arises between Tony Stark and Steve Rogers. Both personalities fit the superhero they belonged to and both were able to interact well with each other.
I feel that Joss Whedon was the perfect director for this film as it was very in-keeping with his style. Even in the most action packed scenes, the superheroes managed to crack a few jokes will still seeming as though they were taking the crisis seriously and still sticking to the personality and ethos of their character.
This is a modern superhero film, to the standards of the special effects were set quite high early on. This film without question, met those standards. When large objects would collide, it actually looked like the objects had considerable momentum and were striking other objects with considerable force. Along with having a satisfying story, this film is great eye-candy.
Such a difficult film, is however, not without a few flaws. First is that Nick Fury is supposed the be a brilliant leader, but with so many big characters, it was difficult for Samuel Jackson's acting to shine through. The other problem is that Loki is supposed to be a brilliant mastermind, but he never acts like it. He simply comes off as a villain who was power-hungry, and in the end was consumed by his own ego. My final problem is one that may possibly explained with more knowledge of the Marvel Universe, but I find it a little difficult to foresee that. All along, Loki's plan inside SHIELD's ship was to make Bruce Banner lose control of himself and become The Hulk. This did in fact happen. However, when in Manhattan, Banner was suddenly able to harness his powers to fight against Loki in a relatively controlled way that involved taking orders from Captain America. I simply do not see how he is loses control in Hulk form in one instance and is able to control himself in another instance. These however are small issues and do not take much away from the overall quality of the movie.
The bottom line is that this is definitely a good movie that hopefully preps us for what is about to come soon in The Dark Knight Rises. I intend to see this film again after some time, and I am guessing that I will probably enjoy it.