Entertaining. Should not disappoint the masses.

Rating: 7/10 (25 April 2012)

The Avengers is exactly what I expected. It is action packed, it understandably doesn't have much time for character development (although we do see more of Hawkeye and Black Widow than in previous Marvel installments), and the relentless action is accompanied by some fairly good jokes to ease the tension here and there - especially by Tony Stark and, surprisingly, the Hulk (they actually managed to throw in at least two genuinely funny moments around Hulk's utter brutality).
The lack of character development, especially for Thor (who does seem somewhat out of place in this film) but also Bruce Banner, is probably what hurts The Avengers the most. I didn't actually need any character development since I've seen all previous Marvel films at least twice, but it nonetheless does stand as a drawback - it feels wrong even though I was expecting it considering the number of characters already established. I can hardly imagine anyone who hasn't seen the previous films enjoying The Avengers because of that.
I usually don't care that much for relentless CGI action films, but some sequences in The Avengers were so blatantly incredible that I had to enjoy them. Notably, a sequence during the huge battle sees the camera pan from one Avenger kicking butt to the other - that was really well done and exciting. Loki was once again a brilliant villain and the perfect choice for the first Avengers film.
Overall, a very good action ride bringing our favorite superheros together. The movie doesn't try to be pretentious and goes straight to business - which is what it should do.