Just WOW!!

Rating: 9/10 (29 April 2012)

I have no idea how Joss Whedon has made this film work. Not only does this work, but this is one of the best superhero films I've ever seen. Surprisingly the script isn't as biased towards Iron Man as I thought it would be and every character gets a good amount of screen time and their chance to shine. Black Widow and Hawkeye more than hold their own and they aren't just in the background whilst the other superheroes dominate the screen and have all the action, Widow and Hawkeye do some unbelievably awesome things, and are crucial to the story. The dialogue is consistently witty and hilarious, every character gets to deliver a good punchline before the film is up. The final battle in Manhattan lasts a good half an hour at least, and I didn't want it to end, the action was of an epic scope and was absolutely jaw dropping. But the real surprise and best part of this film by far is the Hulk. After 2 so- so films they FINALLY got the Hulk right, and dare I say it, he's my favourite avenger after this, and this will probably be the case for most of you when you leave the theatre. This film was action packed, but it wasn't Transformers, this film had heart, intelligent dialogue and a cast of brilliant actors playing conflicting egos and colourful characters. Every actor is spot on in their respective roles, Tom Hiddleston makes for an excellent villain playing Loki, Thor's brother, and Robert Downey Jr. is much better here than he was in Iron Man 2. The only problem I really had with it was that in the middle it dragged on ever so slightly, but this was forgotten by the time the credits rolled. It has to be said though, if you haven't seen any of the Marvel films before this, you won't have any idea what's going on, and you probably won't really care for the film until the last hour or so kicks in.
Make sure you stay through the end credits, it's not over just yet!!