Oh, how I wanted to like The Avengers . I almost pulled it off, too. Alas, excellent casting can't save a poor script. One of the characters refers to the cold war as being over, which sets the movie in the late 80s. However, the clothing and cars are all decidedly 60s.
Someone mumbles something about a cloning project, then the whole subject is dropped.
Then nothing more is said of his apparent infatuation. The next, their only suspect is de Wynter. How they got from point A to point C is never explained. The snooze factor. Conflict isn't established until about 40 minutes into the movie.