First off, I would not pay extra for the 3D version if were to see this again. But for a few scenes, the technology was wasted. Second, like any movie with an ensemble cast, any one of which could have been the main star, the camera has to jump around a lot to give each “hero” his/her screen time. That kinda diluted the character development. Okay, ‘nuf of my petty peeves. This was an excellent action film, well-deserving of all the hype. Downey/Stark/Ironman steals the show as soon as he appears, but the biggest applause goes to Ruffalo/Banner/Hulk. Not only can “the other guy” out-punch the entire gang of superheros and an entire alien army, he gets the biggest laugh of the entire 2 hours and 23 minutes when…. Oh, you’ll know when. I rather hope there are some one off sequels to the individual Marvel hero stories (Hulk II, Black Widow origin, Hawk origin, Iron Man III) before Avengers II, but I suspect greed will override any delay. Don’t you dare leave before all the credits are done rolling. A little loose end is tied up nicely.

The Avengers film has been building up since the first Iron Man film introdced Tony Stark to Nick Fury. So, after almost 6 films later, I expected this movie to go into full adventure mode. However, it came to my attention that some people may not have seen all the Marvel films and thus need a little background in order to understand what’s going on.

While the first act is full of that build up for the unknowing movie goer, I felt the first quarter of the movie was too slow. However, once all the players are in place, the film goes into hyper-mode and it is a thrill a minute.

By far the most violent film with the least number of obscenities ever! The secret scene at the end contains a character that only hard core readers of Marvel will know and oh did that appearance get me geared up for not only the more-than-likely sequel but for Iron Man 3, Capt. America 2, and Thor 2.

Keep it up Marvel!

WOrth Consuming.