93% Marvel's The Avengers

All Critics (268) | Top Critics (44) | Fresh (249) | Rotten (19) | DVD (3)

Never underestimate the entertainment value of the Hulk Smash.

If you are a Marvel fan, then The Avengers will feel like Christmas. Thanks to the merry doings of the director, Joss Whedon, all your favorite characters are here, as shiny and as tempting as presents under the tree.

Ultimately, it all comes back to Whedon: His clear vision for each character and how they might be profitably intermingled; his unexpected knack for action choreography; his funny, tender, immaculately constructed script.

A spectacle in the grandest sense of the word ...

Whedon, a pop-genre magician best known for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, is a master of viewer manipulation - because he never gives up his own seat in the crowd.

The performances are so well-pitched in The Avengers, meshing with such vividness and ease, that it's tempting to overpraise the good but not great movie that surrounds them.

By the time the utterly routine (and decidedly endless) finale rolls around, Marvel's The Avengers has unquestionably squandered the potential of its premise and its cast...

Delivers big time with everything longtime fans and newcomers alike could possibly want in a summer blockbuster that definitely surpasses the hype.

This too-long adventure is a sensory overload --- complete with loud, protracted battle scenes and hunky super heroes who provide the necessary eye candy. It's also very funny, and highly entertaining.

There is much humor laced throughout the film, giving it an air of not taking itself too seriously -- which is as it should be in a film of this genre.

The Avengers lives up to every last ounce of hype.

It's a blockbuster that manages to please with intelligence and fun. Whedon makes it look easy.

It's all very smoothly done but comes without a hint of surprise or revelation.

The Main Event is pretty much what you'd expect ? noisy, overlong, wall-to-wall CG effects and arcane superhero lore ... Yes, it's all fairly formulaic, but on a Wow! scale never before experienced.

If you only see one movie this year over and over again, it'll probably be this one.

I have a feeling that this will be a comfort film for myself and many other film geeks for years to come, just like the Indiana Jones or Star Wars movies.

Whedon delivers a thoroughly entertaining compilation of the best of these heroes while never hiding either his giddy love for the characters or the wry wit that has formed the bedrock of his career.

The Avengers will surely rank among the best superhero movies, if not summer blockbusters, of all time.

The Avengers is a fun time at the movies. That's as important as anything.

Whedon gives balance even to relative minnows Hawkeye and the Black Widow by giving each their moment to shine.

The real hero of The Avengers is not Iron Man, Thor or even Nick Fury. It's Joss Whedon.

There's also great chemistry between the principals, who all get their moment in the sun.

The Avengers greatest accomplishment could be this: its ability to make an entire audience feel like children reading their favorite comic for the very first time.

The movie engages the viewer from a very strong opening sequence through the two bonus scenes included in the closing credits. The nearly two and a half hour running time passes by swiftly and leaves you eagerly awaiting a follow-up sequel.

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