This was the best The Avengers movie anyone could've hoped for and I'm giving all the credit to Joss Whedon, (and to Marvel for hiring him).  Usually the screenplays for summer blockbusters are jammed out by committee, with producers and writers (and toy designers) all sitting in a room jamming more and more things into it for their own commercial or personal reasons.  By the time we see a summer movie it's been watered and dumbed down until it's hardly a "movie" anymore.   I went in expecting The Avengers to be more like last year's Thor with silly product placements for Kashi GoLean Crunch, big name actors shoved in like Anthony Hopkins just to sell tickets, and a less than cohesive plot made up of conflicting ideas from multiple parties.

Yet The Avengers isn't anything like that.  Marvel put almost all their eggs in this basket, spending years building up the individual story-lines, and it could've all fell flat.  But it didn't.  Thanks Joss.  Thank you for working hard and stepping up to the plate when called upon.  Now I expect nothing less than Joss (and more storytellers like him) to step in and clean up the messy Hollywood situation.  The recent release of Cabin in the Woods and now this film shows that audiences are sick of the dribble, and clamoring for something with actual entertainment value.  Just because it's a fun summer movie, doesn't mean it has to suck.  I was once as sick of superhero movies as I'm getting with the boardgame and fairytale movies now, but... If Battleship was written and directed like The Avengers, even I'd want to own it on Bluray and visit the theme park ride they base on it.

4.0 Stars (out of 5)

And some credit goes to Jon Favreau and Robert Downey, Jr. for showing how fun these comic movies are supposed to be.