93% Marvel's The Avengers

All Critics (272) | Top Critics (44) | Fresh (253) | 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.

... The movie isn't so much a work of storytelling as it is a marathon of wish-fulfillment moments for comic book enthusiasts -- punches peppered with punchlines.

The culmination of four distinct franchises is an exciting and entertaining product.

It's the humor that's The Avengers' strength.

Whedon's clear fanboy glee is irresistibly contagious to the audience, whether the heroes and villains go at it with fisticuffs or sharp, witty dialogue.

Comic-book movie delivers the goods

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.

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