HorrorSpeak---Terror Awaits You in Every Forum!!!!: The Avengers

Was definitely an incredible movie! I'm not sure about best comic book film ever (I personally view a couple of Batman films better) but certainly awesome and well worth the price of admission.

That being said, to hopefully provoke some conversation I'll bring up 3 things I think made the movie truly great and 3 things I think could have been improved:

***POTENTIAL SPOILERS***

THE GOOD:

1) The humor in this movie is what I found really set it apart from the run of the mill comic book movie blockbuster. It's what made the first Iron Man so good and it added a great charm to the characters here. The sheer quantity of special effects in a movie like this can get mind numbing and the funny moments really helped keep it feeling fresh.

2) Making Black Widow and Hawkeye matter. It was very skillfully done on Joss Whedon's part to make 2 somewhat normal people actually play an important role in a team with several characters who are damn near invincible.

3) Making SHIELD grey. I feel it really helped to movie to not have SHIELD be stereotypical good guys but instead something more complex to reflect the complex world we live in. I imagine some interesting events unfolding regarding the council and Fury in the sequel.

THE NOT SO GOOD:

1) Lack of a good villain. I'm sorry but having the main villain be a guy who was already beaten by one of the avengers doesn't make for a very strong antagonist. The fact that he was easily beaten midway through didn't help either and even at the end he wasn't a threat in the slightest, it was the army. It's hard to not feel that this whole movie was a big setup for the sequel with the real big bad (those who saw the ending will know what I mean).

2) The heroes were too powerful. Odd statement I know but throughout the film I never felt that any of the 4 main avengers (with the possible exception of capt. America) were ever in danger. The climax of the movie was essentially watching how many thousands of bad guys Stark, Thor, and the Hulk could kill. Though that's certainly cool, it's not as awesome as watching someone in a fight for their life as Stark was with Iron Monger at the end of Iron Man.

3) It's a damn good movie so I'm really stretching to find a 3rd thing but if I have to pick one I'd say they made the hulk too powerful. Even with the fleet of ships firing at him point blank it only phased him for a second. The guy was essentially super man without the cape and the laser eyes. I prefer the hulk shown in the Edward Norton movie who was extremely strong but had weaknesses.