Review:
Being a fan of comics and the Marvel Universe, and after seeing all the other movies leading up to it, I obviously had pretty high hopes going into Avengers, and after finding out a while before that Joss Whedon was going to be directing it, I had a gut feeling it would be well done, because Joss Whedon is an awesome director. I went within the first week with my wife and a few of our friends...made a whole day out of it. I enjoyed just about every minute of that movie, from start to finish!

All of the characters were really well done, (it helped that each of the directors from Ironman, Hulk, Thor, and Chaptain America came on board to help advise & whatnot), and each actor played their parts very well. At first, my only one real concern was that Edward Norton was not going to be returning as Bruce Banner, but after watching the Avengers, I found that Mark Ruffalo was a bit better for the role in the end...he played the nerd card a bit better than Norton I thought.

The special effects were fantastic! I found myself totally pumped and on the edge of my seat during the action bits in the movie, and the effects done during those scenes were very well done in my opinion. In my head, my hopes for the quantity of action was about right on, maybe just a tad higher, but really not by much. The action sequences incorporated into this movie were just simply awesome!

The comedy added into this movie screamed Joss Whedon (looking back on Buffy the Vampire Slayer & Firefly and whatnot), and there was just the right amount in it. It was added in at just some of the right times, and they were great! I laughed pretty good in those scenes.

The story was well done, and is close enough to the comics as far as my recollection (it has been some time since I have read some Avengers comics). Obviously, not every little detail would be added in, because that's almost impossible to do when you're converting stuff from a story that spans quite a ways. I imagine it differs when transferring from comics as opposed to books too...there is so much detail in books, but at the same time, it's probably very difficult to transfer every detail within animation and whatnot as well. All in all, bravo on the story though. Of course, that's what you get too when you chose a director like Whedon who grew up reading comics and knows the material and has a real passion for that kind of stuff...you're going to get a good movie.

Conclusion: All in all, this is a well rounded superhero movie, and may well be the best one I've seen thus far, right up their with the Dark Knight, which is probably my favorite DC movie up to this point. If you have not seen this movie, please Please PLEASE do yourselves a favor and go watch it, comic fan or not...it's freakin great! Even the action fan who isn't a big comic book lover would enjoy this movie. I have already preordered about the best version of this movie that is going to be available, because it's worth it...even with the 3D, although I don't have 3D capability. I don't really care...it's worth it in my opinion, because this was such a kick@$$ movie. Definitely check it out!