The Avengers

RATING: A+

There was a time when the idea of this movie seemed risky; if it fell apart, it'd be a massive failure for everyone involved, and the successful build-up that they had created up to that point (with the solo Iron Man, Thor and Captain America movies) would ultimately have been for nothing. Four years later, now they're trying to do more and more movies like this; they're trying to do the same thing with the Justice League. 

This movie was pretty much every fanboy's ultimate dream ever; combining the forces of Iron Man, Captain America, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Black Widow, and some archer guy named Hawkeye into one. And that was before they added even more guys later on in these Avengers movies! It's all of these guys versus Loki, Thor's brother, and some alien army he's allied with in order to take control of the Earth.

The film takes an oddly simplistic approach, having established its universe in previous films. Bad guy shows up (previously thought dead). Team comes together; fails against the bad guy on first try. Team then *truly* comes together, and defeats bad guy easily. That's more or less how it goes. It's a formula we've seen before (and since, probably). 

So what made this movie such a huge success? Well, the tougher question to ask would be what *wasn't* successful about it. It's undeniably awesome to see all these heroes together at once and fighting against different enemies; and the script is brilliantly written, courtesy of Joss Whedon (also directing), loaded with humor at every turn; whether it's the film poking fun at itself, or characters poking fun at each other (physically or verbally). The film's all-star cast delivers.

So what ultimately is there negative to say about this film? Very little; and what there might be to gripe about are very, very minor occasional gripes. Even non comic-book fans can get in pretty easily without being confused (as long as they've seen the previous movies in this series, anyway).

This movie is basically the perfect blend of action and comedy; it's pretty likable even for people who aren't quite as big of fans of superhero movies. It's definitely one of the best movies of the decade, if not the best. You've probably already seen it, but if you haven't, you still should; this is an action movie that's about as much as fun as they come.