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Some of the characters were appealing. Loki was good. Mark Ruffalo is always appealing, Downey, Jr., too, blah blah blah. It was a good cast, but they had nothing to do. The requisite snark and work-poorly together hour, then the requisite learning-to-work-as-a-team half hour, followed by the requisite hour of Transformersesque battle of famous landmark destruction. Boring on every level.
I'm frankly amazed how unengaged I was throughout this film. There were some very funny quips, but that's about it. And after two movies already, I think I'm pretty much done with Tony Stark's snark schtick.
I know there's a freedom-from-origin-tory provided by the prior movies, but that doesn't mean a lack of any arc or vaguely complex characterization works just as well. Scarlette's Black Widow was perhaps the most interesting character on this score, and she had no previous movie (nor, like the Hulk, was she famous enough to know without the benefit of a previous movie - or, more accurately, two previous movies Marvel would like to disown.)
Granted, it's really tough to juggle a bunch of heroes and/or villains and come up with a gripping story that doesn't seem all over the map, haphazard and narratively sloppy. In fact, I can think of only one super-hero movie that managed that feat well (Tim Burton's Batman Returns). But The Avengers most certainly - imo - did not rise to this formidable challenge.
In fact, it is a complete and utter failure in my book. I don't care that four prior films have primed the audience pump and it's making more money than God. Popularity is not proof of quality. YMMV, but I thought The Avengers sucked. (oh, and for record, I enjoyed three of the four prequel movies, so it's not like I hate the genre or the Marvel films.)
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