The Avengers film is, unsurprisingly, awesome. As another friend said, "Joss Whedon should make all the movies" :)
It's not perfect. There are a few nitpicks (below), and I didn't end up as blown away as I have with some other films, and some other of Joss' work, but everything it does do, it scores nearly perfectly on.
Good things:
* It's laugh-out-loud funny in places, always without forcing it so hard it feels fake when you don't get it. Not everyone laughed, or felt sad, at exactly the same time, but the film kept moving with witty banter used to shore up the plot, rather than the usual "put the breaks on, stop the movie, have a painful buildup so everyone sees the obvious joke coming, pause for laughter" which is so annoying if you've seen it before.
* The same for being moving and exciting. There are sad moments, but integrated into the plot so they don't feel mawkish if you're less affected.
* It manages to cram in half a dozen plus super heroes into one film, without seeming that their powers are arbitrarily scaled up and down to fit the needs of the dramatic moment.
* It manages that tension between the characters rises naturally out of their characters, rather than bases solely on stupid miscommunication
* The characters are integrated into the plot well enough that even if one is a character you don't recognise as coming from the comic books, it still works in film.
* It doesn't spend two hours on character building, it plunges straight into the plot, with conflict that feels like it matters from the opening scenes.
* It doesn't scrape past the Bechdel test as I recall, and the two main female characters always seem to be dressed slightly sexier than they need to be, but both are treated straightforwardly as characters, not as romantic objects. Tasha is pretty awesome.
( Minor positives and negatives, some spoilers )
It's not perfect. There are a few nitpicks (below), and I didn't end up as blown away as I have with some other films, and some other of Joss' work, but everything it does do, it scores nearly perfectly on.
Good things:
* It's laugh-out-loud funny in places, always without forcing it so hard it feels fake when you don't get it. Not everyone laughed, or felt sad, at exactly the same time, but the film kept moving with witty banter used to shore up the plot, rather than the usual "put the breaks on, stop the movie, have a painful buildup so everyone sees the obvious joke coming, pause for laughter" which is so annoying if you've seen it before.
* The same for being moving and exciting. There are sad moments, but integrated into the plot so they don't feel mawkish if you're less affected.
* It manages to cram in half a dozen plus super heroes into one film, without seeming that their powers are arbitrarily scaled up and down to fit the needs of the dramatic moment.
* It manages that tension between the characters rises naturally out of their characters, rather than bases solely on stupid miscommunication
* The characters are integrated into the plot well enough that even if one is a character you don't recognise as coming from the comic books, it still works in film.
* It doesn't spend two hours on character building, it plunges straight into the plot, with conflict that feels like it matters from the opening scenes.
* It doesn't scrape past the Bechdel test as I recall, and the two main female characters always seem to be dressed slightly sexier than they need to be, but both are treated straightforwardly as characters, not as romantic objects. Tasha is pretty awesome.
( Minor positives and negatives, some spoilers )