WARNING! MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD! There has been some controversal opinions between which film will beat the other in the box-office and by critical reception. Although The Avengers, Marvels big smash hit blockbuster of this year, was released just last month, it is already the third most successful movie of all time. Considering this is the most successful superhero movie of all time, my review will be harsher than usual.
I would like to start by pointing out that a few names were changed for either this movie or for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Such as the Tesseract in the comics was known as the cosmic cube. The names of the villains in the movie, the skrulls, were changed to the Chitauri. There new name comes from Ultimate Marvel. In the Ultimate Universe they changed the name from Skrull to Chitauri. I believe this is probably because Cosmic Cube and Skrull aren't very good names. They probably did this to make it feel more modern.
Opening/Villains: I am not a big fan of the beginning of this movie. I like how the Marvel logo was done and the Other logos, but the opening monologue, Loki's immediate intro, the fast pace, it all seemed cheesy and sloppy to me (for lack of better words). And Loki returning as the main villain. Before the trailer, I knew Loki was going to be in this movie but I had no idea he was going to be THE villain. I am not a huge fan of villains returning and being the villain in every movie. Thank goodness OTHER villains are suppose to be in Thor 2. I expected Loki and the Chitauri to be a bigger threat than they were. I expected them to be BETTER villains. If a team of superheroes are against whoever the villain(s) are, I expect the villains to be huge I expected that since Loki was a "god" he would be almost impossible to defeat. And the Chitauri went down so easily.
The Heroes/Continuity: Iron Man was no less good in this movie than in his own. Once again Robert Downy Jr. provides a spectacular performance. As usual his humor is great. He is still very intimidating as Iron Man. This one guy who you would not want to mess with. Chris Hemsworth's Thor also brings the right mixture of comedy and action. Scarlett Johansson was very believable. In the scene were she tricks Loki, who is quite the trickster himself, she does just as good in tricking the audience. Chris Evans did almost as good a job in pulling off a boyscout Captain America as Christopher Reeve did with Superman. That's pretty good. Samuel L. Jackson did a good job as Nick Fury, so I guess this is where the writting went wronge. Considering in the comics I've read, Nick Fury is a bad-*** action guy, who can beat the crap out of you, and the other action films Jackson was in such as The Spirit, I expected a huge fight scene with him. Hawkeye was alright. The Hawkeye/Widow relationship was portrayed perfectly. What surprised me was that he never got his comic book costume in the entire movie. The Hulk. Mark Ruffalo was terrible as Bruce Banner. I am a big fan of the Bill Bixby, Eric Bana, and Edward Norton portrayals as Banner but Mark Ruffalo seemed completely emotionless, and just seemed to be reading lines off the top of his head. And the Hulk monster. BIG disappointment. I am a fan of all of the Hulk films but this ruined him. He supposed to be an uncontrollable rage monster but he just seemed like a green comedian. And now, Banner can control when he becomes the Hulk. Banner can't controll when the Hulk comes out, that's what makes it good. And the battle between him and Thor was enjoyable but could have been better. There being a winner would help. I thought the Hulk/Thor battle in The Incredible Hulk Returns was better. The Thor/Captain America/Iron Man battle was fantastic. And I am really impressed with the continuity. Any other crossover this big would have forgotten about the previous films. Thor asking about Jane Foster. Bringing the Pepper/Tony relationship back. Referencing the Hulk trying to shoot himself (an unused subplot from 2008s The Incredible Hulk). Even the fact that Tony doesn't like to handed things.
Invasion/Chitauri/More On Villains: To me, the invasion seemed to be a complete rip-off of the Transformers 3 invasion. The fact that its in New York, the portal, the "worm." Only Transformers did it better. In Transformers, it didn't seem so easy to defeat the villains. People were actually dying, there was an actual since of danger, it actually felt more of a threat. And the worm was just a rip-off of Shockwave's "worm" thing (I'm lacking a better word). The ships looked EXACTLY like Transformers 3 ships. It shouldn't have been just in Manhattan. For one, all they had to do was blow Manhattan up and it be over. And the way it ended. All they did was blow up the mother ship and close the portal. The portal was about to close on Iron Man in space. Why didn't they just wait for to come back through. And the fact that that's all they had to do. Ripping off Star-Wars Episode I. You destroy the control ship and the enemy is no longer a threat. That should have stopped more from coming and all they had to was defeat the rest on Earth. Loki. Although I hated that he was a wimp, I did enjoy the damage he does with his mouth. My all-time favorite movie villain is Hannibal Lecter. That part about getting into your head Loki pulled of nicely. There was a scene were he's in a glass cage, and talking to Black Widow and his words made her "cry." It felt so Silence Of The Lambs like. What even made more fun was that she tricked him into thinking that she was crying just to get information out of him. At the end, when they have Loki all chained up, under arrest, he is even wearing a Hannibal-type mask to keep him from talking. But what I wanted to see in this movie was The Leader. In The Incredible Hulk, The Leaders origin occurred. It wasn't even mentioned. I heard there was an Avengers prequel comic with him in it, but I haven't read it so you'll have to wait for a different review. Another thing that I wanted to know is what happened to Stan Lee's character in Hulk? Did he die or become a Hulk or what?
The After Credit Scenes: The first after credit scene involves The Other telling the Avengers 2 villain that to challenge Earth is to kill all of Earth for we will not be ruled. The villain smiles. The villain is Thanos. Great villain, but only because he's a rip-off Darkseid, an even better villain. But GREAT after credit scene. Best I've scene, as a matter of fact. The second after credit scene I could have done without. Strictly comedic reasons. But I have theory. The Other is the leader of the Chitauri, the Ultimate and movie version of the Skrulls. What if he's the Super-Skrull.
Overall I'll have to rate this film 83% out of a possible 100. This film had some great moments, but this is nothing more than a really good movie. It did not meet the near perfection of The Dark Knight and it's not the best superhero movie but it's not bad at all. Will it be better than The Dark Knight Rises? I highly doubt it. If the rumours are true about a theatrical directors cut, one theatre time was enough, but I will see the Blu-Ray. And no hostile comments, please. I wouldn't judge you for your opinions.