I'll start this review by briefly introducting you to what I think about Joss Whedon and his works. Firefly/Serenity and Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog are masterpieces and are testimony to the fact that Joss Whedon ensures every one of his works have a complex storyline and have superb team dynamics. Needless to say, I'm a huge fan.
The team dynamics are here and they play out very well. The Avengers are misfits and they don't belong in a team. But the threat they face from Loki and the death of a certain character motivates them to fight in a team. While all this is good, what dissapointed me was the story. The story does not live up to the standards Joss has put up in his previous works. Why I say this, is because the story has a very basic play-by-numbers, stop-the-aliens direction to it. A little more complexity would not have hurt. In fact, it is because of the story that I came out dissapointed, from the theatre.
Which gets me to my other gripe, the Chitauri. They had virtually no back-story to them, and were not a formidable enough enemy to the Avengers. After so much of speculation on the internet about their identity, there was no redeeming value in the fact that we learn nothing about them in the movie, apart from the fact that they invade earth on Loki's bidding.
The fact that they're invading earth does not make you want to feel concerned about the common people who run around scared (in the climax) since The Avengers, inspite of Joss saying that people can relate to them, seem oddly 'detached' from society (excluding Thor here, of course). The fact that the World Security Council representing this society is seen only in shadows, does not help either.
Acting wise, everyone performed as they were supposed to. Robery Downey Jr. is, as always, superb as the arrogant, billionaire genius Tony Stark/Iron Man. Scarlett Johansson is awesome too, as Black Widow, with a past that she is not proud of. Her interaction with Loki does justice to her part. Jeremy Renner is good as Hawkeye, though I didn't like that most of his character's screen time is "compromised" (you'll know what I mean when you watch the movie).
Mark Ruffalo stands out as Bruce Banner/ The Hulk. The Hulk pretty much owns this movie. There is consensus on the fact that Ang Lee's Hulk was not a good movie. The Incredible Hulk tried to move away from the damag done, but there's been a mixed reaction to that version of The Hulk as well. But in this movie, all that is taken care of. The way the Hulk is introduced is easily the best part of the whole movie. Fans can rejoice in the fact that they finally got The Hulk done right.
But again, Captain America (my favourite Avenger) is under-utilized in this movie. neither he, nor his action scenes, stand out in the film. But the subtle manner in which he assumes leadership of The Avengers during the climax is commendable.
Chris Hemsworth as Thor is also amazing, his fight with The Hulk is awesome. Everything else, he does what is required of him to do. So no complaints there, but nothing to write home about either. However, how Thor comes back to earth isn't clearly explained (if anyone else understood this, do let me know).
SLJ as Nick Fury is superb. Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill, the second-in-command after Fury, is great too.
Tom Hiddleston as Loki is superb. His deviant, almost childish inclination to rule over mankind is deadly. No other actor can do justice to Loki's role. But sadly, he does not have too much to do in the climax either.
The action is amazing, not overly done, but just perfect. There's a lot of witty banter among the characters, in a style typical of Joss Whedon, and that had me in splits.
The action set pieces complement the special effects really well. The CGI on The Hulk, the aliens, the giant snakes (yes, plural!!) is all extremely well done. Kudos to the special effects team.
Alan Silvestri's score is great, but you are really not listening to the background music when Hulk is smashing, are you?
In conclusion, like I said, I came out of the theatres dissapointed, mainly because of the story. I expected much more, story-wise, from Joss Whedon.
I'll go with either a 3/5 or a 6.5/10 (or at the max a 7/10) for The Avengers.
PS- As for the mid-credits scene (is there an end-credits scene too?), I think they should have made Thanos speak a sentence or two.