This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
Steve Tothill’s review published on Letterboxd:
This review may contain spoilers.
I've had to spoiler this review which probably means nobody will ever read it, but I had such a good time at the cinema last night I'd hate to selfishly ruin it for anybody else.
If your film's plot is as simple as that of Galaga (defeat the space invaders) then you really need to have some amazing characters, with fantastic dialogue driving some impressive action scenes. So its just as well that Avengers has a team of them...and a Hulk! With their origins already successfully established in other movies, they hit the ground running and the pace doesn't let up. When not physically fighting they're verbally sparing, never allowing a moments boredom, perfectly capturing the spirit of the Superhero genre.
Whedon weaves the initial introductions together perfectly and allows characters to explode into scenes as if suddenly appearing in a comic panel. It truly feels like a comic book movie, you can almost see the onamonapia as Iron Man whooshes around a faulty propeller or as Hulk unexpectedly smashes Thor. The sound effects are great, but its the visual impact of these moments that feel lifted straight from the page that really impress. When Loki is finally defeated its even presented as a double page spread. Whedon knows how to talk to his target audience, but he also speaks to those people in the cinema who are new to the genre. Tony Starks is given a dossiers on the other superheroes, Pepperpots tells him he has homework to do. Right from the start Whedon sends out a warning that you need to have watched all the other Marvel films if you want to get the most out of this one. He playfully uses Captain America, a man from another time, as somebody the uninitiated can relate to. Lost during some of the rapid injoke dialogue, Cap's announcement that he finally understood a reference was superb.
For me the masterstroke and the reason the Avengers works so well comes through SHIELD Agent Phil Coulson. Present in all the stand alone movies, he has watched these characters emerge along with the viewer. But in Avengers the connection is made even stronger, here he is portrayed as a fanboy who collects Captain America cards, seeks autographs, knows the value of a mint edition. He is the personification of the target audience and Geekdom. His death gives the movie a mission statement, Whedon is going to avenge the genre for the fans. And boy does he!