I originally hadn't planned on seeing this movie. It was centered around characters from movies I hadn't seen or hadn't liked. With Iron Man being the only exception, I knew nothing about and or didn't care about these people at all. But then an amazing thing happened. I got a job at a movie theater which lets me into movies for free. And thanks to a few people on tumblr I became a Tom Hiddleston fan. So with baited breath I ventured forth, promising a decent chunk of my afternoon to this two and a half hour behemoth of a blockbuster film.

It wasn't bad.
I entered into the film with a slight crush on Tom Hiddleston. I left the film with a slight crush on the entire male cast. I suppose it's my weakness, having this young woman's heart and wandering into a live action cartoon full of very pretty men making clever one liners. The characters were all fun to watch. Except for maybe Hawkeye who spends a good deal of the film out of his mind, they all get pretty good buildup and they're fun to watch even if you haven't seen the (mostly awful) films that previously outlined their respective backstories. It's a very character driven movie and the characters drive it well. Hiddleston plays a terrifying Loki, Robert Downey Jr. plays a great Iron man, everyone is just marvy. The only problem is that there's TOO many great characters. They all have to carefully divvy up screen time. Even at two and a half hours it's easy for someone to be overlooked. Loki can be utterly terrifying but you only really see that intensity once. Because the camera has to jump to the other characters and build them up too, to a point where when the villain shows up again it's almost an "oh yeah you're in this movie too" moment.

Speaking of plot, there isn't one. This is a movie that exists solely to have fun cartoon characters battle each other with a bloated effects budget. The plot is bare bones and exists only for the purpose of giving them an excuse to put said battle together. It's basically taking a bunch of bugs, putting them in a jar and shaking it to see if they'll fight. Even Loki's army seems like a non event, although the giant mechanical space worm was kind of cool even if it did look like it got lost and wandered into the set from a Transformer's sequel.

In fact, a good comparison to make is that the plot of the Avengers is basically My Little Pony in the episode where they beat Discord. Discord is Loki, the superheroes are the ponies. There's even the same number of ponies as there are superheroes. (Also, this means Nick Fury is Princess Celestia. Have fun with that.)

But the thing about the plot is, the movie doesn't really need it. Sure, it's contrived and pathetic but that's ok because the plot isn't the point, the characters are. Their wacky shenanigans and sarcastic humor is what makes the movie as fun as it is, not a well thought out story arc. On the whole it's a solid film that breezes by despite the long run time, and in the lineup of coming summer films it's a pretty good pick from the list. If you can only see a couple movies this year, this would be a good one to get the most bang for your buck.