I really enjoyed Captain America, Thor, and the first Iron Man, but The Avengers is just a mostly boring, repetitive, excessively long mess of self-indulgence. You'd never know that the talented Joss Whedon directed -- the film has none of his trademark sly humor, cleverness or pacing.

Instead we get a needlessly long film short on everything but action. While Mark Ruffalo is excellent as Bruce Banner / The Hulk, the rest of the cast is pretty much cardboard. Frankly, it's just a dumb film and just because it's popular does not mean it's a good film.

So if you like lots of action, wooden dialog, dumb plots, and, well a lot of noise, you'll love this mess of a film. But if you expect to see a film that's better than the best episodes of Josh Whedon's "Buffy" or want more from a film, be prepared to be disappointed.