The Avengers
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures | Release Date: May 4, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
69
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 43 Critic Reviews
Positive:
32
Mixed:
10
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleAmy BiancolliMay 3, 2012
There are moments of genuine pathos, genuine humor, genuine surprise. As much as the film adheres to the strictures of the standard comic-book movie, it also pops with a knowing, loving, Whedon-world jokiness that keeps everything barreling along. Read full review
100
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinApr 30, 2012
The Avengers is both campy and ­reverential. Comic-Con nerds will have multiple orgasms. I had a blast. Read full review
100
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierApr 30, 2012
Most impressive of all, The Avengers makes superhero movies new again - a colossal task indeed. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubKeith PhippsMay 2, 2012
Tasked with meeting the many requirements necessary for any Avengers movie to work, Whedon checks off all the boxes, then sets about creating new expectations for what a big superhero movie ought to be. Read full review
90
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMay 1, 2012
The real hero here is Joss Whedon, who directs the film with a fanboy's enthusiasm and a thorough knowledge of the genre. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMay 2, 2012
The Avengers kicks ass. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversApr 28, 2012
The Avengers has it all. And then some. Six superheroes for the price of one ticket... It's also the blockbuster I saw in my head when I imagined a movie that brought together the idols of the Marvel world in one, shiny, stupendously exciting package. It's "Transformers" with a brain, a heart and working sense of humor. Suck on that, Michael Bay. [10 May 2012, p.74] Read full review
83
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallMay 2, 2012
The Avengers is as brawny and lamebrainy as any comic book movie deserves to be, capped by a 40-minute assault pummeling senses as few action sequences ever have. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanApr 28, 2012
In terms of storytelling, The Avengers is for the most part a highly functional, banged-together vehicle that runs on synthetic franchise fuel. Yet the grand finale of CGI action, set in the streets of New York, is - in every sense - smashing. Read full review
80
The New YorkerAnthony LaneMay 4, 2012
This mania is what Marvel followers have hungered for, and it would be fruitless to deny their delight. As Loki says to a crowd of earthlings, "It is the unspoken truth of humanity that you crave subjugation." We do, Master, we do. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranMay 2, 2012
Whedon is the key reason why this $220-million behemoth of a movie is smartly thought out and executed with verve and precision. It may be overly long at two hours, 23 minutes, but so much is going on you might not even notice. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfMay 1, 2012
The action scenes-blissfully easy to follow-are where Whedon makes the giant leap into the big leagues. Read full review
80
TimeRichard CorlissApr 26, 2012
The Avengers doesn't aim for transcendence, only for the juggler's skill of keeping the balls smoothly airborne, and in 3-D too (converted after production). At that it succeeds. Read full review
80
EmpireJames WhiteApr 22, 2012
The Avengers have been assembled and, for the most part, they fit together superbly. A joyous blend of heroism and humour that raises the stakes even as it maintains a firm grip on what makes the individual heroes tick. Read full review
80
Total FilmJonathan CrockerApr 22, 2012
Big, brash and very funny, Joss Whedon's Avengers Assemble is equal to the sum of its parts – and for once, that's no faint praise. Suit up. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyApr 20, 2012
Whedon and his cohorts have managed to stir all the personalities and ingredients together so that the resulting dish, however familiar, is irresistibly tasty again. Read full review
80
VarietyJustin ChangApr 20, 2012
Like a superior, state-of-the-art model built from reconstituted parts, Joss Whedon's buoyant, witty and robustly entertaining superhero smash-up is escapism of a sophisticated order. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovMay 2, 2012
Fans of all that has come before (excluding Roger Corman's premature-ejaculation version of "The Fantastic Four," natch) will weep tears of giddy joy at how crowd-pleasingly cohesive – and ridiculously fun – this film is. Read full review
75
NPRBob MondelloMay 8, 2012
The banter has zip, the effects are fun, the climactic battle is decently spectacular, and if the 3-D is mostly expendable, there are a few scenes where it adds a nice kick. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianShawn LevyMay 3, 2012
Even with the flaws of the final half, The Avengers is grand, brisk fun. It comes tantalizingly close to reaching the level of the very best comic book films of the current generation. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerMay 3, 2012
The film is good enough to keep all the Marvel Comics crazed audiences out there deliriously happy while keeping the rest of us earthbound types in moderate thralldom. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayMay 3, 2012
The Avengers has been executed with all the reverence the super-fans demand, as well as the winking, self-referential humor that has made it palatable for filmgoers disinclined to take a bunch of grown men dressed in spangles and spandex so very seriously. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanMay 3, 2012
Whedon has made a superb template of an action film. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia PuigMay 3, 2012
Whedon weaves a story that allows each of the heroes to do what they do best. And while they may not have exactly equal time, audiences get enough of each to feel satisfied, but not sated. Clever work, indeed. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertMay 2, 2012
When I see these six together, I can't help thinking of the champions at the Westminster Dog Show. You have breeds that seem completely different from one another (Labradors, poodles, boxers, Dalmatians), and yet they're all champions. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisMay 2, 2012
You don't need to be a "comic-book person" to find the set pieces exhilarating. But if you are such a person, or a fan of the movies that comic books turn into, The Avengers feels like the moment you've been waiting for. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsMay 2, 2012
If the film is more solid and satisfying than terrific, so be it. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle SmithApr 27, 2012
The Avengers is neither overwhelming nor underwhelming. What it expertly is, is whelming. Read full review
70
SlateDana StevensMay 3, 2012
Because it pulls off the tricky feat of combining multiple pre-existing Marvel franchises into a reasonably entertaining and tonally coherent whole, The Avengers will likely be hailed as a kind of thinking fan's superhero film, the way Whedon's recent "Cabin in the Woods" functioned as both a horror movie and a critique of same. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsMay 3, 2012
The fiery finale is good enough to leave the legions smiling. But when a movie is expected to lift an entire industry, "good enough" shouldn't be good enough. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaMay 3, 2012
The chaos and carnage here is just a pumped-up take on a tradition that harks back to Godzilla, and harks back, of course, to the Marvel comics from which all these heros originally sprang. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineJaime N. ChristleyMay 2, 2012
While The Avengers exhibits exemplary craftsmanship, Joss Whedon hasn't made a great film. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottMay 4, 2012
They're fascinating characters, to be sure, with back stories ripe for development. But Whedon doesn't commit here, and the results are shrug-worthy. Read full review
60
MovielineStephanie ZacharekMay 1, 2012
The picture is broken down into narrative chunks that ultimately don't tell much of a story – what you get instead is a series of mini-climaxes held together by banter between characters. Read full review
60
The GuardianHenry BarnesApr 22, 2012
It's fun to watch Whedon pitch his heroes against each other. Child's play, maybe, but entertaining all the same. Read full review
60
Boxoffice MagazineAmy NicholsonApr 20, 2012
The bad news is that if you haven't seen "Thor," "Captain America" and "Iron Man 2" - that's six hours and three minutes of homework - The Avengers won't make sense. The good news is if you're a human under the age of 45, you probably already have. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenMay 2, 2012
Expected too is the result: a kind of sterile opulence or, if you prefer, a magnificent emptiness. Read full review
50
Village VoiceKarina LongworthMay 1, 2012
Every time the movie hints at something rich and evocative, Whedon undercuts it with a punchline - his instincts as a big-picture storyteller crippled by his short-term need to please the crowd. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezMay 1, 2012
The Avengers has a knockout final 30 minutes, all gee-whiz crash and bang and eye candy that makes grand use of 3D and IMAX and all the other toys. But the Transformers movies did that, too. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternMay 3, 2012
A slow start, a single star performance surrounded by indifferent acting and an onslaught of computer effects that range from seen-it-all-in-"Transformers" to a whole sky full of spectacular stuff in the midtown Manhattan climax. Read full review
40
The New York TimesA.O. ScottMay 3, 2012
The light, amusing bits cannot overcome the grinding, hectic emptiness, the bloated cynicism that is less a shortcoming of this particular film than a feature of the genre. Read full review
40
SalonAndrew O'HehirMay 2, 2012
What I see in The Avengers, unfortunately, is a diminished film despite its huge scale, and kind of a bore. Read full review
30
Chicago ReaderBen SachsMay 2, 2012
Of the star-studded cast, only Mark Ruffalo (playing Bruce Banner) and Robert Downey Jr. (as Iron Man) bring any personality to the place-holder dialogue. Overlong, monotonous, violent, and simple-minded, this is like one of those "World's Biggest Gang Bang" videos, except that no one onscreen appears to be enjoying himself. Read full review
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