Yeah, it could have been better.
There were a couple of bits where it dragged. Like half way through the movie when all they were doing was talking.
The Hulk:
And as cool as the Hulk was, I think they managed his story line pretty poorly. They made this big deal about him being this unstoppable, uncontrolable animal, yet at the end of the movie he was taking orders and working within the team. That simply didnt fit the story they had provided. He just rocked up on a motorbike and was a different character who just happened to look the same.
They could have made it more believeable if during the scene in the airship, when he was chasing the Black Widow and had just knocked her down, if he was about to smash her or something, they could have shown something along the lines of Banner attempting to take control. They could have then shown that he did exert some form of control over the Hulk, and laid the ground work for him being in control during the final battle. Because the Hulk in the final battle was a different Hulk that we were shown during the earlier movie. They were two different characters. They just looked the same. See what i'm getting at?
The Thor - Ironman fight, and the poor depiction of Tony Stark:
This was stupid and could have been done so much better.
Thor is a god and a great warrior, but he is not stupid.
Ironman is a GENIUS. Tony Stark would not have been able to rise to being a captain of industry without knowing how to talk to people and to convince them to see his point of view. Could you honestly see a person who acted like that, ever convince a board of directors to do things his way?
The whole concept that Ironmans first action to stop Thor would be violence is just plain stupid. Who would voluntarily pick a fight with a god? He would have talked to him first and convinced him that they needed Loki.
But then there wouldnt have been a fight scene.
Also, if Thor had killed Loki then and there, the Allspark wouldnt have been used to open the portal. And the rest of the movie wouldnt have happened.
Loki:
Loki is supposed to be a master sorcerer. He did barely any magic. A couple of illusion spells and they guess that covers it? Not good enough.
Plus, there's the side note of the arrogance shown by the film makers in having him speaking English to a street full of Germans. But that wasnt his fault. That was the writers.
The piss poor writing and Joss Whedon:
The whole film felt like a second draft. The feeling that I got was that they were forcing situations of conflict and not letting them occur naturally. They were just setting up fight scenes rather than them being inevitable.
Joss Whedon: I wonder how much actual writing he did for this movie? From what i've heard, he has been, a consultant if you will, for various movie scrips in the past. When the script isnt funny, they call him in to add one liners and make it funnier. I personally think that's what they did for this movie. If you compare the scripts for Buffy, Angel, Firefly and Serenity to this script, you can see that the Avengers is no where near the class of his previous stuff. The interpersonal dialog in this movie was hopeless. Yes Ironman was funny and there were some really good one liners, but the rest of the conversations were forced and irrelevant.
If on the other hand it was all Joss Whedon, then it's not one of his best.
The good bits:
Two really stood out for me;
1. The Hulk smashing Loki. That was awesome! "Puny god."
2. Scarlett Johansson's arse. Dear god! The scene where she was talking to Loki in the glass cage thingy, all I could look at was her butt. Woah.
Too long to read version:
1. Dragged on in parts.
2. The Hulk story had a major plot hole.
3. They treated Thor and Ironman like really dumb 15 year olds.
4. The writing was poor.
5. Scarlett Johansson has a great arse.
*** 3/5 stars.