Marvel Avengers Assemble: Press reviews

'Epic in every sense, this sets the bar for the rest of the year's blockbusters. An absolute triumph.'

'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'

'If you like superhero movies at all, you'll absolutely love Avengers Assemble. It's got everything'

'It's a Marvel'

'Joss Whedon's lavishly enjoyable, chewily-titled film (...) is an assemblage of everything that's good about contemporary popcorn cinema; just as importantly, it's a rejection of everything that isn't.'

'Unleashing his inner love of romcoms, Stillman doesn't so much flirt with feyness here as embrace it.'

' registering strongly on the awesome-o-meter ... an enjoyably absurd and absurdly enjoyable extravaganza, both delirious and surrealist.'

'‘Avengers Assemble' may not be the Joss Whedon movie everyone remembers in 2012, but it does offer this hugely talented writer-director – too long confined to TV and the web – the opportunity (and the budget) to show what he's capable of.'

'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.'

'A shiny, caged beast of a film that delivers on its every promise.'

'As DC and Marvel dominate the cinematic landscape, let it not fall over our eyes that any of this stuff is Shakespeare, people. You'd never have caught Richard Burton coming out with that kind of thing.'

'a just-about-tolerable two and a half hours to the unconverted.'

'when the sequel comes along – and it will – the Avengers should pick on someone their own size.'

'The special effects are impressive but not especially imaginative, and the film is unduly protracted'

'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'