This movie works well enough to get a recommendation as a movie but it works superbly well as a novelty item. This is a film where we get to see some of Marvel’s greatest superheroes onscreen together. Most of these crossover films never work particularly well but I was impressed with this.

In this film, Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr. “Iron Man”, “Sherlock Holmes”), Thor (Chris Hemsworth “Thor”, “Star Trek”), Captain America (Chris Evans “Fantastic Four”) and the Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo (“Shutter Island”) must join forces to defeat the evil Loki (Tom Hiddleston “War Horse”) and his alien army.

Robert Downey Jr. is good as Iron Man. Thor is okay as Chris Hemsworth gives a mediocre performance. Chris Evans is a little weak as Captain America. Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson “Snakes On A Plane”) is good. Mark Ruffalo is tolerabl as the Incredible Hulk’s human form, Bruce Banner, but the Incredible Hulk himself is decent. Loki is pretty good this time around and a substantial improvement over how he was in “Thor”. Jeremy Renner (“Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol”) and Scarlett Johansson (“The Prestige”) play some less powerful and more obscure heroes named Hawkeye and Black Widow, who aren’t too impressive sadly and I’d happily trade them for Spider-Man.

The action in this film is what holds it together. The dialog is fairly weak, the acting is mediocre and there are punch lines that are only mildly amusing. As a novelty this film works brilliantly as we get to see some great superheroes onscreen together for a decent length of time with lots of interaction and enough action that even puts the newer “Transformers” movies to shame (although only the first is worth bothering with anyway). I think anyone who isn’t a major geek will still enjoy this film for the action as it is truly splendid.