Marvel's The Avengers

Joss Whedon didn’t have an official hand in any of the individual Marvel superhero movies that laid the foundation for The Avengers, but his signature is all over this one. That’s a good thing. The nerd-god auteur handles several films’ worth of characters, and the big name actors who play them, as adroitly as could possibly be expected, handing great moments to familiar heroes and fleshing out lesser known warriors, particularly Scarlett Johansson’s Buffy-esque Black Widow. Sure, there’s not much room for a coherent story, and Tom Hiddleston’s Loki is too flaccid a villain to be worthy of the super-friends’ team effort. But the action’s decent enough and the generous dashes of wit---a friendly-fire cheap shot from the Hulk is a personal favourite---and reverential, referential tone makes this a worthwhile exercise in Whedonism. –Matt Semansky