Saw The Avengers earlier this evening.
I think I'm with George. It was very good, but not my top favorite comic book movie. I think a LOT of the awesomeness rested on the insanity of seeing all these stars together for one movie. Really, the biggest reasons for the film's goodness comes from crossovers and buildup. After the hype cools off, and the home video releases, and the years pass, it'll lose some of that spark. It's like the Oceans 11 of comic book movies. Like, "hey! george clooney and matt damon and brad pitt?? this is crazy!"
The story itself is good, and does beat out most of the past Marvel movies from the same continuity, but it's far from a great story. Felt more like Thor's plot retold on a grander scale, with aliens mixed in. The movie actually got me more excited for a sequel and, hopefully, a Hulk movie with Mark Ruffalo who was awesome but really deserves his own Hulk movie to explore the character more. Felt like a teaser for whats to come for both the Avengers series and the Hulk films.
Which, in turn, is what the buildup to The Avengers in the past single character movies felt like. I thought Iron Man 1 was great, but the sequel intentionally held back and threw in a bit too much Avengers buildup and ultimately hindered the film. Cap America and Thor, I think, handled the Avengers tie ins much better. So overall, Avengers isn't the greatest comic book movie of all time. The multi-film buildup and crossover cast were the film's biggest strengths. But the story was far from "greatest comic book movie ever" material. Still, best film of the Marvel Avengers-continuity of films and unlike Spider-Man 3 and X-Men 3, all the previous films lead to a satisfying movie.
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So what do I consider to be the best comic book movie of all time? Well, I can't peg just one, but I can say that I think a movie with that title is a movie that has great characters, story and every element is near perfection. It doesn't need tons of buildup or a large celebrity cast to "wow" you. I think The Dark Knight is the closest to this for me. I also really like Spider-Man 2. Both are great stand alone films that really only require the main character's origin to be known, not much else is needed to follow the film and enjoy it. I also really liked Watchmen. It felt similar to The Avengers in that it was a large ensamble cast with an epic story to tell. If I had to list my favorite comic book movies of all time, I'd say:
1. The Dark Knight
2. Spider-Man 2
3. Batman ('89)
4. X2
5. The Avengers
6. X-Men: First Class
7. Superman Returns
8. Watchmen
9. Sin City
10. Dick Tracy