Which is the closest thing to a bad review I've heard about The Avengers.

My sister didn't like it much: she was bored by the fight scenes and didn't find the characters engaging. But she's not into genre much, and doesn't read comics (and isn't comics-adjacent like me), and hadn't even seen Iron Man. So, not exactly the target audience.

I do think it was too long. The fight scenes were great, but I don't think they needed that length. And, as noted, some of that could have been spent showing more Loki-brain to me, but I guess I'll accept (ho hum) that it's crazy pouty man with no clear endgame in mind.

A little kid tried to run out as soon as the last fight scene started, and the adult nearest him grabbed him back and covered his face. But the fidgeting really distracted me.

eta: My sister was left cold by everything not Coulson, and went as far as not remembering Hawkeye existed.

The folks on the Slate Culture Gabfest podcast were all, "Big loud superhero movie, meh." I sort of feel like you shouldn't be allowed to review something if you aren't even generally open to the genre.

A couple of my friends I expected to love it were underwhelmed. On the other hand, a friend who really hates Joss Whedon loved it.

"Big loud superhero movie, meh."

I’ve read several reviews like that. Some people just can’t see past the superhero thing. Including professional film critics.

See also Dana Stevens:

As a viewer, I might just qualify myself as tired of the chokehold the comic-book blockbuster has on our culture; as a critic, I’m starting to feel something akin to defeated by it. If guys in tights and capes must dominate our summer movie screens until we’re all pushing walkers into the multiplex, I guess I’ll resign myself to watching—but what on earth is there left to say about them?

I hate it when people are purposely culturally ignorant. There's a reason the superhero resonates with the public, and it's *not* just because things blow up.

[Insert here intelligent discussion of superhero as a kind of faith, or at least moral compass, as well as a source of hope and inspiration, which I'm too tired to write.]

Were superhero comics not touchstones of modern mythology to people brought up in the 50s and 60s? Because they were for my dad back in the 40s, and for me and my friends growing up in the 70s.

My dad grew up in the '40s and would not allow us to read comics. It confused me at the time but me must have been influenced by the Congressional investigation of comic books in the 50s.

edit of Dad's growing-up time....

Were superhero comics not touchstones of modern mythology to people brought up in the 50s and 60s? Because they were for my dad back in the 40s, and for me and my friends growing up in the 70s.

I think they were, absolutely. The difference is until ... the first Superman movie maybe?, they weren't as grand as they are now. And once you're putting big stars in them, people who wouldn't ordinarily watch a comic book movie will buy a ticket, too.