Watched it today. At the cinema. Not only because of the 3D; I still believe that at least the first viewing of a movie should be done on the big screen, at the theater, not the TV/computer screen at home. That comes later ;)
There's something magic about the moment the lights go off and the film starts rolling (well, the file starts playing. or whatever the term is. Side by Side and all that ;) )  You the viewer are no longer sitting in a chair; you're transported in a different world and reality takes a break for about two hours- or rather, you  take a break from reality for about two hours. IF the movie is good, that is.

And 'Avengers' is good - in the sense that it accomplishes what it wanted to do in the first place: to tell and, first and foremost, to show  an entertaining story. That it does. Of course, being who I am, I appreciated more the banter between Tony and Steve and Tony's one liners (calling Thor 'Point Break' and Hawkeye 'Legolas' ) than all the 3D gimmicks. But then, due to my eyesight problem (shortsighted), I can't fully appreciate the 3D thing; the action scenes involving big objects, such as the car chase at the beginning of the film, appear blurry to me.  Plus, as my eyes have to constantly strain to 'recalibrate' the images, they start getting teary and I have to wipe the tears surplus constantly. People in the back row were commenting about that. I'm not crying, you idiots, it's just that 3D is hurting my eyes. As simple as that.

But the downside of jamming all those characters into a 2 hours action movie and packing it with said action means there's no character development at all. We don't get any information about Hawkeye's  or Agent Hill's back story. Everyone's just prancing around doing his or her stuff. Yes, I know, shut up and read the comics. Well I won't , 'cause completist that I am,  I just might get too involved in this for my own good. My few already existing comics obsessions are more than enough, thank you.

To summarize: it was fun to watch. But no more than that.


Later edit:  found these on tumblr
http://vengerturtle.tumblr.com/post/22525488012/theumbrellaseller-okay-can-i-talk-about-this

http://theumbrellaseller.tumblr.com/post/22482065050/hemsworthss-science-bros-there-are-no-words

... so there is some character development in this movie, after all. I stand corrected.
This is what happens when I break my rule of watching a movie at least twice, preferably thrice before writing about it. And I really, really should have known better.
(Yet another) lesson learned :|