Going again this thursday to see it in 3-d.
The whole movie just flows together so well. Nothing feels like it drags at all. The chemistry between all these characters is amazing, and it's straight from the books. Wish Whedon would do more comic book movies.
Think I saw the scene where the camera pans around the team back to back about 50 times before I saw the film, and yet it is no less amazing when it's time comes.
Hawkeye and Widow held their own, just like I thought they would. Hawkeye especially was a total badass.
Loki was fantastic. I like how towards the end there was that one scene, where you thought Thor was finally going to get through to him in that cliched sort of way, only for loki to heel it up even more.
Skrulls were pretty good. I could see them returning in a later film, with their more traditional shape changing infiltration technique, in a sort of secret invasion adaptation, since the direct approach failed. Or maybe they'll even do the kree skrull war. Given the next apparent villain, they'll already be doing cosmic stuff.
Thanos is my favorite villain of all time. I hope Whedon is doing the sequel, because I don't know if I trust anyone else to get him right. But god damn, I didn't think they'd go straight for one of the most powerful villains ever. Thought they'd due Ultron or Kang first. Thanos isn't even an avengers villain. He's a villain for the entire marvel universe.
Some minor gripes
Caps suit looked a little better in motion, but it still looked a bit goofy next to everyone else's costumes. His ww2 duds do look a bit dated, but I feel like they could have done a bit better with the update.
Loki's alliance with the skrulls and Thors return to earth are poorly explained, but that's forgivable, as the movie is already almost 2 and a half hours long. Probably would have had to cut some other more important stuff.
Did they ever actually say "assemble" at all in the movie? Seems odd that they wouldn't. Maybe I just missed it.
Overall, this is my new favorite superhero movie. My new favorite action movie. My new favorite movie, period.