Along with those advantages came the big disadvantage: A lot of the superhero solo movies leading up to “The Avengers” have been shaky. “Iron Man 2” was downright boring, no one has a lot of affection towards either of the Hulk movies from this century, and “Thor” was my least favorite movie of 2011.

Whedon obviously made an important decision to avoid this disadvantage: he was just going to go ahead and make every character in the movie his own. Sure, at their core the characters, besides Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), aren’t drastically different. Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) was still sarcastic, Captain America (Chris Evans) is still perfect, and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) was still aggressively uninteresting. But every character had several layers added tpothem that changed them in such important ways, excluding Thor of course.

Tony Stark/Iron Man had a certain pride for his planet and for his team that never came across as arrogance. Bruce Banner/Hulk had an argument for the most compelling character in the movie, due to the split personalities angle taken at him. As much credit goes to Ruffalo (“Zodiac”) as it does Whedon, for portraying the character perfectly.

In less capable hands, an Avengers movie would have been unbalanced, overly long, and too action-heavy. But Whedon refuses to let it happen.

The pacing was excellent, this was surely  the shortest 2 hours and 22 minutes I have spent in a theater anytime recently.

Every character gets the perfect amount of screentime. Every time you start to feel as though you haven’t seen one character or another in a while, they burst back on screen in a surprising and clever way. Whedon cleverly delays Thor’s entrance until an hour in, avoiding risk of the always dangerous Thor overexposure.

Whedon stays true to the visual style used to capture each hero in their previous efforts. We get a sample of the shaky Captain America tracking shot, the brutally unnecessary use of slow motion and canted angles director Kenneth Branagh used in “Thor,” and the focus on comedy and dialogue director Jon Favreau used in both “Iron Man” movies.

Halfway through the movie, I was sure I would walk out of the theater feeling overwhelmed by action, but a dialogue heavy second act allows a little breathing room, gives a lot of laughs, and sets up the incredible third act.

The third act contains the most delightful sequence of the movie. The Avengers assemble in Manhattan to fight off villain Loki (Tom Middleton) and his army of space guys. One moment truly left me awestruck: Whedon lets the camera loose, and it pans and swoops throughout Manhattan, slowly tracing through the activities of every member of the team. This narrowly beat out Hulk punching Thor in the face for my favorite moment in the movie.

“The Avengers” operates at its best when the whole team is together. The time they spend split off into pairs is less compelling simply because it reveals that some performances or some characters are significantly less interesting than others. A conversation between Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) is simply never going to be as interesting as banter between Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), Tony Stark, and Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg). Ruffalo could give a performance stronger than Hemsworth’s no matter what the material is, but the strength of Whedon’s adaptation of the Hulk gives him a chance to really shine.

Instead of crowding the screen, the large ensemble allows the audience to avoid the same superhero dilemmas we have been presented with since “Spider-Man” came out. There is not one mention of secret identities or vigilante justice throughout.

This is the rare good action movie. It is satisfying, intelligent, and savvy. It never insults its audience, and it moves in turn with its characters. As the Avengers mesh together and get better as a team, Whedon’s pacing and camera work improve right along with them, until everything peaks in the final sequence. I can not stress enough how enjoyable the last half an hour of this movie is. The only thing preventing me from calling it perfection, is the utter lack of a Thor death scene.

As if “The Cabin in the Woods,” probably my favorite movie of 2012 thus far wasn’t enough, I am now a devoted follower of Whedon, and against all odds, excited for the imminent “The Avengers 2.”