Ah, cinema: the only place where gaudy, ludicrous costumes can look good.

Nowhere is that more apparent than in “The Avengers,” a comic book movie directed by Joss Whedon and released May 4. The film is a two-and-a-half hour long action extravaganza that stars a host of Marvel’s most profitable superheroes: Mark Ruffalo plays the jolly green giant (The Hulk), Robert Downey Jr. plays the tin man on steroids (Iron Man), Chris Evans plays a patriotic zealot (Captain America) and Chris Hemsworth plays the annoying blond (Thor). Add in a couple of extraneous superspies played by Scarlett Johansson and Jeremy Renner (Black Widow and Hawkeye respectively) and you’ve got yourself a team.

The movie is great as a whole, and the absurdity of the plot highlights how much fun the film is. The superheroes have to unite to fight Loki (Tom Hiddleston), Thor’s brother and fellow god, who uses a mysterious glowing “stone-thing”  of unlimited energy to create a portal to another dimension. From this dimension he brings weird robotic alien-like things to help him take over the Earth. Riveting stuff; we know.

This comic-book-ridiculousness also serves to emphasize the awesome comic-book-ridiculousness of the action, and “The Avengers” is sure to dazzle you with its expensive special effects and fight sequences. When they first meet, Iron Man and Thor duke it out until Captain America breaks up the fight in an amazing scene involving Cap Am’s omnipotent shield meeting the Thunder God’s omnipotent hammer. The result is cataclysmic, to say the least.

However, it takes a little time to get there, and at the outset, “The Avengers” appears to be just another overhyped Marvel meltdown (we’re looking at you, “Thor”). The movie starts slowly, and the audience is forced to listen to Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), the director of a super-secret spy organization, deliver revoltingly cliché “epic” lines with no impact whatsoever. If you’re looking for the Jackson lines of “Pulp Fiction” fame, don’t bother looking here.

In contrast to other Marvel movies, Jackson has said about “The Avengers” that: “You don’t have to wait until the end of the movie to see me.” We wish we had. A third-grader could have written Fury’s lines and delivered them just as well. “Does an ant have a quarrel with a boot?” Loki asks rhetorically. “You plannin’ to stomp on us?” Fury asks in reply. No, no, Nick Fury. He’s planning on giving boots to all of the Earth’s impoverished children. Isn’t it obvious?

Good thing Iron Man shows up to pick up the slack. Although Downey Jr. only plays one kind of character, he plays it well. His one liners zing, and his ego charms. The hero’s antics include asking the Hulk if he uses huge bags of weed to stay calm and mocking Thor’s medieval style of speaking (curious how it isn’t Nordic) and ridiculous cape by wondering if he’s part of Shakespeare in the Park. “Doth thy mother knoweth that thou wears her drapes?” he asks.

In addition, the movie’s humor isn’t derived solely from the weaponized cyborg. In fact, the entire film is filled with jokes that make “The Avengers” one of Marvel’s funniest superhero movies excluding the ‘Iron Man’ films themselves. The fact that Captain America doesn’t know anything about post-1945 American culture is the source of countless jokes, and the Hulk’s bad attitude provides one of the funniest moments of the whole movie.

The climax of the movie is, of course, a stunning, action-packed 30 minutes that stands in stark contrast to the terrible first half hour. Manhattan makes a beautiful battleground, and every character shines in their own personal, combative light. However, while the high-budget fight scenes may sate the appetites of most action lovers, those who watch solely to nerdgasm over the Hulk being totally brutal and/or Iron Man being a total badass may be slightly disappointed. Their action sequences earn an 8.5/10 and 7/10 respectively on the mind-blowing scale when we were really hoping for 11’s. Oh, well. Guess we’ll just have to wait for the sequels.

In short, this movie has something for everybody. For those of you who are into action-packed explosions, this movie has them. For those of you who are fans of the characters themselves, this movie masterfully bounces them off of each other in a way that makes them all look good. And for those of you who like being disappointed, well, the initial 30 minutes of the film are just for you.

You can watch them over and over again.