It’s hard to argue with the statement that, “The Avengers” is one of the most anticipated movies of all time. The film is the culmination of a four-year, five movie buildup to a large-scale, multi-franchise spanning team-up movie of unprecedented proportions. But does it live up to the hype?

Yes.

Tackling a project like “The Avengers” is a huge endeavor. Establishing many strong characters and portraying the interplay between them all on screen is a task previously thought impossible. But Marvel made two decisions that made the massive project a possibility. The first was to give individual Avengers their own films to allow them to come into “The Avengers” as much-understood and familiar characters. The second was to hire Joss Whedon, who wrote and directed “Avengers.” Whedon is famous for his ability to handle large ensembled casts, evidenced by his shows “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Firefly” and “Dollhouse,” as well as his time writing for the “Astonishing X-Men” comics. “The Avengers” is certainly no exception. The interplay of all of the heroes is brilliant. From Iron Man and Captain America bickering, to Bruce Banner and Tony Stark’s combining geniuses, to Thor’s interactions with… well anyone, the personalities play off each other magnificently, and this is easily one of the most entertaining aspects of the movie.

The other, of course, is the action. Just like the dialogue, the action scenes play the Avengers off of each other perfectly. Having a cast with such diverse abilities can lead to trouble when finding something for each of them to do, but “Avengers” accomplishes this with no trouble. Each Avenger gets a moment in the spotlight, in addition to coming together for the glorious climax. The Avengers seem to spend as much time fighting each other, but it’s difficult to complain when the fights are so entertaining.

The audience is treated with a good number of unique and interesting action pieces, each one feeling better than the last. And when they throw the Hulk into the mix, oh boy.

Mark Ruffalo is the third actor to take on the role of Bruce Banner in recent years, and while I expect there to still be debate over which actor played the gamma-irradiated scientist best, I have no doubt that Ruffalo will be securing a good number of the votes, if not a majority. The Hulk, however, has never been better. The choreography, the scripting and the effects all come together to create a Hulk that almost steals the movie. Other than Ruffalo, the only other actor new to the series is Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye (although the moniker is only alluded to in the movie). While Renner isn’t given much to work with, he does handle it competently.

Following up the latest “Mission: Impossible” movie and going into the new “Bourne” film, Renner’s shaping up to be a new big name in action movies.

The rest of the cast still holds up to the excellent standards set by their previous films. Robert Downey Jr. is wonderfully snarky and fast talking as Tony Stark. Chris Hemsworth delivers Thor’s slightly silly lines with enough power and conviction to make the character thoroughly believable. And I still find myself blown away by Chris Evans’s flawless transformation into Captain America.

“The Avengers” doesn’t have a particularly great story, but it’s not bad either. It’s just there to carry our stars along an adventure and it does a great job. “The Avengers” is the most fun I’ve had at a movie in a long time, and I can’t wait to see what’s next for the franchise.

This goes without saying in a Marvel movie, but stay through the credits; all of the credits.