Dumb Things In The Avengers That Everyone Just Ignored

Look, The Avengers is fantastic. It's awesome. It's one of the best superhero movies ever made, and director Joss Whedon will remain a legend for being able to pull it off.

But, all that said, the movie isn't perfect. There are a few boneheaded plot contrivances and silly bits that don't make a lot of sense. No, it's not enough to ruin the experience of seeing Captain America, Hulk, and Thor on the screen together—but they're still worth pointing out.

When he heads back to Asgard, Thor makes sure to pack up the Tesseract to keep it safe from human hands. You know, because it's an Infinity Stone. But he just leaves Loki's scepter lying around for Hydra to pick up and experiment with?

Umm, we've already seen this thing can control people's minds, and Thor has already shown he has at least a basic understanding of the Infinity Stones. Even if he doesn't know it's an Infinity Stone in that moment, he's seen the damage Loki did with it. So why didn't he also pack it up in his Norse knapsack when he headed back to Asgard?

The big death was obviously retconned a bit on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., but one of the wildest bits in The Avengers is when Loki uses his trickster hologram tech to distract Coulson and stab him through the chest. It's a shocking moment, but there's one thing that just doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Loki's hologram is using a computer when Coulson walks in, which seems like a weirdly elaborate ruse to try and pull off when he doesn't even know Coulson is walking into the room. So, can Loki's hologram use a computer now? Hey, that Asgardian tech is something else, right?

When brainwashed, Hawkeye leads the attack on the helicarrier. He causes total havoc with a well-placed shot from his bow (though we can probably assume he fired off a few more tiny bombs off-screen). So, how can the helicarrier not handle the explosives housed in these tiny arrow heads?

Hasn't this thing been designed to take some damage without crashing out of the sky? I mean, wasn't it tested to take a few missile hits, at least? So, S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn't think that through before launching this thing up above major cities?

Look, it makes sense they needed a way to break Loki's brainwashing of Hawkeye and get him back on the side of the heroes. But, did it really have to be a bonk on the head?

We later come to realize the scepter is an Infinity Stone. So, all it takes to break the thrall of these ultra-powerful weapons that have framed the entire MCU to this point is a bump on the noggin? If that's all it takes, why don't they just start bopping everyone on the head? C'mon, man. That's just silly.

When Loki busts into the super secret S.H.I.E.L.D. base at the start of the film, he targets Dr. Selvig and Hawkeye as his mind control lackeys to help him escape. But, why not just mind control Nick Fury once it becomes obvious he's the dude in charge?

We've seen Loki display incredible trickery and sneaking abilities, so he could've gotten the drop on Fury somehow. Then, instead of having to be on the run from S.H.I.E.L.D., Loki could've secretly used the organization to further his agenda—complete with all its massive resources. You know, kind of like Hydra did for a few decades there.

Loki is the film's big bad, but he takes advantage of the genie Chitauri alien army to do his dirty work when all hell breaks loose. And boy, for an alien army with giant, flying dragon creatures, these guys are not very good at war.

Just think about it: everything from a Captain America punch to a shot from Black Widow's handguns to a well-placed arrow from Hawkeye all seem to be Chitauri Kryptonite. A handful of superheroes (who are, admittedly, superheroes) manage to take out a literal army of alien warriors armed with sophisticated alien weapons.

As if that wasn't bad enough, these aliens (who we're led to believe are actual aliens, not robots) all have some type of crazy kill switch that shuts them down once Iron Man manages to take out the mothership—which doesn't even have any anti-missile system installed to keep any ol' nuke from taking it out.

We're told Loki is a master manipulator and savvy guy, but his plan in The Avengers is ... not great.

So, he wants to be a king. He can't rule Asgard at the time, so he sets his sights on Earth to come down and take over. So, he gets himself caught so he can try and unleash the Hulk? Which is part of his bigger plan to build a portal generator to bring a gigantic army of Chitauri to Earth to, umm, destroy a lot of stuff in New York? Then, he's going to give the Tessearact back over to Thanos after he succeeds. And just declare himself as king of Earth?

The Chitauri seem like hired hands for the attack, but who would be his peacekeeping force after he wins this war? Heck, why does he even want to rule our little backwater planet, anyway?

The entire Avengers program is championed by Nick Fury, and the World Security Council apparently wasn't all that keen on getting super-people together to fight their battles for them. So, once a giant hole opens above Manhattan and aliens start pouring out, their plan is to just nuke the whole city and kill millions and millions of people. While the Avengers are doing a pretty good job of fighting off these alien invaders, with hardly any back up.

Why not send in the Air Force and pretty much any other support possible before giving up one of the biggest cities on the planet and writing it off as a loss?