I enjoyed it, but it felt underwhelming this time around

Rating: 8/10 (4 May 2015)

I enjoyed watching this film, but I have to say the first one was better. That is to be expected I guess, as it was the first time something of that scope had been attempted and all the lead up to the film with the other films. This one, just kind of felt almost episodic rather than being an epic film. Basically, as if it was a television series rather than a full length feature film I paid money to see with some very overpriced snacks from the concession stand. Even the film quality looked sub par at times as it looked kind of drained of color. I knew I was probably not going to enjoy this one as much as the first due to the main villain being Ultron as he is not a favorite of mine. I just do not see him as being that big a threat seeing as how I have a comic where Spider-man takes him down. However, that is not the only reason I feel this film underwhelms, it is just a bit hard to explain. Overall, I did enjoy the film as there was a bit more action than the previous film and there was some cool stuff going on, but like I said, something about it was off.
The story has the Avengers raiding a castle which is a Hydra base right off the bat in the hopes of retrieving the scepter Loki used in the previous Avengers film. At one point a pair of siblings enhanced with strange powers attack and this leads to Iron Man having a bit of an epiphany. This leads him and Dr. Banner trying to create an artificial intelligence to protect the world from threats from space which they plan to dub Ultron. Unfortunately, things do not go as planned and soon Ultron is declaring war on the Avengers and has an extreme way of protecting the world!
I will say my favorite Avenger is the Hulk and in the first film they showed how powerful he is. This film, not so much. Probably one of the things I disliked about it. Not only does he not get to really flex his muscles much, the one time he does he is taken down by Iron Man in a really big suit of armor. Anyone who reads the comics knows that the Hulk gets stronger the madder he gets so this whole fight seemed idiotic to me. No way Iron Man takes down Hulk by himself even with 'Hulk Buster' armor. You simply cannot beat Hulk down like they showed in this film, he would have continued to get more angry and torn Tony Starks' Hulk Busting armor completely apart. I have read comics where the Hulk pretty much dominates the entire Avengers team, Iron Man included by himself! So yeah, they completely undersold the Hulk this time.
The film did have lots of action which was nice and it did have some good humor here and there, but it just was not up to par with the previous Avengers film. There was a strange relationship that seemed to come out of nowhere, the in fighting kept coming and going and one of the new characters is dispatched in their first film! I also think the part of the film that got my blood going the most was the scene after part of the credits as this scene sets up the villain I wanted this time. Still, it was nice to see them bring in War Machine and the battle at the end was pretty cool too, though it needed more Hulk for my taste. Ultron was done pretty good, as they found a way to make him more of a threat than he usually is in the comics, it just would have been nice if he had more lead up in the previous Marvel films as he came out of left field. I know I seem like I am complaining too much as I did like the film, just did not love it like the first one. Worth a look, but hold your expectations down a little is probably the best way to view it and if the Hulk is not your favorite you should be fine too.