The Golden Age of Marvel movies is OVER

Rating: 5/10 (5 May 2015)

This is a perfect example of how success can ruin a franchise. So much money is changing hands now that the Marvel movies are quickly descending into the pattern of dumbing down - attempting to satisfy the masses, resulting in inferior product.
While still somewhat enjoyable, the movie suffers from MANY flaws, and not all are the fault of Marvel/Disney - some are to be laid at the feet of Joss Whedon, justifying my initial fears of having the tween darling master of the Buffy-verse in charge of these films.
Specifically, the love stories Whedon fought so hard to include are stultifying and sleep-inducing - or just downright Lucas-level stupid. The dream sequences he championed are also all but useless time-killers.
The movie is loaded with SO MANY one-liners, it's impossible to take anything seriously, and the jokes become tiresome. Ultron is less a world threat, and more a sardonic stand up comedian. Everyone seems to want a piece of the popularizing Stark humor (even though a Stark spoken rape joke backfired horribly with feminist audience members).
There are some excellent action sequences, while at the same time there are several overdone CGI scenes that are almost unwatchable, much like a Michael Bay film.
The addition of Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch do absolutely nothing for the movie. Both actors give incredibly boring performances, and the power set of Scarlet Witch is unrecognizable in comparison to her comic book counterpart. Baron Von Strucker is also rendered completely useless after quite a bit of build up in previous films and TV.
The character of Black Widow is basically reduced to a whore (for the Red Room, for Nick Fury, whatever).
The brightest spot in the whole film is The Vision. They achieved something special with the creation and execution of that character.
Again, it wasn't entirely unenjoyable. I love these characters and am amazed to living in a time when I get to see them on the big screen, but with all these glaring flaws, I can only give it a 5 out of 10.
I am now very leery of all Marvel films going forward, and expect nothing more than a "joke-explosion-joke-explosion-joke-lame love story- joke-explosion" formula to dominate all future projects.