Amazing Balancing Act

Rating: 9/10 (3 May 2015)

My initial thought as the credits rolled was: Not quite as good as the first Avengers, but..." And, that "but" was immediately followed with "I have to see it again, because there are more layers here that I wasn't able to completely appreciate and absorb" in the midst of all the depicted chaos.
Sometimes, you just have to wonder what it really IS that people want. Do not buy the words of those saying that this has a thin story. While the basic premise is fairly simple, Ultron is a unique and fairly complicated villain. There are 3 other new characters (Elizabeth Olsen as Scarlet Witch, Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Quicksilver and Paul Bettany as Vision). While they could've had more development and screen-time in a much longer movie, they are solid enough to enjoy.
Which leads to the summary title of this review: the film is really an amazing balancing act. I'm not sure how director Joss Whedon does it, but he's able to take a thousand moving parts, join them and make them interesting, drop wallops of action on top, AND even add dashes of subtlety that will bring you back for more. Which leads back to the beginning of my review: there are issues he throws out with ease around 'the responsibility of being a superhero' (the impact on what it means to their everyday lives), 'what it means to be a robotic slave', and even 'what it means to be a new type of AI'. None of these things are dwelt upon indefinitely, but this is the 'richness' that Whedon brings to his 'superhero cake'. It's not as deep in those tones as Captain America: The Winter Soldier was to 'the danger of government having too much spy power', but it's what makes the movie MORE than just a pile of punching and bashing.
For longtime comics fans, the origin of Ultron and the Vision are altered somewhat...but in a way that I can't fault Whedon for. While I was maybe a little dissatisfied in the change to Vision, on counterpoint, there were a couple of really cool things done with his genesis. And Bettany in the full garb is another fantastic 'ripped from the page' embodiment of the comics. At the end of the day, unless they were going to spread the origin of these characters out across multiple movies, the way it is handled is just completely sensible from a point of narrative.
So, while I still think that (for now) I'd rate Avengers: Age of Ultron a little below the first Avengers (which really was lightning in a bottle, and finally such magnificent proof that "Yes, it IS possible to have so many heroes in one enjoyable movie")...I'm anticipating that successive viewings will eventually raise that score, potentially above the first. There's just so many fine layers to Whedon's Superhero Cake.