The fine line between spectacle and spectacular

Rating: 7/10 (28 April 2015)

In my opinion, "too much" is never a problem if it is handled right. Everything can be on the line and happen at once, as long as it is presented by someone who can craft a story. With the Avengers-franchise, it has to be big, it has to be everything, but this also increases the difficulty of presentation. For, if done wrong, this movie could have easily become a transformers movie. The (cast and) crew deserves kudos for managing to make it bigger without losing their heads, and without losing the audience. The movie manages to present, update and focus on each of the many characters the Marvel Cinematic Universe as accumulated so far, in addition to managing to introduce new ones.
The major exception to this is maybe the Vision-characters. I am not familiar with this character in the comics, but I had a hard time understanding how powerful this character is, and just what he can do. At one point he seems like a Dr. Manhattan-esque guy, but at other points it's just another avenger-like hero. This will probably be more clear in the later movies, but that's not good enough.
Another problem this movie had was that ultron's army was as boring as any other stormtrooper-like characters from other movies like this. While the avengers did work together like a team, it seemed like many of them were at points reduced to fly-swatters. Maybe it's hard to avoid, but it's not really that fun to watch. The movie also had some good one-on-one fights (that were way more interesting).
Something I missed in this movie, but I guess will be more important onwards (with the next Captain America-movie in particular) is the relationship between the world society and the avengers. It was only briefly touched upon, but I guess a movie can't do everything.
As many others, I much preferred the first avengers-movie, because of a more interesting villain, and more memorable moments. This movie was also funny, though. Thor in particular. And the Hulk.
This is another one of those movies that you can't really miss if you are following the franchise, and you probably won't pursue if you haven't followed it. It's good, not great, and it doesn't disappoint, but at the same time it does not exceed my expectations.