A marked improvement over the overrated first one

Rating: 8/10 (26 September 2016)

I was disappointed by the original Avengers. After hearing it lauded as the most awesome movie ever, what I got was empty spectacle, a movie that summed up everything I don't like about films that sacrifice character development in favor of big battles you never really care about.
Still, as empty spectacles go, The Avengers was pretty fun, so eventually, about a year after it came out, I equipped my low expectations and watched Ultron.
Ultron surprised me though, because it has what the last one lacked; personality. This movie has far more interest in its characters and ideas. It even has some angsty and rather touching romance.
Even better, the movie has a really great villain, beautifully voiced by James Spader to be both dangerously psychopathic and quite funny.
This movie has somewhat less action than the previous one, as it takes time out to get to know its people, but that action is put in context this time, so I actually care about what's going on. The final action scene is a bit overlong, but overall the action is great.
There are some issues with the special effects though, particularly in the case of the Hulk. It's something I noticed in the first sequence, which looked, especially in long shots, rather fake; it looked like something from a video game. It's not terrible, but it's not always believable.
Overall though this was one of the better Marvel movies.