Just saw * AGE OF ULTRON *

Rating: 6/10 (24 April 2015)

And it's surprisingly bad. Whedon said that his time on this movie was a nightmare, and that by the time he finished he was exhausted to death, and I think it translated to screen. It's just tiring, tedious, well, not mess, because in typical Marvel production fashion - nothing goes really awry and all gears are in place, it's just tiring, tedious SOMETHING.
It's as generic as its soundtrack, the stakes are high, but there is no tension, none. It's strikingly similar to Man of Steel - lots of exhausting action and destruction, but the content, the drama is missing. If anyone dies, you hardly care, because so many died and have returned before in this universe. It's action without consequence.
Too many characters (and arcs of those we know are contrived or repetitive), too many action scenes going on at once, and action itself is hard to follow. Minutely choreographed, yes, but so goddamn fast that it becomes confusing. I've enjoyed many of Daredevil fights more than I've enjoyed this entire movie.
It has no rhythm and you know those wonderful action crescendos when the scene climaxes in something awe-inspiring? Like the "I'm always angry" moment from the first one? None of that here. Dull, non-stop, never-ending fighting. Its brownish and gold palette is ugly, and your eye gets tired pretty fast.
Some really (and I mean, really) iconic moments from the comic books are wasted here by slack editing and direction. What bothers me more than anything is that it's supposed to be an event movie - because we see them all team up so rarely, something that will really shake things up, but feels like "villain of the week" type of thing. You really could just skip this one and go straight to Civil or Infinity War and still you wouldn't miss much.
It's fitting that the last movie Whedon directed was called "Much Ado About Nothing". Should have been a subtitle of this one.
P.S. Also it's weirdly sexist. Does Black Widow really need to show off her cleavage during the fight for the faith of humanity? Why does Black Widow flirt with every member of the Avengers depending on the movie? Doesn't Whedon claim to be a feminist? I guess it's easy to root for Felicia Day and Anita Sarkeesian in Twitter, but when the time comes, you just HAVE to show some Russian side boob. Otherwise, why include Black Widow in the movie at all? P.P.S. Every "vision"/"flashback" was unintentionally funny. It was just ludicrous.
(edit) Maybe I painted a picture too grim here. Obviously it's not the worst movie in the world and it has its moments. But I didn't like it and that is just my opinion to which I am entitled. This post was meant as a warning to temper expectations.