Marvel Keeps Getting Better

Rating: 9/10 (6 June 2015)

Avengers: Age of Ultron was an excellent movie. I would absolutely recommend taking the time to see it, especially if you happen to be a fan of the Marvel movies that have been released to date.
I've seen a lot of mixed reviews, the complaints mostly focusing on the fact that there was a lot of story and a great deal of activity shoved into a package that was just shy of two and a half hours. Maybe it's because I spent a lot of my life reading comic books, but I didn't feel at all like the narrative was rushed or unevenly paced at all. Personally I felt that there was a terrific balance between well choreographed action and well-written character development...though I might have liked to see a little bit more of the story dedicated to The Vision, Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver depending on how it was managed. The introduction of those three characters was fantastic though, and I thoroughly loved the change in dynamics that they forced upon the existing Avengers.
One of the other negative things that I saw frequently expressed was disdain for the segment of the movie that took place on Hawkeye's farm, with the introduction of a secret life that only he, Black Widow, and Fury were previously aware of. I couldn't disagree more with those who complained about that bit of story arc, or any of the other sections of the movie that focused on fleshing out the characters who haven't had the benefit of multiple movies establishing the more human, non-hero sides to them.
Ultron was handled better than I went into the movie expecting, AI is always a bit touchy for me because it is handled so poorly in almost all cases. Ultron, however wasn't necessarily an AI, not in the sense that The Vision was at least, basically amounting to little more than a trap waiting for an individual or society technologically advanced enough to assemble it. The results would likely have been the same or at least similar if Hydra had completed the project instead of Banner and Stark doing so, the only real aspect of Ultron that was provided by Stark was the name and a sort of substrate into which the AI was dumped. I get the feeling that people who claimed that the character arc was basically little more than an AI being created, accessing the internet, and deciding that humanity was something that needed to be eradicated weren't paying altogether too much attention to the fact that the AI template for Ultron was already present, within the Mind Gem, and Tony was essentially stealing that blueprint and hoping to embed it into his Ultron project...at least that was what I gathered from the dialogue between he and Banner.
I honestly didn't see any of the flaws that I heard people complaining about at all, and I loved the movie. I don't know that I would trust anyone claiming to have liked it more than Guardians of the Galaxy, but it comes a close second to that as far as the Marvel cinematic universe is concerned, edging just ahead of Captain America: The Winter Soldier as my second favorite of these movies.
I tried to avoid any spoilers, but some tiny ones were necessary in order to counter the criticisms I've been reading from those who disliked the movie or at least aspects of it. Ultimately you're going to have to make up your own mind though, see the movie (if you haven't already), and decide for yourself whether it was great or just good...I am leaning towards great.