Fun, entertaining super hero movie that has some flaws

Rating: 7/10 (10 September 2015)

I just read a bunch of reviews for this movie on IMDb and they all seemed to be negative. I definitely think they were being over harsh, most likely because they had SUCH high expectations going into this film. For how hyped up this movie is and how much money was spend, there are some things worth criticizing, but it certainly doesn't make it a bad movie. If you like superhero blockbusters, you will most likely enjoy this film.
I was torn between giving this a 7 or an 8. If I could be more precise, I would have said 7.4 or something. There are some really cool scenes, like the hulk-buster scene in Africa, I liked Andy Serkis in Africa, I thought vision was pretty col. The climax was pretty exciting and epic. And like many Marvel movies, there are lots of little things to notice which make it fun to re- watch.
One of the main criticisms I read people citing, was the over use of humor. This didn't bother me at all. It creates a completely different tone than a movie like "Dark Knight," but I think it works. Some of the jokes I actually thought were pretty funny, like at the beginning when Iron Man says "Good Talk" and one of the men yells "NO it wasn't!" Something about the delivery is very funny to me. Also when Dr. Helen Cho is invited to the party and asks if Thor will be there. Her delivery of that line was great. Robert Downy Jr is always funny and charismatic, and he delivers here as usual.
On the downside, the character development in this movie isn't great. I think they can get away with it because it ties in with all the other Marvel movies, so they think they can skip it, plus with so many characters, it's just not possible to really develop everyone, but some of the characters seem to act in a way that contradicts previous films. Iron Man, Captain America and Thor all seem to disregard much of what happened in their recent films. But most notably, Black Widow and Dr. Banner's romance does seem forced, and was never hinted at in previous films. Black Widow seems to have a new hero to flirt with in each film, and Dr. Banner doesn't really seem interested in her at all, even in this movie. They could have probably made the romance between them work, but they just went about it the wrong way.
Then lastly there is the issue of Ulton, his motives, and the jumbled plot surrounding his existence and his plan. It is a pretty cool story, but it really makes very little sense. It never is explained why he hates the avengers and he sort of explains why he wants to destroy Earth, but not in a very clear or logical way. Both he and vision come about so suddenly, and they are both instantly cracking jokes and coming up with grand schemes. It's not very easy to believe.
Also, the climax is sort of weird. Ultron seems like this invincible force that can live in the internet and change and multiply bodies and now has a vibranium body. But then at the end of the film, Vision "locks him out of the internet" and Hulk punches him, and now he is destroyed??? Lots of build up to suddenly take care of him really easily.
The whole movie does kind of have a weird mix of scenes trying to hard to be emotional surrounded by intense action and comedy. The first Avengers movie was much better at finding this balance.
The CGI was mostly great, however the first long shot of the Avengers invading Stryker's research base had some very fake video game looking stuff, but that must have been a pretty difficult shot to make look real. The CGI toward the end with the city rising was cool.
While there are some flaws, it takes some analysis and possibly a few viewings to really let them start bugging you. If you just turn off your brain and enjoy the action, its a cool movie. And in reality, all super hero movies are completely ridiculous, so I don't think these flaws warrant calling this movie a complete failure.
The first Avengers movie I can watch over and over, while this one I lost interest in after a few times, but I still enjoyed it very much and had a lot of fun watching it.