Age of Ultron is Whedon's response to the nitpickers for The Avengers

Rating: 8/10 (14 May 2015)

Avengers: Age of Ultron is action packed we jump right into the action, it's thrilling, exciting, and more importantly much more layered than I thought it would be. We all know these characters but what happened here is that we get to see them. Who they are and how they are when they're not protecting/avenging something. The first movie was basically the meet-up, "the first day at school" but now they all know each other, they've been working together for some time and you can feel and see it in this movie. Age of Ultron goes deeper with the relationship between the Avengers, and it goes deeper into the characters' personalities. Black Widow's back story is definitely the most interesting one, it gave her an emotional layer that she didn't really have. It made me feel like we finally got a glimpse of who she is deep down - who Barton knows her to be.
Speaking of Barton, he is in Age of Ultron what Hulk was in The Avengers. He kind of steal the show, he has some funny scenes, and through him Whedon addresses most of the criticism made to The Avengers and particularly to the ones about Hawkeye. It is almost like Clint Barton is pulling a Deadpool on us by breaking the fourth wall because he is very aware of how his character was treated in the first movie and how his weapon of choice might not be the best for a battle against robots. He's maybe not addressing the audience directly but he might as well.
In contrast to Barton, Hulk was actually like I expected him to be in the first film, slightly tortured, complex, and not completely comfortable with what he is. I'll admit it doesn't perfectly add up to the Hulk we've previously seen but I chucked it up to Banner having battle fatigue. As for his romance with Natasha, Widow made me buy into in once she explained why she liked him.
As villains go, Ultron was a worthy one. He was smart, sarcastic, and has a child-like innocence in his ruthlessness. Some might like Loki a little bit more but to me it's due to the fact that we've got to know Loki in a few films over the years, and it's jealousy that fuels him something we can all relate to and that Ultron does not have. As for Baron Von Strucker was window dressing in the movie - not that I was expecting a lot more of him - his real purpose was to introduce the twins in the end-credit scene in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
Whatever you may thing about their East Europeans accents Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver were pretty cool. They're powerful, they're new, and at the same time you could feel them striving for more so they quite seamlessly joined the team. They were avengers from the beginning, they had something to avenge from the start.
One of the good things with Avengers: Age of Ultron is that from start to finish the story is easily followed and we can already see the ramification the events in the film will have but the interest stays intact.
Age of Ultron is definitely less Disney. It's darker, more serious, and adult but children can obviously enjoy as well that what the comic relieves are for. What took it up a notch was the danger factor, there's a death in the film - a real one I hope. @wornoutspines