Has energy to distract, but little substance to engage

Rating: Null/10 (26 September 2015)

I am as much to blame as anyone for the rash of superhero films doing the rounds, since I do generally enjoy them as very expensive productions, with high energy, humor, and action. Essentially they are easy to watch and generally entertaining. Looking ahead to future years, more of the standalone films will continue to get sequels, while generally also they all start to overlap and involve each other – in particular in the two-part Infinity Wars coming in about 3 years. On the basis of Age of Ultron though, this is perhaps not too much to get excited about, because the film is not a great deal to get excited about.
In terms of action, it looks great and has lots of movement and special effects to distract and entertain; but this is probably not enough for a film running over two hours long. The plot also holds out a lot with its additional characters and relationships, as well as morality questions about Stark and the Avengers themselves. If any of this was meant to play out to be something interesting, it really doesn't have the space or time to do so, and essentially the new characters are fairly one-dimensional, while the established characters generally get by on the fact that most viewers will have had a whole film or two to get to know them already. As it is the plot doesn't really hold out much of interest, and the very busy film and action sequences do not allow much room for the film to really relax. There are some good lines in here, dramatic and comedic, but mostly the film feels too full to be able to handle doing what it wants.
Those who appreciate the bigger picture of the Marvel Universe probably love all the connections and in-jokes, and small mentions/sightings of familiar characters; however for the casual viewer it doesn't work as well. It remains too expensively big to be a 'bad' film, and I found the energy and action and noise to be a distracting way to pass an evening without having to tax my brain too much, but it is to the detriment of the film that all that energy does not have the substance to really match it.