Action followed by action then, surprisingly, some character development. Then some more action.

Rating: 8/10 (21 August 2015)

So everybody must be asking now: "Is it worth watching more than two hours of this just to get to the obligatory Thanos end credits scene?" and the answer is... yes. Besides making fun of War Machine - again - and completely ignoring characters like Pepper Potts and Falcon, there was nothing that bothered me tremendously about this film. Keep in mind that it is a comic book film with superheros that dress funny, though.
The villain is pretty menacing, the interaction between the Avengers goes well beyond killing enemies in each other's blind spot and the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver addition was interesting, though kind of condescending. I mean, if they want to ban Tin-tin cartoons for racist depictions of African people, they should stop at one moment or another inventing countries with Slavic names and filling them with helpless women and children with names just as ridiculous and toy soldier police and army forces. I am just saying.
What I thought was better than I was expecting from an Avengers movie were the underlying character stories. Thanks to Scarlet Witch we see bits of our heros' histories, we get to know Hawkeye a little better and understand his role in a team of superpowered individuals, he see the romantic side of Black Widow and the Hulk... yes, you read that right... and we get to see Captain America and Tony Stark having ideological arguments that divide the team. Of course, they carry them with vibranium shield throws and energy beams, like men do... don't they?
I loved the character of The Vision, a freak hybrid between a servile AI and a full psycho AI, holding the power of an Infinity Stone and having a 3D printed body that is half alive, half vibranium. I share his view of humanity as queer pets that you have to enjoy during their short life.
What I didn't like is that they upped the ante of what the Avengers can do, just because they could. In the end this diminished the level of empathy that one can feel for superhumans like that and removed from the quality of storytelling. Also, another film in which artificial intelligence builds bodies and kills people. Why would it? Ultron's motivation was completely unexplored and his philosophy and references to Pinocchio made no sense at all. OK, it was meant to be insane, but even insanity has purpose and sense. Overall, I think the biggest problem with the film was that it had too much of a budget.
Bottom line: brainless fun, but fun nonetheless. Less humor than expected, with Ultron teasing an interesting character with his jokes, but then devolving to a classic villain in the sea of special effects that filled most of the movie. You get to know the Avengers more, as well, which was nice.