Good, but lacking in many ways

Rating: 7/10 (11 May 2015)

First off, this movie is not a bad movie in any way. It is action packed and enjoyable from beginning to end. But with that being said I felt this movie was underwhelming in many ways. In phase one Marvel does a successful job of connecting all of the movies together, ending with the conclusion with The Avengers. I felt phase 2 did a good job of showing what the characters did in the events immediately following the events in New York during Avengers 1.
But this time around I personally felt like Marvel did a sub-par job of connecting the films. They also failed to mention a lot of the cliffhangers that the other movies have previously led the fans on. For example, why is Thor on Earth? Why are the chitauri still around? And how did they find Hydra, which seemed so deeply hidden in previous films. They act as though Tony Stark never destroyed is suites at the end of Iron Man 3, and they only mention Bucky Barnes one time, and it's just a brief sentence. I also wasn't a huge fan of the romance between two of the main characters, just feel that it was set up well enough, and felt like it was added just to have a love interest in the movie.
I just felt that the story was a little disconnected from previous films and the story of Ultron was completely rushed. It did have the marvel humor that fans have grown to expect, although I would argue this film focused a little more on the comedy side, rather than the dark story that could have been. The fighting sequences are awesome, and Ultron is an awesome character as well. Overall this is a good popcorn film, but Marvel has been so good lately that this movie feels a little bit like a disappointment. I was also disappointed that there wasn't a post credit scene setting up the next film, the post credit scenes have been lacking of late, which is also a disappointment to me. I give it a 7/10, which is still a good movie, but it could have been much better. Hopefully they do better in phase 3.