Why All This Hate I'm Seeing? Age of Ultron was GREAT!

Rating: 9/10 (21 May 2015)

Let's get something straight: the first Avengers movie was not the pinnacle of geek fantasy that everyone seems to remember it was. It has issues with its pacing in the first act, Loki and the Ch'Taari never amount to more than an army for the Avengers to fight, and the entire climax was bloated and overlong with only three changes to the status quo: the portal opening, the nuke, and the portal closing. If anything, THIS movie elevates the Ch'Taari to something bigger than "the bad guys".
I think that everyone is starting to see those flaws in Age of Ultron, as the movie has those same flaws. But that doesn't mean Age of Ultron isn't a great film. So this will be less of a review and more a counter-argument to the most common complaints.
"There's a lack of character development". Wrong. Hawkeye is made more interesting and 3-dimensional, Tony Stark has a revelation about how vulnerable the Earth is which puts his view of it and the cosmos into a whole new perspective, Black Widow's relationship with the Hulk is further developed, Widow's backstory is fleshed out more, and the Twins (who I don't think are ever referred to by their superhero names) go through an arc of their own (which I won't spoil). Besides, let's not forget that Tony's arc in the first movie basically amounted to going from, "Uh, his first name is 'Agent'" to "His name was Phil" and that Hawkeye didn't even get an arc.
"There are too many jokes." It's a Marvel movie directed by Joss Whedon, what was everyone expecting? Nolan's schlock? When a scene wanted to be dramatic, it was dramatic. When a scene was supposed to be lighter, the characters made quips. No one made any jokes when they were defending the control rod from Ultron, or when they were debating over the possible nature of The Vision (you know, the red-faced blue-eyed guy from the trailers?).
"It's the same as the last one." Actually, it's not. The first one was a big, dumb comic book movie that brought four different franchises together for a massive crossover, and the movie itself had little to do with its predecessors outside of one line from Nick Fury.
Age of Ultron is also a big crossover, but with a villain who makes a lot of philosophical observations about the nature of existence and what he perceives to be the human race's stagnancy, thereby making him the good guy in his own eyes. The movie even starts where Cap 2: The Winter Soldier left off, with the whole Avengers team assembled to eradicate what's left of HYDRA. And Tony never said he was going anywhere at the end of Iron Man 3. Sheesh, you REALLY thought that Mr. Genius Billionaire Playboy Philanthropist was going to give up being a superhero with HIS ego?
Really, the only complaint I have with the film is James Spader's performance as Ultron. He could've been a lot funnier or a lot more threatening, and for some reason Joss decided to go halfway, leaving us with an Ultron who's definitely interesting and unsympathetic, but not very compelling in his own right. Ultron could've still been funny if his humor had been unintentional, and I could easily see all of his scenes being rewritten to keep the jokes without sacrificing his threat factor. Alas, twas not to be.
Besides, we all know Tom Kane would've OWNED Ultron, am I right?
There is a moment where both times I saw this movie in two different theaters I heard the entire audience collectively gasp, a moment which I dare not spoil because of how mind-blowing it is. Go see Age of Ultron so that you may experience that moment.