Fight fight fight, talk talk talk. The Avengers Show. 65%

Rating: 6/10 (7 May 2015)

Not so much bigger and better than it's predecessor (which I scored 77.5% at this site) than bigger and worser. Presumably this movie is superhero action fanboy porn. If it succeeds on that level, it was more of a letdown for me. The first movie was quite funny and I remember enjoying it...even if I now don't remember much (or anything) of it.
So, here's why I think this movie isn't that good...personally, I can't imagine wanting to watch this movie again, even if it was passable entertainment. Perhaps - one day - I could return to watch the first Avengers movie but not this one: the entire movie is one frenetic fight scene after another and whilst being action-packed, it just didn't engage me at all. A sign of a good movie of this sort would be having characters that you feel for and revel in their heroics...you want to - ideally - be exhilarated and overjoyed by their derring-do. You want to cheer them. Literally. There's just no euphoria watching the action unfold. That just didn't happen for me. If the next movie in this series is similarly "bigger and better", I probably won't watch it. Already feel that it would take something special for me to continue watching this series (I never watched the second Thor movie, nor have I even seen one Captain America movie). Also, it seems that this movie features some characters from a TV series based on this universe...so...I had no idea who some of those people were. I n that way, perhaps, the movie presupposes too much knowledge (or interest) in some characters.
There are some vaguely interesting themes in this movie but it just doesn't feel like a good story. It feels more like a Readers Digest version of a story...as told by someone with ADD. That's the critical flaw of this movie...not a great story...just a lot of fighting, some talking and then some more fighting. And the fighting - whilst spectacular - isn't particular impressive as far as aesthetics go, or drama. Instead of good drama, you just get more bodies on the screen...fighting.
A positive of the movie is the incidental humour. It's not exactly quotably funny, but it's funny in a "you had to be there" kind of way.
A negative of the movie is the sometimes indecipherable dialogue from the main cast. Even though one character has an excuse of not having English as a first language (the female mind reader character...whatever she was called) , I was amused to think that she said to the villain of this piece (Ultron, towards the end of the movie): "Do you know how to fart?". Some later contextual vision gives me a better idea of what she said...but not much.
In this movie, stuff happens...that's all a bit silly. This would actually be a good movie to score purely on a "pass"/"fail" basis. It's a pass. That's all.
In some ways, this franchise is like the Iron Man franchise...starts off well, then peters out. I do think that I've seen all three (?) Iron Man movies though. Not sure if I'll stick with that one either.
Just by the by, I noticed in the end credits listings for Film Victoria and Australia, I think. Not sure why.