Quantity over quality all along

Rating: 4/10 (11 November 2017)

"Avengers: Age of Ultron" is a 2015 superhero movie and the first sequel to the super successful "The Avengers". Joss Whedon directs again and he is also among the writing team. The cast includes all the familiar faces like Downey, Johansson, Evans, Hemsworth, Ruffalo, Evans, Jackson, Renner... but they added some okay names too like Elizabeth Olsen or Sam Taylor-Johnson. The latter 2 play enemies early on, but when they realize what Ultron has really in mind, they quickly change sites. The danger is Avenger-made this time as it's Stark (and Banner) who created this mess that endangers all civilization now. Their intentions may have been noble, but shame that Ultron is not really capable of making a difference between good and evil and between cause of and reaction to violence. So he quickly becomes the Avengers' biggest nightmare. I personally was a bit surprised that Fury did not really teach the two culprits a lesson for what they secretly did. Honestly, everybody except Iron Man who was the initiator would have gotten their fair share of confrontation and criticism.
As for the overall quality of this film, I was pretty disappointed I must admit. The film runs for over 2 hours and 20 minutes and while it did not drag too hard admittedly, it all felt so generic and uninspired. It's actually pretty difficult to say what was the weakest about this one. Maybe the constantly desperate attempts at funny one-liners that make even a great actor like SLJ look weak. Then again Nick Fury is definitely not his best role, just his most known perhaps. Or was it how weak the villain felt. They had such an extraordinary actor like James Spader at their disposal and he felt almost completely wasted. I really never felt as if Ultron was menacing enough that they needed everybody to take care of him. And that this would not be enough even. The references about the Avengers with their bond fighting Ultron who had many soldiers, but zero strings felt desperately rushed in to give the fight scenes some deeper meaning. It all felt pseudo and for the sake of it all to me. This was a very bloated movie for sure, delivering from the technical perspective, but only there. Slightly memorable scenes like Hawkeye's family stayed the exception. It was all very shallow and very superficial.
And what's even worse, the quantity-over-quality component is in danger of becoming even more crucial as they keep adding more and more characters to the franchise. The result is that forgettable new characters have zero impact almost (did you cry when Quicksilver died? I was closer to cringing to be honest) and the old ones are not showing anything new at all or if they do like the romance part between 2 Avengers here, then it feels somewhat unauthentic to be honest. Besides why is always Renner's character the one getting wounded? Because he's the only one not trained in close combat? Please. Another disappointing repetitive aspect and his joke on mind control did not change things for the better. Hell, even Stan Lee's cameo was nothing extraordinary this time and it felt for the sake of it all like the rest of the film. It was not a failure, but it was a movie where you could comfortably switch off your brain before the start as it won't challenge you whatsoever. Or have you care. And that's one of the worst statements you could make. I will soon see the new Thor movie and I hope they managed to step things up there again. And that they really improve with the upcoming Avengers film that will be released in 6 months or so. If they don't improve, then best would be to discontinue, which they obviously won't do as these films are hits financially as big as it gets. But that obviously doesn't mean their quality is convincing, let alone memorable. This one here is the best example for that. Don't watch.