Marvel fails to disappoint a second time, but how long can they keep it up?

Rating: 8/10 (1 May 2015)

After seeing Avengers 2: Age of Ultron, I discovered a trick of the Marvel franchise: make as many fights happen in the sky as possible in order to increase the stakes of that fight. It's the looming fall that makes every fight on a floating city more dramatic, and it's in many ways similar to the looming fall that superhero movies as a whole are facing for the near future as they find their peak and descend as a passing trend.
I have to admit that going into this movie I was 80% expecting it to disappoint, probably due to a personal burnout that is likely a foreshadowing of a collective burnout for the genre in the years to come (if it hasn't started to peter out already). I predict the late 2010s to be the waning years of superhero movies, and the solidified polarization in big budget blockbusters and small art-house/indie films made for those willing to seek them out.
Avengers 2: Age of Ultron falls on the farthest opposite end from anything art-house, however, and it's likely one of the best of that ilk.
The movie delivers on surprises, tense moments, loss, and laughs. In many ways, it's an almost identical experience to the last one, which begs the question of where we go from here. Do the movies keep creating new characters and digging deeper into plot lines with obscure references from the early days of the franchise? Do we eventually lose our senior class and get a whole new set of characters (and the actors that play them) that probably want to move on and diversify their careers?
I get that feeling watching this movie, though I have to tip my hat to Marvel Studios for keeping the spirit alive and doing about the best the could with these comic book characters. Really, a cultural mythology like this couldn't ask for a better revival than what the Marvel universe has given it.
For those who loved the first one, you'll like this one just as much or slightly less. They spent less time on explaining some of the events of the movie, possibly to its detriment. If you love explanations of the magic stones and the technology of Tony Stark and Bruce Banner, then you'll be disappointed because they do a lot that isn't explained well in the movie.
Characters we love return, and it was tastefully done, avoiding the temptation to cater to the super fans and start name-dropping more obscure heroes to get cheap wows from the audience.
For Catholics and religious folks in general, there's a presence of spirituality in the movie that falls in line with the growing suspicion toward religion in general we're finding in movies of this size. This is seen in Ultron using the most explicitly religious language, "On this rock I will build my church" and "Have you come to confess your sins?" Yes, the villain utters those lines in the movie, showing himself to be a false Christ figure, with other allusions to the End Times and the tragic ending of the human race peppered throughout the movie. There's a borrowing from (conscious or not) religion in these movies because the language is both potent and familiar though it seems films have turned more suspicious toward religious figures, opting for a broader (and often far more bland) expression of a nebulous goodness and spirituality.
I admire the Thor character and his story most for his nod to the mystery of another world that has influence on our own. Thor's addition to the Avengers story acknowledges a spiritual dimension in the world, even if it doesn't fall directly in line with Judeo- Christian traditions. He holds sway over the rest of the Avengers as a god and the only god on the team, and stands out as an entity that emanates the divine though in a more pagan sense. This is best seen in a comical part of the movie where the entire team tries to lift his hammer, and the bickering that ensues when they can't they argue over how the mechanism works. Thor seems most comfortable leaving it as a test of worthiness, saying it's something beyond us to manipulate or understand (though I'm sure it's explained in his comic book storyline).
Also notable is how the movie conveys a global feel, adding to my thesis that movies will either become big big blockbusters made for global audiences (with sometimes heavy handed pandering to that global audience), or become culturally esoteric art-house films. Knowing that Chinese audiences are the biggest source of money for these movies outside of the US, the film puts a few Chinese characters into the movie speaking the language and having a prominent role. Later, we're taken to Africa where another fight breaks out, and finally to somewhere in Eastern Europe, and by the end we're not sure exactly where we are in the world.
In the handful of reviews I skimmed for Avengers 2, I saw one insight from a review that aptly pointed out the future for the movie industry. It was summed up in two similar though very different recent releases. "Ex Machina" came out a few weeks ago and features a set of four actors on a single location making a story about an artificially intelligent machine made by a genius. In many ways, it's another take on Age of Ultron though it couldn't be any more different. The movie is powerful, thoughtful and moving though in ways Avengers 2 isn't nor would ever attempt to be (and wisely so). Basically one is a movie and the other is a film, assuming the tone that goes with each of those labels.
That difference is the near future of film, and I don't find it as grim as many portend it to be.