Pretty good Marvel effort

Rating: 8/10 (10 May 2015)

Seems likes its all or nothing on Ultron reviews, I would rather put this in the workmanlike Marvel category. It wasn't as outstanding as the first Avengers. On the other hand it wasn't forced or formula (yet), but it didn't seem quite as snappy and fresh the second time around. And the (intelligent) plot went in unexpected directions, which also led to a zig zag feel as we went down the road. The short version is that Hydra's experimentation with the teserak and artificial life leads, with some help from Mr. Stark, to the development of an apparently unbeatable being along with his associated minions.
I want to discuss Phil Coulson. I didn't like killing him in Avengers 1, I don't like when movies kill characters off, it seems like a cheap way to develop gravity or drama. I don't need for any good guy to get killed for the movie to mean something to me or to hold my interest. And of course Coulson was such a great character that they couldn't actually keep him dead. I was trying telepathically to connect with Mr. Whedon (I actually did try to get an email address) to suggest that he bring Phil's twin brother back for the next movie, have him be just like Phil, it could be a running joke about how much alike they are and lead to an endless line of twin/triplet/quadruplet brothers if and as they got eliminated.
But back to the main issue, there were some wrinkles to this (and the post-party Thor's hammer stuff was just great), but surprisingly some of this seemed a little tired even though the Avengers aren't really very old. Also, the original comic had a problem around issue 15 or so when the team got so good that it was hard to imagine a bad guy that would give them a good fight. It sounds like going forward this and the tired angle won't be as much of a problem, I will be interested in what Avengers 3 looks like. With all that's been said, I would still give this a solid 9.