I know you're good people. I know you mean well. But you just didn't think it through.

Rating: 6/10 (2 May 2015)

The Following Review WILL NOT Contain Spoilers!
Three years after the highly successful and great Avengers film that Joss Whedon and other masterminds brought us, we get the long awaited sequel. This film doesn't have the charm and originality of the first film. It instead tries to be too much like the first movie, and fails for the most part. The film often drags along uselessly with aspects of the story that are either underdeveloped or taken too far over the top. The film has some great elements though, and I still do not consider this a bad film. The following is my review of Avengers: Age of Ultron.
The film was written by Joss Whedon who also helped write the first Avengers film. The film adds some new characters like Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver(characters we have all seen in the commercials and trailers by now). The rest of the team is already well established from the previous film, so knocking the character development on characters like Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America makes no sense. Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch both get rushed into the film with a back story that shows little emotion. The characters themselves fit well into the action around them nicely though. The movie is mainly well paced expect around the middle part of the film. Around this time we get left with the same tired moments of characters trying to connect with each other emotionally. I understand wanting this aspect of the story, but it drags on for a good twenty to thirty minutes for sure. Whedon is able to overall craft something somewhat interesting, but it feels too much like the first film. Some of the characters act too stupid as well over of the course of the film. Towards the end of the movie in the final battle this play out big time. Whedon tries something different, but it falls on its face because it misses other key aspects. Whedon can make excellent products, however this time he delivered something generally average.
Joss Whedon is the director as well, and he did direct the first Avengers film. The action scenes are one of the brightest areas of the film. We are introduce to his amazing talent right off the start in this sequel. Though there are lengthy slowdowns in the action later on in the film, and sometimes the action can be incoherent, however the action mostly flows nicely, and is very enjoyable. The ending of the film though feels too much like the first film, and this is another knock on Whedon. With some different characters it would have been nice to expand on the characters overall. That just doesn't happen. The acting is another bright spot for the most part. The only downside of the film in this aspect are the awful accents from Elizabeth Olsen(Scarlet Witch) and Aaron Taylor-Johnson(Quicksilver). Olsen outside of the awful accent delivers generally a great job of acting. Taylor-Johnson is as stale as ever in this film. Most know he isn't the best actor, and we see why yet again in this film. James Spader(Ultron) delivers a great performance voice acting in this film. Though his character is not exactly written great in the film. The rest of the Avengers are a joy to watch as they finally have a perfect chemistry after doing many of these films over the years. Whedon delivers mostly great action scenes that look nice even though they are CG, but misses the mark in key areas as well.
The film was scored by both Danny Elfman and Brian Tyler. Elfman came onto the production after Tyler has already done work on the film. Both of these composers have past experience in this genre of films. Tyler work on previous MCU films like Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World, while Elfman has work on Batman(1989), Batman Returns, and more recently with Spider-Man 1 & 2. Their score here in generally okay, but nothing special. Both composers have amazing talent, but outside of a few pieces here and there, the score is lackluster. I thought for sure this would be one guaranteed great aspect of the film, but in my opinion it was just average.
In closing, Avengers: Age of Ultron is a mixed bag of emotions for me. I didn't hate the film, and liked a few aspects of the film. A few other aspects turned me off on this film though. The film is fun at times and fans of the superhero genre should watch this film right away, but I felt it was about at average, just above average at best. After the big success of the first Avengers film and how great that film was, I shouldn't have expected something on the same level. I really didn't, but in the end it fell even further than I thought it would. In the end I would still tell people to see this film at least once, even though I didn't love it.
5.5/10
I want to take a moment and talk about the IMAX version of this film. The film was not shot using IMAX or 3D cameras. Even though it was converted all the way around the 3D looks amazing as a great deal of the film is CG, and the IMAX adds some great depth that normal screens still don't have. The non CG 3D scenes aren't anything exciting though, and look bland on the screen. This isn't real 3D or real IMAX, but unless the tickets is extremely overpriced, I would say it is worth viewing on the larger scale IMAX screens.