Follows in Man of Steel's footsteps

Rating: 6/10 (4 May 2015)

Fairly disappointed in this film. So many unanswered questions from previous Avengers films...
1. How is Thor on Earth when Loki is now ruling Asgard?
2. Why would Thanos knowingly give up an Infinity Stone in Avengers 1?
3. Didn't Tony Stark retire as Iron Man?
The first film succeeded, partially, because it didn't take itself too seriously and found the right balance. This second act seemed to go out of its way to insult itself. The scene where Hawkeye describes how ridiculous it is that he fights with a bow and arrow to Scarlett Witch is a good example of this.
What bothered me the most though might've been the decision to give Ultron a sense of humor. Ultron isn't a human psychopath like the Joker. So giving Ulton a personality didn't really make sense to me and really screwed up the tension that should've existed between the Avengers and Ultron. It seemed like the success of Guardians of the Galaxy may have added pressure to infuse more laughs into Age of Ultron than was necessary.
Bottom line: This was just an average action film that fails to distinguish itself. It falls more in line with Man of Steel, complete with excessively long and exhausting action sequences, than the upper tier comic book films such as Avengers 1, Dark Knight, Guardians, etc.