So much potential painfully untapped

Rating: 6/10 (29 May 2015)

This could and should have been the greatest of the marvel films released to date. The right ingredients, cast and characters combined with a director in theory who should understand the mythology behind the characters. It teased in the trailers a great villain to come along in quite a while. Menacing, creepy, intelligent and most of all Ruthless in its quest to destroy humanity. What we ended up with is a petulant child like robot who didn't really know what he wanted. Ultron was a wasted character and James spader was a wasted actor in this movie, as glorified a cameo as you can get. Notice I haven't talked about the plot or any of the other characters so far. I will get to that. I can't say I've followed the avengers comics too closely but I do get the general gist of this character in the few that I have read.
For me his weakness, the character direction ultimately led this film to fall flat for me. The film seem to concentrate too much on expanding the marvel universe with big name drops and visual signs at the behest of the story that was unfolding and the actual villain! It felt like he was nothing but a stepping stone for another character.
The other focused on character was Hawkeye, for some reason. There is one scene I will spoil but you'll understand why, it does not effect or have anything to do with the progress in story . They took this mysterious, albeit useless avenger/assassin and humanised a human character to the point of complete and utter weakness. He has a wife and children! How can he be so irresponsible and go out and fight super villains that could instantly kill him. Combine the standing around of the entire cast a bit of a time waste. Had whedon decided to trim the film he could have easily cut this scene out entirely and no one would have noticed. The whole thing was just out of place and one of the weaknesses that whedon has in his story telling.
The film is watchable, a retread as all superhero films are - mad Villain, Armageddon, save the day. It introduces us to the vision with a subtle change of origins. Even the birth of ultron was a origin change. It's not that it was done wrong, the whole thing was rushed and that's another issue with this film, everything is rushed to try and cram as much as possible into it. Maybe marvel is scared that the bubble has burst? People are tired of these films and this genre? No marvel we are not, so far you've done well, this being the first phase 2 film I hope isn't a sign of things to come.