More into building up MCU rather than telling one story.

Rating: 5/10 (8 January 2016)

Age of Ultron is many things: Enjoyable, okay, average but mainly, boring. A movie should tell one story, this one felt as it was establishing 3rd phase of the MCU expansion with Civil War, Infinity Wars etc. etc. The movie did not feel invested into telling a strong story, but more as building onto a franchise.
When I first heard about The Avengers (2012), I was very skeptical. multitudes of movies was made to create enough superheroes to assemble. Superheroes had become a mass production to fit into the release date of The Avengers. My gut feeling was wrong. It had memorable interactions, funny meetings and pzaz. It had one important thing AoU did not have: element of surprise.
How do these superheroes interact when met upon each other? How do they deal with each other? Yeah I was totally blown away by how much fun a doomsday superhero movie could be. The movie was big, but based in the very familiar setting of New York and witty interactions between the characters. AoU is in a random Eastern European setting without the wit. It has the burden of not having that element of surprise as the relationship between characters are established and familiar. Between battles, the nature of their relationship seem to be them seen loafing around in an awkward after-party. Which is the essence of this movie, it is just an intermission between greater movies.
With a sequel to a franchise, Whedon has the burden of making a movie that picks up from all the story lines left off after stand alone sequels between The Avengers and this movie. AoU must also be bigger and better than its predecessor and also fit into the future plans of phase 3 of MCU expansion. Then, what can a storyteller do in that setting? What freedom do a storyline have, being a part of this sequel major franchise machinery? With AoU, nothing it seems, as the movie paved way for bigger questions, rather than focusing on concluding AoU... Which makes this movie weak, as it is handled as an in-between movie to greater stories further down the road.