Not as good as the first... But close.

Rating: 7/10 (26 April 2015)

After the perfection of "The Avengers" a sequel was always going to be a tough ask. Never the less it's Joss Whedon so my expectations were high.
Overall it's darker and deeper than the first. However the story arc is pretty much the same as the 1st. Big threat emerges, avengers get their ass kicked, avengers sulk, avengers rally and save the day. It's comfortingly familiar but still a little disappointing nonetheless.
Firstly the great stuff:
1. Even for a darker film the Whedonesque sense of humour is still everywhere. If anything this film had more laughs than the first. The party scene is hilarious (seriously I could've watched 2 hours of just that). I will agree with others that the humour in this movie isn't as organic as the first
2. The Tony/Bruce intellectual bromance gets some nice screen time. So does Jarvis. Seriously I don't think I've ever had such strong emotions for a computer program.
3. Ultron = awesome. I have no idea what villain a lot of the other people on here were watching but I thought ultron was complex, funny, a little psychotic and evil. I forgot he was a robot for most of it.
And now the bad...
1. The fight scene at the end was ridiculously, needlessly long (not to mention a little boring). The never-ending army of robots attacking was particularly uninspired (too much like the end of iron man 3).
And I cannot understand why ultron choose the method of destroying the earth that he did. He could've achieved the same result with a far easier and less convoluted plan.
2. Vision. All I can say is WTF?! I don't understand how he came into existence, who the hell he is, what the deal with the stone was... I could go on & on. Seriously I had to ask my friend at the end of the movie who the hell he was. They clearly forgot that not everyone is the theatre would be a comic book fan.
3. Unlike the first there wasn't the same equal screen time for all the characters.
It honestly could've easily been called "Iron Man 4" with the amount of screen time Tony Stark got.
Thor was basically comedic relief in this movie with some ridiculous storyline about water and visions which had no context whatsoever.
Captain America didn't know what his role was.
But nice to see hawkeye get some screen time.
Verdict: not as good as the first but still enjoyable to watch.