New favorite in the MCU!

Rating: 9/10 (2 May 2015)

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
OK so I am very critical of films. Guardians of the Galaxy, for example, was about a solid 6.5-7.5 out of 10 for me. But this film was PHENOMENAL! Easy 9.5/10, taking the place of my new favorite in the MCU, eclipsing both Winter Soldier at third and Ironman at 2nd.
The action and effects were great, and the battles were extremely fun to watch. There were quite a few major fight sequences in the film, and they were all very well-done. That said, I do wish that the final fight would have been less similar to that of the climax of the first film: it was basically a huge mash-up of all of the heroes (this time, there were 9 of them as opposed to 6) tearing through tons of incredibly weak Ultron drones.
The performances of the characters were much of the same save for one player, and that is Ultron, who is portrayed by James Spader. Not only is he very cool-looking and powerful, but his performance was absolutely top-notch, rivaling even the portrayal of Harry Osborn/Green Goblin in Amazing Spiderman 2 (as flawed as that film is, Osborn was acted very thoroughly). Easily my favorite villain in any Superhero film (the other MCU films included)! Although it would have been very nice to see him in combat more often, specifically during the final battle where he got shafted a lot like Loki did in the first film, not really doing as much as he could have been. And his ultimate death was not that impressive in the slightest.
Another character that is often brought-up is The Vision, played by Paul Bettany. He was a very impressive character with a great performance, but I honestly fail to see what exactly made him stand-out so much from the rest of the Avengers, which, as I have said, were more-or-less the same execution-wise.
As amazing as this film was, it still did have its flaws, one of which obviously includes Ultron's wasted potential. Some other gripes of mine include: misplaced/unnecessary humor (too much of it), everything moving far too quickly (the downfall of Strucker and HYDRA, the creation of Ultron, the rise of Vision, to name a few major pieces).
Again, this film was TERRIFIC! 9.5/10 is my final rating, which is no easy task from me.