disappointing, though enjoyable, mess

Rating: 6/10 (3 May 2015)

Meh. That is my initial reaction from just seeing this film. Wasn't the worst movie I have seen, but definitely not one of the better ones. And this is from someone who LOVES superhero movies and Marvel comics. It is hard to explain just what is wrong with this film, but it just seemed "off". The acting didn't see sincere, as if everybody was just phoning it in. The jokes seemed flat. The action scenes were confusing, exhausting and ultimately boring. The villain was weak. Too many subplots. The romantic plot seemed to come from nowhere. In short, the very things that worked so well in the first film worked so poorly in this film. Also, they seemed to ignore Iron Man 3? There was no true end credit gag either. There was a semi-post credit scene (shortly after a few credits) but it was not surprising and even that felt like "been there. done that."
I have heard the Wheadon had to cut 30 minutes of the movie to keep it to its existing already long 2.5 hour version. Perhaps that extended cut on Blu-ray might yield a very different experience.
This version just left me tired and disappointed.
I would wait until this is on Blu-ray. No real reason to see it in a theater. There were no crowd-pleasing scenes.
6/10.