Marvel phones it in

Rating: 3/10 (1 January 2015)

I watched this with my wife and two of our teenagers - all of us had great expectations, we'd heard the hype and seen the previews, and it looked like fun. All of us were disappointed. Now that we've all watched the movie, the consensus is that we got burned by the Marvel brand name. At some level I believe that's why most people are watching this because let's face it: only Marvel comic fans are likely to know the story, so what better way to inspire movie-goer confidence than to stick that red and white logo all over it? It works at the grocery, and it works in Hollywood.
The first 20 minutes are fairly ho-hum. And that's the problem; the ho-hum never really goes away, but at least after those first 20 minutes you have an idea as to what's going on. There are an awful lot of cool looking characters, an awful lot of story ideas, some spectacular special effects and... and... that's about it. The writers never bothered to tie these things together in a meaningful way, but you're already watching the film because of that brand name. You thought Marvel wouldn't do this to you, and they did. You can't stop watching the train wreck because it's fascinating, although you'll probably have a bit more trepidation before the next Marvel movie.
If I had it to do over again this would be a miss, and I'll be sure to tell anyone that I hear is planning to watch it. If you're on the fence, there are better movies to watch. If special effects and explosions are what you want, then maybe this will get it for you. But have your phone handy, because Marvel phoned it in.