3 out of 5

Directed by: Joss Whedon

The first ‘Avengers’ was an achievement in that it was the first: Marvel had fulfilled its promise of MCU build-up and pay-off.  The characters felt comfortable, and the loose strings dangled through the previous films didn’t necessarily result in the most mind-blowing plot revelations, but Whedon and crew handled a big story with big characters amazingly well.  It was a generic, well-constructed Summer blockbuster that was able to off-load some excess to other films, thus giving it more room for personality.  And you got to see a team coming together, which is fun.  Avengers 2, or Avengers: Age of Ultron is, essentially, the same movie.  It’s structurally similar in terms of action highs and pauses for dialogue, and uses some internal conflict and new characters to re-generate the ‘team coming together’ feeling.  It is also handled as equally amazingly well as the first film – everyone gets a fair shake and screen-time; action is followable and fun; pacing is properly meted out for an exciting 2+ hours – so it’s very true to say that if you enjoyed that one you’ll enjoy this one.  But, of course, it no longer has that extra nod of being the ‘first’ anymore, laying the ‘generic blockbuster’ feel a bit closer to the surface.  This is, to date, the most faceless of the Marvel films in that it doesn’t have its own character.  Much has been made, in the wake of Edgar Wright’s departure from Ant-Man, of Marvel’s “house” style overruling individuality in these films, but they’re still filled up with their own nuances.  And much like crossover comics, this crossover film can’t help but lose some of that in favor of featuring Everything.  It’s not a horrible thing because this connected universe still means the characters are comfortable.  We know them.  So the background bits that are sneaked in don’t feel out of place, they are earned.  The movie is just a bit empty overall.  However, as has been pointed out elsewhere, as the plot – one of Stark’s inventions, Ultron, goes rogue and now the team must stop it – is the first MCU flick to tackle the “this problem wouldn’t exist if not for you” superhero Catch-22 – as our team hops about showing concern for the people they’ve put in harm’s way, ‘Age of Ultron’ is an interesting juxtaposition to the careless destruction shown in ‘Man of Steel,’ which could further be extrapolated into commentary on how to world-build…  But, y’know, digressing.

Avengers 2 is pretty much exactly what you’d expect.  If you haven’t been impressed so far, this won’t change anything, but if you’ve liked your superhero romps, this might not be Iron Man or GotG, but it’s another fun addition to the MCU.