I liked it. Didn't love it. I'm hoping it flows better for me on my second viewing.
I thought it had some pacing and plotting issues. I'm getting the impression that Whedon over wrote and over filmed, and then lost some important stuff when trying to edit it down to a shorter running time.
There'll be some spoilers below.
Spoiler
Ultron's creation and decision to wipe out the Avengers (and all of Humanity) seemed extremely fast. Whedon didn't really get into Ultron's hate for his creator. It was touched on briefly with his reaction to Klaw's comment that something he said reminded him of Stark, but they didn't really play with that much at all. And they didn't seem to explore the antagonism between him and Stark, or Stark's guilt about creating him.
At the end when Stark said he was "tapping out", you can understand why he feels at this point he needs to step away from the Avengers. But it was also such a quick thing and a quick comment. I would have liked to SEE him react more to the aftermath of destruction and death resulting from his recklessness.
I was expecting a much deeper exploration of Ultron's psyche and the relationship with Stark and the Avengers and was frankly quite surprised that Whedon didn't go further into that. I liked that Ultron was basically Raymond Reddington in robot form, but I also didn't think he came across as menacing or powerful as I would have expected (even though he was setting up an extinction-level event).
And Thor's side journey was absolutely lost on the editing room floor, if Whedon was going to gut that as much as he did he should have just scrapped the whole thing and found some other way for Thor to determine that the scepter's gem held and Infintiy Stone. That could have been fixed if he wrote a tighter script but there is only so much he can do in the editing room.
**Big Spoiler Below**
Spoiler
And I also think that Quicksilver's death would have had more impact if the character had been further developed. Whedon has said he intentionally lead the audience to think that the final moment was leading to Barton's death (with showing us his family and then seeing him almost leaving but then going back to rescue the child) and then twists it so that Quicksilver died instead. Sure it was effective in misdirecting your expectations in that scene, but then a death that could have been felt more by the audience was felt less because the character wasn't as developed.
Still, it was an entertaining adventure. I thought the visuals and action in this was the best in the MCU to date (The Winter Soldier would be a close second, and was actually superior in the hand-to-hand stuff and "visceral" feel of the action, but AoU had big, comic-booky super hero action like we haven't seen before). I found my mouth hanging open and a silly grin on my face during that awesome opening. That was absolutely perfect. And that tracking shot with everyone in the church defending the city levitation control was an amazing comic book splash page come to life. A really cool and impressive visual.
I thought Thor's fighting and action bits were the best that the character has had yet, and I really liked the combos he and Rogers did a few times. Cap's fighting and action was MUCH better than in The Avengers (though still not quite as awesome as the Russo's gave us in Winter Soldier). The Hulk v Hulkbuster battle was pretty cool as well, and it was nice that this was a battle between heroes that had consequences for the characters and the story going forward (The Avengers laying low because of the massive destruction that they were responsible for, indirectly or not, and then Banner pulling back from the group feeling that he is just too dangerous to keep playing hero).
Vision was cool. Unfortunately he also seemed to come about relatively quickly. I would have liked to have seen more time devoted to him. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing more of him in future films. Same with Scarlet Witch. They're both on the New Avengers roster, so I expect them both to be in Civil War next May. I know Olsen has been confirmed to be in it. I expect Bettany will be as well.
The party at Avengers Tower was really nicely done. Loved the interaction between all the various characters. It was cool seeing Rodey and Sam Wilson there (and cool that they are now officially on the Avengers roster). Rodey's "Boom there's your tank" story was great. And that may have been the best Stan Lee cameo yet.
So there was lots of good stuff in this, some really great stuff. I just wish the story flowed better and that Whedon had actually dug as deep into the characters as he kept saying he was going to. I'll be seeing it again next weekend, so I'm hoping the second viewing raises it from liked to really liked for me.
Anybody catch the employee getting her picture taken behind Stark's back with her thumbs up as he worked in the Internet hub?
