Before you read any further, know that I am assuming that you have seen the movie, and as such, there will be spoilers. This is not a “I’m deciding if I want to go see it,” review. This is a “I’ve seen it and am deciding what I think about it,” review.
I’m not going to make a judgement on special effects or style. I’m not really a film critic, I just have opinions.
Let’s tackle the easier problem first. The Twins. I was very disappointed with their development. I kind of equate them with Black Widow and Hawkeye, except that Widow and Hawkeye have each been in several movies, so that even though they still lack their own, we know them almost as well as the Avengers who all have their own movies. The Twins however, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, have only the short at the end of Captain America: the Winter Soldier, and their time in Ultron, during which Quicksilver dies, never to be seen again, and neither of them say very much. It was rather disappointing. You could tell they were great characters, and that there’s a ton in the comic books, but it simply wasn’t shown in the movie, and for those of us who don’t read the comic books, it could be rather confusing and shallow feeling. I feel like there should have been more there. It certainly would’ve made Quicksilver’s death more tragic.
However, I also realize that to really have the depth I’d like, it’d be a four hour, probably very drawn out movie.
I was glad, though, that Scarlet Witch’s manipulation of the Avengers, before she turns good, gave us a little insight to their backgrounds. That was nice. I enjoyed the introduction to Clint’s (Hawkeye’s) family, and it lent a little more meaning to Quicksilver’s death. I’m still forming my opinion of the Hulk/Black Widow romance.
My biggest problem with this movie was Vision. He seemed extremely underdeveloped and left a lot of questions unanswered. It bothered me because Ultron was created to protect humanity, and, like Vikki in iRobot, the Will Smith movie, decided that the best way to protect humanity was to destroy it. But then, Tony Stark turns around and pretty much does the EXACT SAME THING that he did to create Ultron, to create Vision, again without knowledge or blessing from the other Avengers. That bothered me a lot. He had exactly the same starting point and came up with a different result. That’s not very scientific. And if your answer is that they made sure to inject some morality into Vision that they neglected in Ultron, the question then is “whose morality?” Because Ultron obviously thought he himself was THE moral compass and that humanity itself was immoral. See how that turned out?
One thing I found extremely interesting was how Ultron quoted a lot of scripture, and sang children’s songs. I’m going to have to think about that one for a while, but that was one thing the movie got absolutely right: the warped, creepy sense of right and wrong that Ultron had.
Several of my friends say they liked it better than the first Avengers, and others say they thought it was worse. I think I have to hold with the second group, with the reservation that if Joss Whedon had given the characters a little more depth, I’d be in the first camp.
The Adventure Continues 