RocShemp

It could simply be that the critics are being more "honest" this time around. As much as I enjoy The Avengers, it's not by any means great. The first 40+ minutes are a chore (despite a few amusing moments sprinkled throughout) and the movie doesn't feel like it's actually going anywhere until Thor finally shows up. I think 74% is a more honest appraisal of it than the 92% it received. So perhaps AoU is in fact equal to its predecessor.

The Antipodean

I must say that again, while I liked it quite a lot, it does fill me with trepidation they're overstuffing these things. This one definitely felt a bit too cluttered with characters (some barely get more than cameos) and it's kind of got me worried they'll go over the cliff with INFINITY WAR, especially if they start tossing things like Spider-Man, GotG and Defenders in the mix. Much as I enjoy the old Crisis on Infinite Earths / Secret Wars type of superhero mass gatherings, I'm really wondering how well that will translate to live action.

Trickshot

It opened in South Africa last week Friday. Saw it on Tuesday, in 3D, during a morning screening. So it was wonderfully quiet, only about 20 people. And they all behaved. That was awesome! lol

We enjoyed it. Of course there wasn't the "wow", "awesome", "this is what superhero movies are supposed to be about" of the first one. Which might be a reason for not so positive reviews. It's not such a bang, it's more of a, we've done the bang, this is us, and this is what we're doing now, which does contain a bit of a bang. Not all bad. For me it seemed like each character had changed at least a little. They are not quite the same people from the first movie.

Is it cluttered? Well there is a lot going on, and it moves quite quickly through some scenes, while others seem to have been given more time. Almost like they were thinking, "if we rush this they'll think we just put it in as a filler". Are there fillers? If I'm honest, yes. Does it hurt the movie? Sort of, but maybe not as much as you'd think. Also, what else could they have added in? More Ultron? Okay, yes please!

Absolutely loved James Spader as Ultron, could have listened to him yap a bit more. Enjoyed the Twins more than I thought I would. Humour was there, and some typical Joss here's-the-opening-of-the-joke-and-here's-the-reversed-punch-line-much-later Whedon

Anything iffy? Yes. Wasn't sold on some of the character interactions, you'll know what I mean when you see it, and the quick fix, here's your motivation, wasn't really needed. But we can nit and pick over the ifs, buts, and maybes, once everyone has seen it.

Overall we enjoyed, we'll see it again, and will be buying the BR when it's released. So it's a yes, go see it. There's action galore, it's fun, it's Avengers and dammit it's really loud in parts.

Ash Ketchum

Two-star review in the New York Post:

http://nypost.com/2015/04/28/avenger...e-blockbuster/

Shannon Nutt

Any backlash for Avengers 2 will only affect Avengers 3...it won't have much of an effect on the box office take for this release. As others have said, it's a pretty much a sure-fire hit. The Avengers could stand up there and whistle for two hours and it would make a billion.

The first Avengers relied heavily on the fact that the audience had seen the other Marvel movies, and I suspect this one will be much of the same. They're not so much complete movies as they are culminations of the events of the stand-alone films that preceded them.

kgrogers1979

It could affect all of the phase 3 movies. All of the phase 2 movies had higher box offices than the phase 1 movies (minus Avengers).

Iron Man 2 was the highest grossing phase 1 movie (minus Avengers) at $623 million worldwide.
Thor: The Dark World was the lowest grossing phase 2 movie at $644 million worldwide.

hanshotfirst1138

Certainly doubt that it'll deter anyone.

Mr. Cinema

4/5 star review in the New York Daily News

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertain...icle-1.2197933

RichC2

It's up to 74% with 171 reviews.

Iron_Giant

100% agreed.

IM3 had some really good stuff in it, seems like it has hints to the AOU with all of the remote control IronMen around.

joe_b

Speaking as a huge MCU fan, I was a little "meh" on this one. I thought the Maximoff twins were a flat line and the script and performances did little to make me connect with them. The other new Avenger was the highlight of the movie for me and I look forward to seeing more of that character. The rest of the Avengers were just sort of there and didn't really grow or change by the end of the film -- though Stark's actions are bound to have ramifications down the line.

The action scenes - especially during the finale - were so chaotic that my brain just started glazing over. Also, the Whedon quips (which I normally love) were bordering on overkill. I felt they hurt the tension anytime the script attempted to venture into serious/dangerous territory. Still worth seeing on the big screen, but I found the first one much more entertaining.

RocShemp

I always assumed that the suit that awoke and attacked Pepper in IM3 wasn't actually due to Tony's PTSD but actually an early hint at Ultron. I'm assuming that does not play out that way in AoU (which I've yet to see).

majorjoe23

For all the talk about it being his age, there was a disappointing lack of Voltron in the new Avengers movie.

hanshotfirst1138

Spader was the ace in the hole. He was fantastic.

DOFP was better. I'll stand by it.

Draven

LOVED IT. The first one still holds 1st place just because it was new, but this was the "dark second chapter" through and through and I couldn't get enough.

Loved the shit out of Scarlet Witch. She's close to bumping off Black Widow for my top spot, but she had some great stuff in this too.

Ultron was fantastic. The Vision was a highlight and there were some awesome battle scenes showing everyone working together.

Just loved it. Can't wait to go back!

stingermck

Just saw it. It was a fun ride but not much story, and felt rather cramped and rushed. They may have gone overboard on the jokes.

IMO Hawkeye was the scene stealer this time instead of Hulk. Vision was great.

11 movies in and things are starting to feel too familiar. But the final scene with Cap has potential.

While Ultron and his quips were good, he didn't feel very threatening. If he was all over the net it would have been nice to see some destruction/havoc on a global scale. Instead he lifts some land in the air straight out of Superman Returns.

This is a mixed bag for me that needs to settle for a bit.

TwineTime

CaptainMarvel

kgrogers1979

RocShemp

Unless...

Obi-Wanma

Regarding Quicksilver

The Antipodean

indeed,

Dr. DVD

Saw it. Overall, I liked it. However, it was pretty obvious that some stuff was cut. I would have liked more exploration of the bromance between Stark and Banner, as well as more of Banner and Widow. Each of them could merit a whole movie IMO. The action in this one was good, but this was definitely more character driven than the previous Avengers movie. Whedon took an Empire Strikes Back approach, and I applaud him for daring to be different. I also liked that Hawkeye got a much larger role, almost becoming the POV character for the audience. Of course the best part of the movie was Spader. I think Ultron is the strongest MCU villain to date, though one could argue that isn't too hard to accomplish. I actually felt like the movie gave off an 80s ensemble drama vibe at times, and Spader as the villain is kind of icing on the cake.
My only major gripe

asianxcore

I definitely will also agree with the over-stuffing of characters this time around. While I enjoy seeing new faces pop up in films like this, I felt that the focus got diluted because of the sheer number of stories that needed to be told. I felt like any sort of build-up would get diluted a bit when the film would constantly be character-hopping.

I also felt the tone to me sometimes felt a bit awkward. I loved the first film because I felt like both the humorous nature of parts of the film and the seriousness of it were well balanced. Here, I really don't know how to describe it at the moment. It just felt off.

Those are probably my only two issues with the film after my first viewing. Other than those two quibbles, I enjoyed the rest of the film. I went with a rather large group of people to celebrate one of my best friend's birthday, so it was a great time. Absolutely loved James Spader as Ultron.

Making plans to see it again, maybe at an Early Bird or Matinee to see how it plays on me the second time around.

EctoCooler

The Thor in the pond stuff was really terribly handled. Talk about obvious footage left on the cutting room floor and a completely thankless cameo for Stellan Sarsgard (there are a couple of those.)

I wasn't feeling it with the whole romance between Romanov and Banner. Maybe it's the age difference? Ruffalo is only 17 years older than ScarJo. Whatever the reason, there was zero sexual chemistry there. Just didn't work.

Ultron has absolutely nothing on Loki.

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