Avengers: Age of Ultron

I think I would have given this movie a 2 if I rated it when I watched it when it was in theaters. I walked out of the theater (senior year of high school) thinking that I might have grown out of my superhero phase that, as with all big fucking nerds, was most of my life. Leaving Age of Ultron, I just felt... nothing about what I had just watched. I never decided to go back and watch it on account of my disinterest regarding the movie until today. A lot of the issues I had with the movie when it came out still exist, and I think the events of the film being recontextualized by the next few in the universe, namely Civil War, helps this movie on a rewatch. There's still too many "Whedoning" moments where the movie doesn't let anything breathe without putting a weak quip. The weak quips don't relent, especially with the adapting of Ultron to be the evil equivalent of Tony. The Sokovia battle at the end (which isn't ever treated seriously until Civil War) is so dissonant, because while there's the threat of thousands dying, you still have Captain America trying to yell a shitty quip at a robot drone that's already dead. I don't know if there's a term for this, but what the hell is with this movie trying to point you so hard towards Hawkeye dying to the point of it being obvious that Quicksilver, who receives so limited focus and character in this film will be the one lost in the fight? I think it's them trying to setup the subversion so hard that it becomes obvious. Also, why does Quicksilver also quip when dying? Let the moment go on its own, Joss. Thor's subplot is so weak, and mainly serves to setup Ragnarok and Thor's absence in Civil War. Now that I've got my issues with this movie out of the way, it's still, at its core, an entertaining movie with good setpieces. The Scarlet Witch hallucinations are cool, especially the very visually interesting one for Tony. The Hulkbuster scene, while definitely made to sell action figures, is a ton of fun. The scene of all the Avengers fighting the Ultron drones while Vision and the main Ultron fight is cool. None of the jokes quite land for me, and they didn't when I first saw the movie. It's weird that the sequel to the Avengers, which was the first big teamup in the MCU, is such a setup movie for later movies. This movie could have been so much more. I'm glad I like it more than I did when it released, but I still don't think I'll revisit it for a long time. I also really don't want to watch another Joss Whedon superhero movie for a long time. Also, Scarlet Witch is so OP.