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Kim Hollis: What did you think of Avengers: Age of Ultron?

Jason Barney: I thought it was good, but not fantastic. There were a couple of wrinkles as far as Ultron's ability to carry the film as the villain, as well as some storytelling and spacing issues near the end of the film.

For me, one of the highlights was the expansion of the character of Hawkeye. Depending on how in depth you go with the comics, his transition from the Avengers to Avengers West Coast is part of the storyline. I don't remember everything about those pages years ago, but seeing him step forward in a leadership role was really nice.

Edwin Davies: I really enjoyed parts of it while finding the whole a little unsatisfying. The parts I loved were the times when the film slowed down a little bit and let the cast bounce off of each other with that snappy Joss Whedon dialogue, such as their post-party Mjolnir game or that part in the middle where it became The Big Chill, as well as the Hulk-Hulkbuster fight, where the conflict was relatively pared down and focused on a few characters.

The rest of the time, it felt like Whedon was constrained by his need to meet the obligations of telling a story which is setting up a whole bunch of other stories, and I rolled my eyes every time they stopped the film to talk about Infinity Stones. That kind of setup felt really awkward to me, and suggested that everyone's minds were somewhere else, rather than focusing on the story at hand. I felt like it could have stood to be 20 minutes longer, if only to let the parts of the film that were hemmed in by all the franchise stuff to breathe more.

Felix Quinonez: I hate to say it but I was really disappointed. I was legitimately sad on the train ride home. Some stranger actually told me to "cheer up." Don't get me wrong, there were very enjoyable parts but the movie, as a whole, was a let down. I don't want to get into spoilers but I almost felt like they took the least interesting part of the first movie, (the Manhattan invasion) and turned it into two and a half hours. I was actually bored and yawned a few times. That's not supposed to happen during an Avengers movie.

Michael Lynderey: I liked it far better than the first film. Vast improvement! I disliked The Avengers for several reasons, including the re-use of Thor's milquetoast villain, Loki (whose idea was it to bring the same bad guy back two summers in a row? That makes no sense!), the "can't-touch-this" above-it-all arrogance of most of the heroes, in particular but not limited to Iron Man, Black Widow, and Nick Fury, and the story, which was illogical (if you're trying to conquer Earth, why bring the Avengers together?), too full of characters bickering with each other, and ended with what looked like a direct lift from the climax of Transformers 3 (although it likely wasn't intentional). The fact that people regularly describe The Avengers as one of the greatest superhero movies of all time is baffling to me.

Age of Ultron had a better villain and focused on more likable characters (Hawkeye), while somewhat humanizing others (Black Widow), minimizing Nick Fury's role and completely eliminating Loki's (though since he's on the throne of Asgard, he'll regrettably be back). It's solid summer entertainment, without many of the pretensions of the first movie.

Avengers 3 should open with Thanos planning his assault on the earth surrounded by a mass army and a map of the galaxy with an "attack here" arrow pointing at the earth. At that moment, the 'real' villain of the film should arrive and single-handedly eliminate Thanos and his entire army before going on to face The Avengers. Any other use of Thanos would be underwhelming at this point.

Kim Hollis: Although I didn't enjoy this sequel as much as the original, I still had a lot of fun with Age of Ultron. The film did a good job of setting up the natural separation and splintering that would occur in such a group of talented/super-powered individuals, most of whom are probably extreme Type A personalities. The villain was interesting and layered, and James Spader was an outstanding choice to voice the character. There's a nice surprise later in the film that isn't given away by trailers or marketing.

The high points of the film include the Mjolnir scene for sure, but I also very much enjoyed the exploration of Natasha Romanoff's character. We learn a lot more about her life and motivations, and her interplay with the Hulk is really lovely. The twins are also a nice addition, though we're getting close to veering into "too many characters" territory.

As for negatives, I really could have done without the focus on Hawkeye, as I think he's a pretty boring, bland character who isn't really helped much by Jeremy Renner's boring, bland portrayal. There is assuredly a more interesting way to have the audience relate to the most "everyman" character of the bunch. There's also a disjointedness to the film, and it lacks the special moments that made the first Avengers such a delight.

Even with those quibbles, it's still a fun ride of a film.

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