When Tony Stark tries to jumpstart a dormant peacekeeping program, things go awry and it is up to the Avengers to stop the villainous Ultron from enacting his terrible plans.

If there’s a lesson learned from previous superhero movies, more does not mean better. Numerous Batman, Spider-Man 3, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Iron Man 3, the addition of more villains, larger explosions, greater sets, they don’t make a good movie. They can make a brainless entertaining experience, which is what Avengers: Age of Ultron is. A movie that’s wide in the visuals, but shallow in story and character.

The movie kicks off right where you’d expect it if you’ve been watching Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. with the team after Loki’s scepter. The drawn out sequence should tell you everything you need to know about the movie, both in what’s coming, and what visuals you should expect. In between movies director Joss Whedon seems to have gone to the Zack Snyder school of visuals where shaky cams, quick cuts, and slow mo, are the name of the game. The battle attempts to up the danger factor a bit, making us believe one of the main actors could die, but also presenting where the relationships lay in the group.

That main focus of their relationships is the thrust of the film, which might as well had a tagline, “A prequel for Captain America: Civil War.” The movie attempts over and over to lay the groundwork for what’s to come, instead of focusing on the threat in front of us. Marvel’s attempt to shove in and connect more and more is starting to show cracks with the inclusion of Ulysses Klaue, Wakanda, and more. And really, Dr. Banner can’t pronounce Wakanda? There’s also numerous allusions to the Infinity Guantlet, the device that’s been tying in many of the films, and will eventually lead to the two-part film Avengers: Infinity War.

The direction seems off in the film too with edits that seem disjointed and mysteriously transporting characters from situations, which falls into line of the films large battle/action sequence, talking scene, large battle/action sequence, talking scene, rinse, repeat. And those large battles are over the top. The amount of damage and reconstruction needed after each would bankrupt Stark Industries in the clean up. Cities are literally destroyed, though the heroes focus on saving civilians for once. And the special fx seem to have slipped in quality, with clear computer work that pulled me out of the film. Maybe there was too much and either the time and/or budget brought the quality down?

Like the visuals, the plot too is choppy with odd things introduced like a pool that Thor visits, or Barton’s safe-house. Things could be done without, cutting the movie, which it seriously needed. Battles drag on, and debates feel circular in their logic. Excess is the name of the game here. There’s also just a lack of things that make sense. With the world’s survival up for grabs, wouldn’t the team call in War Machine? How about Falcon?  You’d think this is an all folks on board moment.

That excess leads to the addition of new characters such as Strucker, Klaue, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, and eventually Vision, all of whom are a bit robotic in their performances. The Vision is the oddest of the characters, bouncing back and forth between laughable make-up, to really cool visual. Vision’s powers aren’t explained at all, and we’re left to accept he can do whatever he displays with no logic surrounding it all.

The one good new addition is James Spader as Ultron, who seems to now play the same character over and over, but it works here. His poetic speeches are entertaining, and draw you in to the madness of the character, and I can’t imagine anyone else pulling it off, especially when the character fx at times is so bad.

The film is entertaining, I will give it that, but it’s the brainless entertainment I expect from a big budget summer movie. The issue is, we’ve seen you can go big, but also create fantastic characters such as we’ve seen in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The movie leaves us with New Avengers to look forward to, and much to come. It’s the closest you can get to a fresh start without a complete reboot, and after this film, the series already needs it.

Overall rating: 6