It’s hard to imagine the stress director Joss Whedon was experiencing when he was first signed on for Avengers.  With only one film under his belt, the fledgling filmmaker was given a monumental task: Deliver the end product of five films’ worth of buildup while satisfying the expectations for the most anticipated movie since the Phantom Menace over a decade earlier.  On its release date, the film more than met its lofty expectations and achieved unfathomable success both commercially and critically.  But now, three years later, Mr. Whedon has an even bigger task:  Topping it.

Taking place three years after the events of the first film, Avengers 2 follows the eponymous superhero team as they battle against the deadly artificial intelligence Ultron.  While the initial premise sounds similar to the first film, Avengers 2 has a far improved plot compared to its predecessor.   The storyline features more intrigue and overall twists with a constantly moving forward pace.  The heroes follow Ultron across the globe, charting from location to location with a new element aiding to the mastermind’s evil plan every step of the way.  The first film had a nice simple plot, but much of the middle section only existed because the main antagonist was relaxing on the Helicarrier so everyone could have character interaction.

The discussion on the special effects and stunts can be summarized effectively in two words: fun and effective.  A movie with a 279.9 million dollar budget should not have any bad special effects and Avengers 2 delivers on this expectation.  The CGI looks excellent and realistic, the costuming is bright, colorful, and distinctive, and the fight scenes are as fun as always.  However, the fight scenes are an area I think the film has fallen slightly behind.  Aside from the standout fights of Iron Man vs Hulk and Ultron vs Captain America, the film lacks any real imaginative set pieces for the fight scenes.  They are still excellent but the creative fights of Thor 2 or the intense combat of Winter Soldier may have lessened the awe attributed to these scenes.

The film’s largest misstep is the lackluster development of the Avengers themselves.  Despite its large cast of versatile and talented actors, who all deliver energetic performances, the movie’s eponymous team does not receive interesting or satisfactory things to do in terms of characterization.  Iron Man has arguably the most in depth character arc but even then it fails to evolve as much as one would hope.  The plotline brings up interesting questions to Tony’s character but fails to truly address them.  In many ways, this should be Iron Man’s movie but he ultimately it does not feel as if he’s had an arc but instead the director has brought up yet another flaw to Stark’s charisma.

Captain America and Thor (the two other Avengers to star in their own films) receive almost no development or arc whatsoever.  Thor briefly leaves to go on a quest essentially as sequel bait while Cap serves to emphasize Tony’s ultimately unsatisfying character arc.  The pair fill out the role of more combatants in the final battle but feel woefully underutilized in their appearances here.

Black Widow and Hulk share an intertwined arc as well but it, much like Tony, starts off more interesting than it really turns out to be.  Both actors use the scenes to deliver strong performances but the plot line wallows out even worse than the Iron Man arc.  Whereas Tony’s reaches an anti-climax, the Black Widow/ Hulk arc lacks even that poultry conclusion.

The only character who feels massively improved on from the first film is the team’s resident archer, Hawkeye. While reduced to nothing more than a lackey for much of the first film, actor Jeremy Renner finally gets to stretch out his acting muscles and show why his woefully underrepresented character deserves to be an Avenger.

The new characters introduced in the film are comparable, if one can accept an odd analogy, to a box of candy: it’s good experience when you’re eating it but, once you’re done, you realize it’s an experience that didn’t supply much nourishment.

Ultron is arguably an improvement over Loki from the first film.  James Spader’s portrayal of the killer robot gives the villain both a sinister nature as well as an occasional moment of almost awkward humanity.  The quirky performance leaves Ultron with a very memorable demeanor elevated by a more inspired plot and motivation than Loki.  However, Ultron still, at the end of day, feels somewhat underwhelming as a villain.  He is far too easily defeated by our heroes and his overall presence in the movie doesn’t create the terror and anticipation fans watching the trailers would hope for.

The super powered twins Pietro and Wanda are fun and energetic members of the cast but nothing more than that.  A briefly covered over backstory informs much of their characters which, while tragic, fails to give them much depth.  Though their presence does breathe life into the film, the average audience member will likely remember them as twenty year olds with cool powers and hilariously distracting Slovak accents.

Overall, Joss Whedon should be commended for taking up yet another impossible task in his third film under the helm of director.  Delivering an equal amount of spectacle and fun as its predecessor, Avengers 2 ultimately fails to give the characters as much of the same intrigue and plot relevance that made the first film such a success. 8/10 stars