10 Reboots/Sequels That Didn't Know Why The Originals Were Popular

The Avengers was groundbreaking, as the culmination of the first true shared cinematic universe, and as the milestone that cemented the Marvel Cinematic Universe as serious business. Each movie had been leading up to this, and when the Avengers finally assembled, it was a beautiful payoff for years of dedicated viewing.

So when phase two of the MCU began, it was expected to follow the same formula, and come back together in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Only things were not the same; Age of Ultron was not as good as The Avengers, true, but it wasn't mere quality. It was that a large portion of the movie was dedicated to setting up the next phase.

Thor had to have visions of Ragnarok, Tony and Cap needed to be at each other's throats, and Tony would see a future where Thanos slaughtered the entire team. This was not what audiences hoped for or expected, and it made the ensemble film feel like a feature length commercial for the solo flicks.

In the end, Joss Whedon's quips and actions couldn't keep Ultron from losing sight of the climax that made The Avengers so good. The first had a consistently fast pace, while the second chopped its pace to pieces to cram in teasers for phase three that no one needed. Expectations were at an all time high for Avengers 2, and it is a shame they couldn't do better than sequel baiting.