10 Teaser Trailers Better Than The Actual Movie

Before the foreboding finality of Infinity War, Age of Ultron was billed as the 'dark' Avengers movie. Gone is the plucky nature of everyone's beloved MCU heroes as their next threat has them looking terrified. Shots of destruction, citizens running in fear, and the Avengers, the world's greatest defenders, looking traumatized and broken. Underscored by the most threatening version of a Pinocchio song you can imagine and James Spader's menacing narration, everyone was ready for a thoroughly different Avengers movie.

Oh, what could've been. Instead of getting a team-up movie with a more harrowing tone, the film ended up adopting the same bathos-infested tone that the other MCU installments have. The heightened sense of stakes and psychological warfare elements teased were merely hinted at, but never actually utilized.

Worst of all, the lighter tone leads to a far less intimidating (also interesting) Ultron as he mimicked the wise-cracking schtick of Tony Stark, minus the charm. Since the movie continually undercuts its tension with jokes, there's no opportunity for Droidy Stark to be taken seriously for very long.

The relatively harrowing Infinity War showed how good a 'dark' Avengers movie could be, so it'll always be a missed opportunity that Age of Ultron didn't have the boldness to go grim.