8 Reasons Avengers: Age Of Ultron Is The Beginning Of The End For Marvel

3. The Series Isn't Going Darker

The Avengers is Star Wars, the blockbusting proof-of-concept that showed this crazy idea could work and win over a major following, and Age Of Ultron is The Empire Strikes Back, a darker, more impactful story that took the characters on deeper emotional journeys. At least that was the plan. In reality, the sequel isn't much different to the original, with any "darker" moments quite clearly tacked onto the screenplay; the team talk over and over about how it's "the end of the road" and other ominous superlatives, but beyond those out-of-place, trailer-ready snippets of dialogue, there's nothing in the film to suggest emotional or mental turmoil.

Now there's no hard-fast rule that sequels need to go darker (that's some Empire itself popularised), but not only does it serve as a nice way to better explore long-standing characters (there's a reason Batman became as popular as he is after he became more brooding), it's where the MCU clearly wants to go. Age Of Ultron has the illusion of darkness (to the point some critics have made the Empire comparisons in an unironic way), yet never commits in fear of losing the joviality.

And, once again, if this is how the Avengers do it, you can be certain all the other films will follow. If you want dark Marvel, they want you to go to TV. Fair play, Daredevil's awesome, but why should the Man With No Fear get all the angst?