The assembled Avengers cinematic universe, as well as each character's standalone film(s) is intended as an homage to a long standing property, fore fronting entertainment and nostalgia above substance and development. That is not detrimental by any means, some of the best products of entertainment have followed the same formula and found incredible and justified success. What Whedon has done with both of the assembled outings though did not qualify in this category at all. I am aware that he has achieved that untouchable-nerdy godlike status that allows him the "creative" liberties to now assemble juggernaut films like Avengers Assemble and Age of Ultron, where the eye-candy mind-numbing loud-chaos inter-cut with snide comments, punchlines and one-liners aiming at posterity are force fed on audiences. Considering then that we're not expected to be watching a film with the narrative complexity that Nolan has granted Batman trilogy, we wouldn't have expected such thin, lazy and pedestrian treatment. The characters that previously were given little to no room to develop are now treated to clichéd and forced subplots, the setup and motivations are as tired and laughable as it goes and the required comedic relief is so forced and bland that it is widely cringing. Even so, Whedon somehow manages to go through the motions requiring an almost impossible sense of suspension of disbelief, even for comic book standards and plot holes you could walk an elephant through.

All his might seem a contradictory coming from a self-proclaimed summer blockbuster superhero film fan. It might even seem more contradictory review coming from a huge X-Men, a fan that manages to somehow find redeeming qualities and saving graces in the weakest entries (and there are nine of them). The case with The Avengers franchise though is that an already overcrowded ensemble unites for sequels upon sequels, not to mention their own parallel trilogies that also include mini reunions of sorts, with absolutely no originality or saving grace other than the massive wide spectacle of worldwide destruction. Call it cynicism, call it incoherence. I call it overgrowing exhaustion with this franchise.