Marvel movies didn't have a good villain? I thought you loved Loki / Tom Hiddleston.

Great review! Glad you could make it through this film without a hint of cynicism. I thought Avengers 2 presented some interesting moral quandaries. Can/should we allow an artifical intelligence to maintain peace and security in our world? Do the smartest humans have an obligation to protect the world's population, even if they must disregard the will of those people? Do war deterrents actually cost the lives of the innocent?

That said the Hulk/Black Widow romance didn't make much sense. I predicted that Widow had some ulterior motives for coming onto Banner so strong, but we didn't get to see how that panned out. Hulk was Audi 5000 by the time we could care about their relationship.

You really nailed it in your discussion of Hawkeye. This film allowed the "fringe" characters to take the spotlight from the "blockbuster" heroes, and it was better for it. Exploring Widow's past and meeting Hawkeye's family gave us a reason to root for those characters, and actually gave them a stake in what was going on in the larger conflict.

I'd put Ultron on par with Loki in terms of pure villainy. Both were fun, and had some oddly sympathetic motives behind their evil actions. Great review though!