5. Avengers: Age of Ultron
While we’re on the theme of disappointing sequels, we need to talk about Avengers: Age of Ultron. Just like Iron Man 2, Avengers: Age of Ultron had a remarkable predecessor and extremely high expectations to surpass. However, it fell short due to its focus on world-building rather than delivering an entertaining story on its own. Sometimes you can’t help but wonder how better the MCU could be if it was capable of learning from its own mistakes.
Avengers: Age of Ultron tried its best to set up the events of Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War while introducing key MCU characters like Vision, Wanda Maximoff, and Ulysses Klaue. Among all of that, there was also the story of Ultron and his desire to destroy humanity and build a new civilization.
Unfortunately, all of those elements were brought together without any sense of cohesion or connection. The movie quickly jumped between unrelated scenes, like going from Captain America and Iron Man arguing about how to protect Earth to Thor entering the waters of what felt like a random cave while having visions about the infinity stones.
Avengers: Age of Ultron tried to be bigger than its predecessor, but that ambition steered the movie in the wrong direction sometimes. While action sequences were undoubtedly greater in scope (and that made for some entertaining moments) the narrative could’ve benefited from having fewer elements or characters on its plate.
One of the characters that didn’t have enough participation in Avengers: Age of Ultron was War Machine. Fortunately, the few scenes in which he appeared were among the highlights of the film. Watching him and Tony Stark team up to try and lift Thor’s hammer was an iconic moment in the MCU as a whole, and he also faced Ultron’s army during the epic Sokovia fight at the end of the film.
This act of heroism granted him a spot as a member of the Avengers from that point onwards, further establishing him as a character worthy of fighting alongside Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.