Age of Ultron: Home run or foul ball?

“Avengers: Age of Ultron,” starts hard and doesn’t let up. The film has many fight scenes, a plethora of angsty backstories, emotional drama and one-liners, lots of one-liners.

The Avengers are finally together as a team again

The cast from “Avengers” and director Joss Whedon make their return and kick more ass than ever before.

Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) has expanded on his ever-growing army of robots, Captain America (Chris Evans) is, if possible, even more buff and Thor’s (Chris Hemsworth) hair is longer and more luscious than ever before.

The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) all get their fair share of butt-kicking action too along with some serious character development.

In this second installment, viewers finally get to see the Avengers actually assembled as a team, as well as the fallout from “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.”

S.H.I.E.L.D. is no more, and the Avengers operate independently out of their own tower.

Enter Ultron, a giant evil robot whose goal in life is to eradicate the Avengers and, quite possibly, the world.

Positive reviews across the board

So far, the film has received mostly positive reviews and currently has a 75 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes with 6.7/10 being the average score.

Ellensburg locals were certainly excited to see the film with both screenings of the early showing Thursday night were completely full.

Randy Etheridge, junior exercise major, said he had high hopes for the movie prior to seeing it and that there was one character in particular he was excited for.

“Iron Man, he’s my favorite,” Etheridge said.

Etheridge, who hasn’t read the comics, wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but said he didn’t really have any concerns going into the movie.

Nick Roach, a movie-goer from Seattle, was pretty impressed after seeing the movie.

“It was really good,” Roach said. “I thought it flowed really well, considering how much material it presented.”

Roach, having seen spoilers and read some of the comics beforehand, knew what to expect, but was still pleasantly surprised in places.

“I didn’t know what The Vision was going to be like at all, and I thought they did a really good job,” Roach said.

The only disappointment was that, with so much going on plot-wise, Roach felt that there wasn’t very much time for character development.

Gus Foster, owner and operator of Central City Comics in downtown Ellensburg, said that while he hasn’t seen the film yet and fully expects the plot to differ wildly from its comic origins, he still believes he will enjoy it, as should other comic fans.

“Fans of the first Avengers are going to love the second Avengers,” Foster said. “Fans of the comic books? Maybe not as much as fans of the first film.”

Good reviews and excited fans equal lots of money

Domestically, “Avengers: Age of Ultron” was released in 4,276 theaters, which puts it at number 15 in the widest domestic openings ever, according to boxofficemojo.com.

The film made $27.6 million from Thursday’s advanced showings alone, according to a Forbes article, and has since taken over the number one spot in the box office.

According to boxofficemojo.com, the movie’s opening weekend gross was $191 million and, while this figure puts it at the second largest domestic opening weekend ever, it still falls short of its predecessor, “Avengers” which made $207.4 million.

As of May 6, the film has made $227 million domestically and $686 million worldwide. This means it also trails behind “Avengers” in domestic six-day gross by  $30 million domestically.

However, “Avengers: Age of Ultron” beats out “Avengers” in foreign profits. “Avengers: Age of Ultron” had an international opening of $201 million, versus the “Avengers” international opening of $185 million. This international boost is just enough that both films tie at $392 million for worldwide opening weekends.

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING SECTION CONTAINS SPECIFIC PLOT DETAILS REGARDING “AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON.” READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

The Hulk/Black Widow romance might not have been what fans wanted to see

It hasn’t all been sunshine and roses since the premiere, however. Marvel’s handling of Black Widow during marketing for the movie and her character arc in the film sparked controversy over the weekend amongst fans who had seen the film.

Leading up to the film, Black Widow, despite being a fully-fledged Avenger, was consistently left out of all merchandise that was promoting the film.

Mark Ruffalo tweeted about the problem himself, asking Marvel to make Black Widow toys available for the female members of his family.

The sexist comments made by costars Evans and Renner during the last leg of promotion for the film added fuel to the fire and then, once the film was released, many fans didn’t like the direction Whedon took Black Widow’s character.

Some fans felt the romantic subplot lacked substance or reduced Black Widow’s character from a strong female lead to a more stereotypical damsel in distress or love interest role.

Others were more on the fence about the issue and, while not huge fans of the pairing, didn’t see a problem with it.

And still others liked it, plain and simple.

On Monday, Joss Whedon deleted his Twitter account, igniting speculation that it was due to the hateful messages he was receiving from upset fans. Whedon denied any connection between the two events and, instead, said he left for personal reasons relating to his creativity in the wake of “Avengers: Age of Ultron.”

“I just thought, ‘Wait a minute. If I’m going to start writing again, I have to go to the quiet place and [Twitter] is the least quiet place I’ve ever been in my life,’” Whedon said during an interview with Buzzfeed News.

During a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Wednesday, Ruffalo defended Whedon’s decisions regarding the Hulk and Black Widow, writing that Whedon’s take wasn’t misogyny, nor was it detrimental to Johansson’s character.

“I don’t think [The Hulk] makes [Black Widow] any weaker, he just brings this idea of love to a superhero, and I think that’s beautiful,” Ruffalo wrote. “If anything, Black Widow is much stronger than Banner. She protects him.”