Personally, one of my favorite things about the Marvel Cinematic Universe is that it has its ups and downs. It's not a constant stream of successes (give other movies a chance, guys), and it's not a forever-flowing fountain of failures (cool alliteration). Having both good and bad movies in their collection makes it possible to have the most animated discussions you can have with your buddies about which one is better and which one is worse. (My favorite argument is which is worse, Thor: The Dark World or The Incredible Hulk.) 

While most of the MCU movies range between fairly pleasant and extremely awesome, I'm sorry to say that, at least for me, Avengers: Age of Ultron ranked a little lower on the scale. The very first Avengers movie blasted the top off the awesomeness scale, but since it reached such heights of cool, it kind of set the bar very high, like in the stratosphere high. Age of Ultron just couldn't compare.

Despite being a sequel in more ways than one, Age of Ultron raised more questions than it answered. And specific plot points had me furiously scratching my head in puzzlement. What were characters I loved, characters who we had all seen develop over the course of multiple movies, doing making out-of-character mistakes? And why did this villain make me less uneasy than Loki had in the first Avengers? Read on if Avengers: Age of Ultron left you with more than a few questions about what was going on and what was going to happen next.

25 A Spare Set Of Clothes

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Before Age of Ultron, we saw Tony Stark destroy all of his Iron Man suits in Iron Man 3. He did it in a display of loyalty towards his lady love, Pepper Potts. Why is it that people always make the ladies not eager to have their men be superheroes? That's not a cool trope. Anywaysies, Tony Stark blows up all these incredibly awesome suits that we never got to see in action, and we all wondered where Iron Man would go from here.

Turns out, he goes back to being Iron Man.

In a sparkling new Iron Man suit, Tony just flies into action at the very beginning of Age of Ultron. There's no explanation as to why he's back in business. Though we do find out in Captain America: Civil War that Pepper was none too happy about Tony going back to his old ways.  

24 Snakes On A Helicarrier

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For the longest time, Nick Fury was the go-to guy for the Avengers. If they had a problem, he's the one they would go to. Likewise, if Nick Fury had a problem (and his problems were usually Earth-threatening problems), he would go to the Avengers for aid. That all changed when we found out in Captain America: Winter Soldier that Hydra had infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. S.H.I.E.L.D was dismantled, and Nick Fury went into some low-key hiding.

That doesn't stop him from still trying to assist Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

During their battle with Ultron at Sokovia, Nick Fury shows up with a giant helicarrier in order to evacuate civilians. But...where did he get that thing if he's been on the run? (No, I don't watch Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and I shouldn't have to.)

23 A Hulking Romance

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The spark between Bruce Banner and Natasha Romanoff seemed to come from nowhere. The last time we saw the two of them together was in the first Avengers movie. If you can recall from that movie, Natasha spent most of that film silently terrified of the Hulk. And who can blame her? The Hulk nearly squashed her a dozen times when he went out of control on the helicarrier. But apparently, between then and Age of Ultron, Hulk and Black Widow established some kind of special bond. And I suppose, in addition to a working relationship, Bruce and Natasha also developed romantic feelings for each other. I wouldn't call this a plot hole, not at all. But it's definitely an unexplained plot point.

22 Bringing The Hammer Up

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Thor lore (that rhymes) tells us that only someone who is "worthy" can lift Thor's hammer. Near the beginning, Age of Ultron gives us one of the most hilarious scenes of the Avengers hanging out. The group is just chilling, when they decide they each want to take a crack at lifting Mjolnir, Thor's hammer. Captain America is the only one who kind of budges it, but still, no one appears to be able to pick it up. It isn't until the introduction of Vision that we see someone other than Thor who can wield his mighty hammer. With what looks like no effort, Vision just hefts it up like it's a plastic straw. How is he worthy? What exactly qualifies him for hammer-lifting? Is it because he's a robot?

21 High Altitudes

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During the climax of Age of Ultron, a city in the fictional nation of Sokovia is lifted up into the air with the intention of having it fall back down again and destroy the Earth. In order for that plan to work, the city has to be lifted fairly high into the air in order to inflict maximum damage on the planet.

So we're talking way into the atmosphere kind of heights.

That high up, people have extreme difficulty breathing because there's not as much oxygen the higher you go. It's all fine and dandy for Captain America to say that it's getting a little hard to breathe. He's a super soldier! What about the civilians that were still being evacuated from the rising city? They don't have enhanced bodies. Yet a large majority of them were rescued without any succumbing to the dangers of such a high altitude.

20 With Great Responsibility

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This point gets somewhat addressed during the movie, but not nearly enough considering what follows after it. After getting his mind messed with by the Scarlet Witch, Tony begins to fear having his friends hurt during these long protracted battles with super-powered enemies. His answer to that fear is to try building a super-smart AI watchdog that can do the Avengers' job for them. Instead, he ends up creating Ultron, an evil intelligence that can access any piece of technology that is connected to the internet.

Tony essentially created the villain of the movie.

People get mad at him, sure, but there are no real repercussions for his actions. No wonder people wanted something like the Sokovia Accords to take place in Captain America: Civil War. 

19 Lean, Mean, Fighting Machine

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A huge flaw in nearly every one of the superhero movies out there is that no one calls their super friends for help when things get tough. Even in a movie where the Avengers are all grouped together, we run into the same problem. Iron Man's friend, James Rhodes, has his own superhero outfit and everything. When the entire world is in danger, you would think that Tony would give his old pal War Machine a call. But nope! Rhodey only appears during the final fight, when a plan has already been ironed out. What about when Hulk was going crazy? Or how about when the uber cool slow-motion scene happens? No one thought to invite Rhodey for that coolest of moments.

18  Being Freaky Is Not A Power

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I've read tons of comics. I know how X-Men comics define Wanda Maximoff's powers. But what I really want to know is how the MCU defines them. The Avengers only say her power is being weird. Clearly she has some red, glowing form of telekinesis, but she can also mess with people's heads. Can she give them false memories?

Is she a telepath or something similar to a telepath?

Yes? No? Come on, movie people! Saying what someone's super powers are should be the easiest part of making a super hero movie. It's like giving a person a name. But the extent of Wanda's powers are never clearly stated. In the comics, she's known for her "reality-altering powers." Yeah, I guess they couldn't exactly find a way to explain that in the film.

17 Magic Thighs

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Hawkeye is just a guy running around with a bow and some arrows. And yet, he consistently shows himself to be the most able of the Avengers in a battle situation. In Age of Ultron, he's able to give Wanda a pep talk that convinces her to become an Avenger herself. While he's giving her a pep talk, before he heads off to battle Ultron's minions, he pulls out a small rectangular box from a pocket on his thigh.

This box then extends itself to become more arrows.

Wait...what? Why does he need to carry a bulky quiver of arrows then if he can just have these conveniently-shaped arrow boxes stashed all along his costume? His practical film costume looks like it could have a bunch of pockets compared to his Men-in-Tights costume from the comics.

16 Money Bags

via: telegraph.co.uk

At the end of Iron Man 3, Tony decided to abandon his Iron Man persona (that didn't really last). At the end of Age of Ultron, Tony decided to drop his membership in the Avengers (we'll see how long this lasts).

If he's gone from the group, who's paying for everything?

It must cost a small fortune to maintain the Avengers' residence and to keep them equipped with all the latest gadgets. Without Tony, I doubt any of the Avengers, even with combined bank accounts, could finance the team. So is Tony still going to fund them even though he's no longer a part of them? From later movies, it looks to be this way. I bet he regrets that come Captain America: Civil War, when he has to fight a bunch of new and former Avengers.

15 The Problem With Super Speed

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Perhaps one of the most troublesome super powers to portray on the big screen (and the small screen) is super speed. It's tough to simulate what that looks like, and it's also tough to come up with a problem that a speedster can't solve.

Most people with super speed look like a blur when we see them in a movie.

Other movies show the said hero with super speed moving normally while everyone else in the scene is moving in slow motion. Age of Ultron mixes those two techniques when dealing with their speedster, Quicksilver. However, the movie's story still can't prevent us from thinking that with all that speed (and hence, so much time), Quicksilver could have accomplished any and all of his goals in the blink of an eye.

14 The S.H.I.E.L.D. That Guards The Realms Of Men

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At the height of its power, S.H.I.E.L.D. was a formidable organization. They had to be. If you're monitoring an entire planet's safety, it's kind of a requirement that you're the best at what you do. Age of Ultron revealed a bit of a slip-up in their security. (I mean, aside from letting Hydra infiltrate every level of their infrastructure.) The first mission the Avengers are tasked with when the movie starts off is retrieving Loki's scepter from some old Hydra cast-offs hiding in a fortress. How did Loki's scepter fall into enemy hands? Shouldn't people have been keeping a closer eye on items that have the potential to end worlds? (Plus, it's a goshdarned Infinity Stone. Those things are important!)

13 Another One Lying Around

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Everyone learned about the Infinity Gauntlet that was teased for us when Odin took Loki and Thor for a stroll through Asgard's vault in Thor. We got another odd tease at the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron, where Thanos pulls out a second Gauntlet to show us, muttering nonsensically about how he needs to take care of things himself. According to Kevin Feige, the President of Marvel Studios, having two Gauntlets in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is all part of the grand plan. Okay, first of all, what?! There are two Gauntlets that Thanos can get his hands on?! Or... are the good guys going to use the second Gauntlet to defeat Thanos? Or is this second Gauntlet in Odin's vault a fake? Agh! There are just so many questions.

12 Like A Virus

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The creepiest facet of Ultron's villainy was his ability to infect every piece of the Avenger's technology. Because Tony had designed him to monitor the world, Ultron had access to the large and hidden recesses of the Internet. So not only could Ultron touch many instruments of technology, he could exist through them too.

So... why didn't he?

I mean, Ultron started out as an old Iron Man suit. Imagine the damage he could have caused if he infected Tony's Hulkbuster suit? He could have rampaged till his belly was full of human destruction (figuratively speaking). Instead, Ultron got fixated on finding himself a boring Vibranium body.

11 All-Knowing Thor And Friends

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The Guardians of the Galaxy were the most surprising and delightful addition to the Marvel family. I don't think anyone expected them to be as entertaining as they were. However, despite being a bundle of excitement and fun, the Guardians have been kept separate from the rest of the super heroes in the MCU. The lines between that shifted in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Thor places an Infinity Stone in Vision, and he reveals that he knows about the existence of other Infinity Stones. The question is how does Thor know about the Infinity Stone the Guardians discovered? Did he know about their adventures the whole time? (Oh my stars and garters, I simply can't wait till I get to see Avengers: Infinity War.)

10 Dipping A Toe In The Water

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You know what also made no sense about Avengers: Age of Ultron? I had no idea what was happening when Thor went for a little bath in that cave pool and started hallucinating. I vaguely understood that he was trying to receive a vision of the future, and he eventually receives a vision about creating Vision. That segment in Age of Ultron was so thinly explained, I hardly had time to wonder what Thor was up to before he was jamming an Infinity Stone in Vision's forehead. As I understand it, there's a deleted scene that explains what's going on when Thor visits this "Water of Sights," but I feel that if a scene is going to properly explain another scene, then maybe it shouldn't be deleted in the first place.

9 You've Got A Friend In Me

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When Iron Man is in trouble, he should call his friend Rhodey. Then Rhodey will suit up as War Machine and help out. Captain America made a new friend in Captain America: Winter Soldier, but I guess he didn't think to call Falcon when Ultron was trying to end the world. In a battle where the odds are against you, you would think that Captain America (the most strategic-thinking of the group) would have remembered to call in some reinforcements. I'm pretty sure Falcon would have been a more reliable ally than the questionable allies of Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. (They did their part; I'm just saying that a couple of scenes before the final fight, they were on Ultron's side.)

8 The Butler Did It

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Vision ends up being a compilation of the Infinity Stone and the artificial intelligence that Tony created to run his business, also known as Jarvis. He has Jarvis' voice, and the foundation of Jarvis' AI is what gives Tony the idea to try making Vision. What I want to know is if what is "Jarvis" is still inside the Vision.

Are Jarvis' memories residing in Vision's brain?

Is Vision ultimately subservient to Tony's will? Or is Vision like a newborn baby, with a fresh slate all his own? Vision's creation felt rushed to me in Age of Ultron. He was made faster than Ultron was, and he ends up being the guy who defeats Ultron. I hadn't even gotten to know him before he was off being a hero at Sokovia.

7 The Real Joker

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For a vastly superior AI, Ultron sure makes a lot of jokes. I get that he was made by the snarky Tony Stark, but just because Tony made Ultron, doesn't mean he "raised" him, if you know what I mean. Tony hardly spent any time with Ultron as he developed his burgeoning consciousness. There's no way that Tony was the one responsible for influencing Ultron's personality. Then again, Ultron had immediate access to the Internet, so maybe he learned his joke-making from the gazillion pranksters and memes that run amok there. Honestly, I wouldn't have minded spending more time watching Ultron browsing the Internet instead of seeing Thor take mind-expanding baths.

6 Wall-Bending

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Just as Wanda Maximoff's powers as Scarlet Witch are never listed, neither are Vision's. I know he has laser blasts that come from the Infinity Stone at his forehead. I know he can fly. And I know he can pass through solid objects. But is that all? And why are those his powers? Ultron is an artificial intelligence given form, and he can't do all of those things.

Is it the Infinity Stone that makes Vision special?

If that's the case, then Infinity War better give me some answers regarding what exactly Infinity Stones can do. For items that have appeared in several MCU films, not a lot of explanation has been given about them. Seriously, all we know is that they're mega powerful and that Thanos really wants them.