I think the worst thing about the film is how awful the entire first act was. Like, what was that garbage? It felt like walking into a film 15 minutes after it started. That is not how you do in medias res. Instead of being an exciting set piece which sets up the rest of the film, it felt like a confusing "what did I miss" sequence which sort of introduces the elements which eventually form the core of the plot.
- When did the Avengers get together again?
- How did they know Von Strucker has the scepter?
- Who is Von Strucker?
- How did the twins get their powers? What experiments was Von Strucker conducting?
These would be questions which should be answered for anyone not intimately already familiar with the Marvel universe. Even for the people who are, it's not really explained in the context of the MCU. The lack of that build up means it's hard to give a shit about what's going on.
And for people who have been paying attention to the MCU and following all the movies, where are questions too like:
- Why is Iron Man happily using the Iron Legion and remote activated suits after the ending of Iron Man 3? What the hell happened?
- How did Captain America go from semi-fugitive to the leader of the Avengers willing to operate openly overseas on destructive missions? Wouldn't this make people even more concerned after what happened with SHIELD?
- When did Black Widow and Banner have a thing going? It's just thrown in there like something which happened between films, but we've seen the characters in other films inbetween and there was nothing at all suggesting something like that. Pretty weird!