When I received a press invite to see Ultimate Avengers 2 on the big screen during the Los Angeles Film Festival, I was kind of stoked. I’d received the first one as a present earlier this year, and despite my reservations, I found it to be a flawed but enjoyable piece of entertainment. Yeah, the animation wasn’t exactly great, and the storytelling was a bit simplistic, but overall, Ultimate Avengers was a perfectly acceptable way to blow an hour and a half of your time. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the sequel.

The main problem with Ultimate Avengers 2 is…pretty much everything. It all seemed very rushed, resulting in a final product that seemed to be pushed out the door as fast as possible in order to crank out another Avengers DVD to sell. I knew going in that the animation wasn’t exactly going to be cutting edge, but I don’t really expect Miyazaki-level work from a Marvel direct-to-DVD release. What I do expect is a decent, if not spectacular, bit of escapist entertainment. Instead what the viewer is treated to is a mess of a story, worse animation than the first movie, action scenes oscillating between confusing or boring rather than fun or exciting, and damn near every action movie cliché you can think of.

That said, die hard fans of the first movie will find a few things to enjoy. Tony Stark/Iron Man was a thoroughly enjoyable asshole. Unfortunately, Iron Man is relegated to the B-plot, so there’s not enough of him to save the movie. The introduction of the Black Panther into the UA universe is handled well enough, though his origin sequence lacks the pinache of Captain America’s WWII intro in the first movie. Also, fans will be glad to hear that the violence hasn’t been toned down at all. It’s actualy surprising that this little feature has nastier, bloodier fights than any of the X-Men movies. Unfortunately, as noted above, the mere fact that they’re good and violent can’t save them from being impossible to follow. They did manage to get a few of the younger kids in the audience worked up to the point of tears though, so there’s that.

It all boils down to the fact that while the first Ultimate Avengers movie has it’s flaws, it’s a perfectly enjoyable piece of fluff. UA2, on the other hand, is a tedious, plodding presentation that feels much longer than it’s 73 minute running time, leaving you squirming in your seats and likely reaching for your remote. I wish Marvel and Lions Gate much success with their direct-to-DVD business model, as I’d love to see other characters make the leap from the comics to animated features. However, if UA2 is the best they can do, then we’re all better off with the New Warriors cartoon that might have been than a creative debacle that might be.

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