A lot to talk about for those who’ve seen the film. Let’s dig in:

• Banner and Black Widow? Who saw that coming? Well, nobody, since it wasn’t set up at all, but from the first scene where she calms him down and eases him back to Bruce-dom, I totally bought that relationship.
• Speaking of Hulk: Where’d he go? And is Hulk smart enough to fly a plane in Hulk form? Apparently, which again raises the question of how much difference there is between Banner and his alter ego. Something for future films to explore, though perhaps not a Hulk solo film.
• Scarlet Witch: Scary. Quicksilver: Interesting choice to play him as an Eastern European bro.
• Hawkeye’s farmhouse and secret wife: I honestly did not see that coming either. It’s all nicely played, and leads to some of the best moments of the film.
• Who had the best/most chilling hallucinatory freak-out? I’d vote for Black Widow, though Cap’s reunion with Peggy Carter was the most heartbreaking.
• Kind of ingenious to cast James Spader as a smarmier, robotic version of Robert Downey Jr.’s persona. The film keeps teasing Ultron as an extension of Stark’s personality. I almost expected it to do more with it.
• Stan Lee as Stan Lee. For once.
• Best fight scene? The Hulkbuster vs. Hulk scene is pretty great, but the Korea scene has tremendous energy.
• We collectively left the screening a little confused by Thor’s dream-pool immersion, until Tasha Robinson cleared up what was going on. It still feels like a sequence that suffered from trims. The report that Tom Hiddleston filmed scenes that didn’t make it into the movie lends some credence to that, too.
• Most awkward moment, though kind of charmingly awkward: Now here’s some banter explaining why Gwyneth Paltrow and Natalie Portman aren’t in the movie.
• Thanos: Finally going to do something for once.
• Wakanda! Vibranium! Nice setup for the Black Panther movie. And there’s a thread to pull in the dialogue about Tony’s dad making off with the country’s vibranium.
• The Vision: I knew Paul Bettany voiced J.A.R.V.I.S. and that he’d be playing the Vision, but I never put two and two together about the characters’ connection. Very clever. And for someone introduced so late in the film, the Vision makes a pretty strong impression. There’s a real x-factor to him, and how he thinks should make for interesting developments in the coming films.