The Avengers: Age of Ultron Review

The Avengers: Age of Ultron, sequel to 2012's The Avengers, is anything and everything you want it to be. It's a complete smorgasbord of action, funniness, and hammy accents that make up the biggest movie of the year, and is a worthy conclusion to Marvel Studio's second phase of films (OK, we're not completely finished. Don't forget about Ant-Man). It also serves as a launchpad for Marvel's next phase of films, and is filled to the brim with easter eggs that set up future Marvel movies. It introduces the heroes that we all remember, like Iron Man, Captain America and Thor, as well as new additions to the Avengers roster, such as twins Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, as well as the mysterious android known as the Vision, to band together to defeat Tony Stark's failed peacekeeping program Ultron from destroying all of mankind. The only problem is that Ultron has an army. Luckily for the Avengers, they have a Hulk.

Avengers: Age of Ultron Official Movie Poster. It's unfortunate that it looks a little crowded.

The movie takes place after the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The villianous terrorist organization Hydra has stolen Loki's scepter, as seen as the first Avengers film. This brings the Avengers, namely Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, Thor, Hawkeye and Black Widow, to Baron Wolfgang von Strucker's doorstep, a Hydra leader who has been experimenting with the scepter. Standing in their way are two muta-- *cough* oops, sorry Fox. *ahem* Two "Enhanced" fighters stand in their way. Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, also known as Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch in the comics, volunteered for Strucker's experiments with the scepter, giving Wanda the powers of telekinesis and giving Pietro superhuman speed. They also hold a lifelong grudge against Tony Stark when one of Stark Industries' bombs killed their parents. Tony Stark retrieves the scepter, and the group returns back to Avengers Tower, set up in Manhattan, New York, in place of Stark's original tower in the first film. Stark and Bruce Banner discover an Artificial Intelligence in the gem inside the scepter, and use it to complete Stark's global peacekeeping program, Ultron. But of course, nothing is ever that easy, so Ultron decides that in order to protect the earth, he must destroy all of the humans living on it.

The Avengers' base of operations used to be Stark Tower in the first film, but was reconstructed to fit the newly-formed team's needs.

The movie has a much darker tone to it, with much of it having to do with the eerie visions that are the effect of Scarlet Witch's mysterious powers. The first Avengers had more of a light hearted feel to it, and while Age of Ultron definitely has its funny moments, the movie as a whole is much darker. This isn't a bad thing. This makes the cast act out the characters in ways we've never seen before, and it's fantastic to see it get played out on the big screen. Ultron is also a very "worthy" villain. Underneath that robotic skin and motion-capture technology is none other than James Spader, who brings the character to life in the best way possible. Seeing as Ultron was modeled after Tony Stark's brash personality, you would think that Spader's character has it's comedic moments; and he does. Ultron succeeds in being funny as much as he does threatening.

James Spader is known for playing fantastic villains,
and his portrayal of Ultron is one that should never be overlooked.

Director Joss Whedon had a very difficult task when putting this movie together, and that was to effectively balance it's enormous cast. And that's not easy when you have six original Avengers, three newcomers, a giant killer robot and a plethora of supporting characters. But Whedon succeeds almost flawlessly in giving each and every character the respect they deserve. Even Vision, who appears towards the end of the film, gets exactly what he deserves. Paul Bettany, who previously voiced Tony's A.I. butler J.A.R.V.I.S., is by far my favourite part of the film. Vision looks fantastic, and Bettany's portrayal of the character is exactly what you would expect from the Vision in the comics. You've just got to love that British accent.

Doesn't that just look AWESOME?!

This movie is fantastic, but it's not perfect. My two biggest complaints go to various problems with Quicksilver's character and some issues with the action sequences. Aaron Taylor-Johnson's Quicksilver is one of the weaker links that connect this mega-movie together. His origin story is completely explained in one short conversation when the Avengers confront him and Ultron. No flashback, no details, nothing. It's disappointing to not have two of the films biggest additions get a proper origin story, and the setting of the conversation would make a perfect place for a quick flashback. But alas, all we get is a description in a laughably lame accent.

Some of the film's CGI-fueled action scenes can be very difficult to follow. For example, in the long-awaited fight between the Hulk and Iron Man's Hulkbuster armor (codenamed "Veronica" in the film. See if you can figure out that reference), while the two are fighting through the streets and up buildings, the camera is so zoomed in, you start to think you're watching one of Michael Bay's Transformers movies instead of a giant green rage monster fighting a suit of armor.

Tony Stark's "Veronica" suit can be summoned via satellite and forms around his Mark  43 armor.
It was specially designed to combat the hulk in case he went on a rampage.

The movie also (somewhat) follows the Hero's Journey archetype. The Hero's Journey is a narrative pattern discovered by American scholar Joseph Campbell that describes the path that a hero takes throughout a story that involves the hero's everyday life, which leads up to a crisis and eventually a resolution. In Age of Ultron, the Status Quo, or the hero's everyday life, consists of the Avengers going on missions to clean up the rest of Hydra's forces around the world and find and retrieve Loki's scepter that Baron Strucker stole from them. Steps 1 and 2, the Call to Adventure and Assistance, would be when the Avengers realize that Ultron is all over the globe and they need to defeat him together, receiving assistance from one another as well as supporting characters, like Nick Fury or Colonel Rhodes/War Machine. The Avengers travel to all sorts of different locations, such as Seoul and the fictional countries of Wakanda and Sokovia, so step 3, Departure, is when they leave to accomplish their various missions in those places. Step 4, or Trials, are the various hurdles that they face along the way, such as when the Hulk goes on a rampage in Wakanda, or when they need to steal the Vision's body from Ultron in Seoul. Steps 5 and 6, also known as the Approach and Crisis, are when the Avengers evacuate everyone from Sokovia and battle Ultron on the floating city. Step 7, or the Treasure, was tricky. I found Age of Ultron to not have a treasure. I don't think you could consider saving the day a treasure, because it happens so often in movies, and (spoiler alert) the Avengers disband and lose one of their own in the end, so the movie ends on somewhat of a low note. Step 8, or the Result, is simply that the world is saved, and that the Avengers have disbanded. Step 9, or the Return, could be when Thor returns to Asgard to further investigate the mysterious Infinity Stones, but none of the other Avengers necessarily have a Return. Tony Stark has retired as Iron Man (for now), Hulk is off the grid, and Q########## is dead, leaving the Captain and Black Widow to train a new team of Avengers with Scarlet Witch and Vision. Step 10, the New Life, is exactly that. The members have gone their separate ways to do their own thing. Finally, step 11, the Resolution, is that there is a new team of Avengers ready to take the place of those who have left.

Check out the film's 3rd trailer, showcasing some of the awesome action.

Going back to what I said earlier, Age of Ultron is exactly what you want it to be; a gargantuan blockbuster filled with action. And Joss Whedon succeeds amazingly; making this a worthy sequel to 2012's The Avengers and an effective launchpad for more to come. The cast feel so natural playing their roles; "Spadertron" is the best villain that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has seen yet. You won't have more fun watching any other movie than this one in 2015. While there were a few bumps along the way, the latest (and greatest) entry in the MCU concludes Phase 2 with a bang, and opens it's doors to all sorts of movies in Phase 3, leading up to the ultimate climax in The Avengers: Infinity War parts I and II in 2018 and 2019, respectively. Now we just need to wait three more years.

Final Rating: 9 out of 10









And for god's sake, Cap, watch your language!