Friday, May 1, 2015

The Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) review


Phase 2 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been a… interesting run to say the least. I say interesting because in some ways it didn’t exactly start out on the greatest note. Immediately after ‘The Avengers’ in 2013 came ‘Iron Man 3’ and ‘Thor: The Dark World’. While both films did fine with critics and were solid successes at the box office, with ‘Iron Man 3’ becoming the second MCU film to break the billion dollar mark, they received a far more polarizing response from fans. Of course, as we all know, with ‘Iron Man 3’ it was due to the infamous Mandarin fake-out. As for ‘Thor: The Dark World’, basically many consider it to be the weakest MCU film to date. Not only that but the MCU’s first major TV series, ‘Agents of SHIELD’, had a really rough start in regards to attracting an audience. Thankfully, 2014 was a much more successful year for Marvel Studios as they gave us two of their greatest films to date. Those two films were ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’, which made a huge impact on the future of the MCU with its big ‘HYDRA’ twist, and ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’, which showed that Marvel Studios wasn’t afraid to go outside the box when it came to their films as this one centered around a much more obscure team of superheroes. To make things even better, ‘Agents of SHIELD’ benefitted greatly from the ‘Winter Soldier’ twist, allowing it to get the buzz and attention that it finally deserved. Then to top it all off, then we got two more awesome Marvel shows in the form of ‘Agent Carter’ and ‘Daredevil’.

And now, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes are back again, once again under the direction of Joss Whedon, for the second Avengers film; ‘The Avengers: Age of Ultron’. This time, they’re joined by not only some new allies but also a brand new threat in the form of Ultron. Simply put, the stakes are much higher than they were back in 2012. And does ‘Age of Ultron’ succeed in being another Grade-A effort from Marvel? You bet your ass it is (“Hey! Language!” “I’m Sorry!” (You’ll understand these references when you see the film)). Despite the fact that the film currently only has a 75% RT score, believe me when I say that it is much better than that rating suggests. Now with that said, does that mean that it is better than the first film? Well… at the time I am writing this, I wouldn’t necessarily go ‘that far’ yet. But at the same time, I’m not going to hold that against this film. Instead, I can safely say that ‘Age of Ultron’ is yet another extremely entertaining foray into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And that is because, like its primary predecessor ‘The Avengers’, it benefits from many things; great direction from Joss Whedon, a phenomenal ensemble cast, a highly memorable main villain, and a great script that provides us with loads of both hilarious dialogue and insanely epic action set-pieces. What more can you ask for?

After receiving a troubling hallucination from Wanda Maximoff AKA Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) in which all of the Avengers have been defeated and the Earth is being invaded by aliens, Tony Stark AKA Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), fearing that The Avengers aren’t powerful enough to combat all of their adversaries, begins to develop a new and more powerful line of defense with his friend Bruce Banner AKA The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo). With the help of a special A.I. system found within the gem of the scepter owned by Loki in ‘The Avengers’, they develop a new sentient A.I. defense program which they name ‘Ultron’. However soon after he is created, Ultron (James Spader) turns against his creators and the Avengers, believing that the only way to achieve peace on Earth is to eradicate all of humanity. Enlisting the aid of Scarlet Witch and her twin brother Pietro AKA Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), Ultron starts to carry out his plan of destroying the world, which includes attempting to tear the Avengers apart with the help of Scarlet Witch’s mind-control powers. With the odds stacked against them, the Avengers; Tony, Bruce, Steve Rogers AKA Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Natasha Romanoff AKA Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and Clint Barton AKA Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) must team up yet again to stop this mad robot’s plans from succeeding.

The stakes are no doubt higher in ‘Age of Ultron’ than they have ever been in any MCU film that has come before this. From the multiple locations that the film goes to, from South Africa to Eastern Europe, to the amazing action sequences, including the duel between Iron Man (in the Hulkbuster suit) and the Hulk and the truly epic final battle, this is easily the biggest film that Marvel Studios has done to date in terms of overall scale. So obviously that does mean that there’s a risk of the film being too overstuffed giving all of the characters in the film. But personally I never found the film to be overcrowded at all as, like with the last ‘Avengers’ film, every major character in the film had their own chance to shine. Ultimately ‘Age of Ultron’ provides us with yet another fun adventure following our favorite superhero team. And really it’s because of Joss Whedon’s direction that the film manages to stay cohesive even with all that is going on. Whedon’s screenplay is well-constructed and full of hilarious dialogue, just like it was with the first film. This hilarious dialogue helps liven up the mood, which is good considering that this film’s story is a bit more serious in tone than we’re used to seeing from the MCU. But even with that in mind, never does the film veer too far into being dark and serious that it ends up being a total downer of a superhero flick (I’m looking at you, DC!). If I’ve said it a million times before, I’ll say it again; Marvel knows when to lighten things up.

Of course we all know how great the main cast of these films have been as proven by all of the previous MCU films. Obviously the same applies here as well, as all returning members of the cast; Downey Jr., Evans, Hemsworth, Ruffalo, Johansson, Renner (who thankfully gets a much more substantial role in this film compared to the first ‘Avengers’), and so on all are great once again. The newcomers to the cast are pretty damn excellent too; Elizabeth Olsen shines as yet another great female MCU lead in Scarlet Witch while Aaron Taylor-Johnson brings his own unique spin to the character of Quicksilver, who we previously saw in last years’ ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’. And then to top it all off, the third act brings in the incredibly badass Vision, played by Paul Bettany, who becomes the first major actor to play two different characters in the MCU. Bettany of course has been providing the voice of Tony Stark’s A.I. Jarvis since the beginning. Like how the Hulk was effectively used in ‘The Avengers’ in a limited time span, Vision really stands out even though he doesn’t show up until the finale. And finally, there’s James Spader, who gives the Marvel Cinematic Universe another fantastic villain in the form of Ultron. Not only does Spader succeed in giving the character quite the intimidating/villainous presence, but he surprisingly also brings a lot of humor to the role as well, which I wasn’t expecting.

I’m not going to compare ‘Age of Ultron’ to the first ‘Avengers’. I mean, at the moment, I can’t really say that this is the ‘better’ film. But even with that said, I did not go into ‘Age of Ultron’ expecting that because you’re not always going to get that with sequels… and that’s perfectly fine. Instead, I went into this hoping that it would be a fun and entertaining superhero flick and folks if you’ve been following me these last few years on this blog and on Twitter, I’ve very much made it clear that Marvel Studios has yet to let me down in that regard. I highly disagree with the fact that this film is only at 75% on Rotten Tomatoes. This film deserves a better score than that. ‘The Avengers: Age of Ultron’ gives us exactly what we want to see; our favorite Marvel superheroes, portrayed by a fantastic ensemble cast with even greater camaraderie, in a kick-ass superhero flick with phenomenal action sequences, a great villain in James Spader’s Ultron, and most importantly the great sense of fun that has defined the Marvel Cinematic Universe from the very beginning. For what looks to be his last foray in the MCU (‘Winter Soldier’ directors Anthony and Joe Russo will be helming ‘Avengers: Infinity War’), Joss Whedon goes out on a high note with yet another top-of-the-line superhero film that once again proves why Marvel is the current king of superhero films.


Rating: 4.5/5

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