Avengers: Age of Ultron

Cool seeing them all together again, even if I didn't massively enjoy it. It's good, nothing more or less in my opinion.

'Avengers: Age of Ultron' isn't too far off 2012's 'The Avengers', especially in terms of how I fell about it. I definitely wanted more from both, yet they are still satisfying superhero action flicks. I'd rank this narrowly below the aforementioned.

Robert Downey Jr. felt a little flat to me as Iron Man - he still has a decent amount of moments, just not as many as you get in his individual films. All the others continue to entertain to an equally suitable level, I didn't overly like the characters of Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen but I also don't have any noteworthy negatives about them. The story between Scarlett Johansson and Mark Ruffalo didn't do much for me either.

With that noted, it is still an enjoyable ride through the 141 minute run time. The ending is intriguing, interested to see where that goes - I have a minor inkling about the mid-credits scene, given all the internet attention that has had - even for someone like me who knows very little overall.

The task of bringing together Earth's mightiest heroes took Joss Whedon into uncharted territory with 2012's "The Avengers," and, despite the weight of the Marvel Cinematic Universe on his shoulders, the results were staggeringly entertaining. The task of making a sequel to that ground-breaking, monumental event film, however, and being expected to deliver on par or better results, is an entirely different beast.

"Avengers: Age of Ultron" was definitely built on the bullet point takeaways of "The Avengers," which are: Make time and space for wit, banter and humor for the sake of humor to prevent the film from taking itself too seriously; give each character a story arch and independent moments; choreography clever action sequences with well-timed glory shots. These components are in full force in "Ultron" and make enjoying the blockbuster as easy as shoving a lollipop in your mouth.

Yet "Ultron" is infinitely more complex than its predecessor. The number of heroes featured barely fits into a single action figure play case, meaning more subplots and back story, in addition to creating an arch of the creation and life of Ultron itself. With a plot that takes the Avengers from the eastern European country of "Sokovia" to New York to the African nation of "Wakanda" to Seoul, South Korea to Sokovia again, much of "Age of Ultron" is a non-stop blur.

The film opens with the Avengers leading an assault on a secret HYDRA facility where they have located the staff that Loki used to lead the Chitauri invasion in "The Avengers." When they secure it and bring it back to New York, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) discover that its power source contains a blueprint for artificial intelligence, which would allow Stark to proceed with his Ultron project, an initiative to create peace-keeping robots that could defend the world in place of the Avengers should another alien invasion occur. When Ultron (voiced by James Spader) becomes conscious, however, he interprets his peace-keeping instructions as an imperative to wipe out humankind.

Added to the mix are the Maximoff twins, Pietro (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) – also known as Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch – who decide to serve Ultron, with the latter using her powers to give each of the Avengers dangerous visions that could tear them apart.

The fight scenes and action sequences are in such abundance in "Ultron" that it's impossible to remember them all, and the ones that are most distinct, such as Iron Man chasing down and taming a rampant Hulk using his Hulkbuster armor, are ancillary to the narrative of finding what Ultron is up to and stopping it. In other words – it's all for show. The creativity of the fight choreography also gets lost in the whirlwind of action. Captain America (Chris Evans) probably does 12 different awesome things with his shield, but they happen so fast you'll be hard pressed to recall any one of them in detail. Really clever sequences are only as fun as the build-up and payoff and those pieces are given no time to breathe.

Whedon does allow for pauses in the chaos, such as the swanky Avengers Tower party featuring the film's best scene, when each Avenger tries his hand at lifting Thor's hammer, or a quiet retreat to an unexpected safe house in the countryside, but it's simply a trade- off: instead of busy action sequences, we get character relationship dynamics and back story.

"Ultron" is inundating, to be frank, but for the everything-but-the-sink mentality, it's carried by its sense of humor and a cast whose members have each proved themselves time and again to be magnetic both on their own and as part of this team. Some of the novelty has worn off, but seeing all these characters together remains a treat that even the most convoluted of stories cannot entirely dismantle. Marvel Studios truly proves with "Ultron" the credibility that it has built with fans, to the point that even when it gets a little ambitious and mettles a bit more (you can easily see Whedon at odds with them in this final cut), its reputation remains intact and the fans placated.

As "Phase III" begins, adding even more characters to Marvel's cinematic universe (and even sliding Spider-Man into the mix) en route to the two-part "Avengers: Infinity War" slated for 2018 and 2019, it will be interesting to see if Marvel Studios barrels along into more unwieldy but delicious chaos, or reins it in a touch. Either way, should be fun.

~Steven C

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Avengers Age Of Ultron is considered as one of the worst entries in the MCU but I think that this film is very interesting and intriguing. The film had a very cool and intelligent storyline and the chemistry between the characters was really funny.

I also liked how Joss Whedon took characters like Hawkeye and Black Widow and gave them more of a backstory which made the characters more interesting.

The only thing I don't like about this film is that Ultron didn't really have anything to be evil about but he isn't the worst villain that has been introduced into the franchise so it didn't really put me off from the film.

Spoiler free review. Let me first start of by saying that I am not a Marvel ''fanboy'' or a DC nerd. The comic book genre of films have made it to my personal top 3 favourite genres in the last decade and the MCU has been a strong contributor to that rise. I hold the first Ironman, first Avengers and Captain America 1+2 in high regard. I did not like the direction they took with Iron Man 3 (more on this below) or Guardians of the Galaxy but Winter Soldier was a gem in terms of balancing solid action, drama and levity.

That being said, my initial thoughts on Age of Ultron (AoU) are quite negative. To me, its essentially a carbon copy of IM3. There are problems which strike you repeatedly as you progress throughout the film. The 2 biggest complaints I have with AoU is 1) the tone (comedy) 2) the script/writing.

So starting with the tone. I like to laugh as I'm sure most people do, but there is a time and place to exhibit your comedy writing skills in an action film. In AoU, its a constant, recurring and predictable theme. It's not limited to one character either, everyone is popping one liner jokes as if its the Expendables and yes, most are not funny. The timing of these moments of levity are horrible too, desensitising the viewer to any impending fear of death in battle. If the characters seem so relaxed in not worrying about possibly dying, then what suspense is needed to be held by the audience? This plagued IM3 in a bad way and its arguably worse here. The comic book films which achieved great success in this regard were XMen DOFP, The Avengers 1, Cap 2 even Dark Knight Rises! Can you imagine at the climax of Xmen DOFP if old Magneto and Storm and Bishop start pulling one liner jokes as the army of sentinels came charging at them? It would kill any tension! 2) The script. I won't say too much since this is a spoiler free review, but it really feels rushed and unorganised. I watched Fast 7 around 2 weeks before AoU and I got similar vibes. Again, its not the fact that the film is 2.5 hours long or has too many characters, that isn't am excuse since The Dark Knight and Xmen DOFP shows how to navigate these theatrical obstacles. There are a few completely unnecessary subplots in AoU and useless characters which do not impact the story overall. The villain himself, Ultron is another massive let-down in Marvels already growing catalogue of mishandled villains.

So as a summary, if you want mindless action and cool CGI, which this film does offer in the form of some spectacular visual fight scenes then you will like AoU. If you are after a darker, grounded and more moving story like the trailers promised, you will be severely disappointed. Final score 6/10 and I am being kind since Cap is my fav Avenger and they finally gave him some good screen time.

This movie was fantastic. Great action sequences, great heroes, great villains, great jokes. All around this was a great sequel. Was it as good as the first Avengers film, yes and its probably even better. Each character is given more time to develop, especially Hawkeye and Bruce Banner/The Hulk who are characters who were not very utilised in the previous film. Also I would say Hawkeye was the character this film focused on the most and nicely tied it together. The new characters Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver were also great, and the accents were not at all distracting as others had said. The Vision, was probably the coolest addition to this film and he is introduced in a very cool way and its great that he is now a part of the MCU, Paul Bettany did a great job. Ultron, the villain of this film has been getting a lot of hate. But Ultron was great in this film. he was very human, he had so many different characteristics that made him a great character. Many viewers wanted him to be menacing and scary and that's all, but all that will accomplish is another dull MCU villain. Also the jokes in this film were completely fine. None of them pulled me out of the action, I was completely into the movie this whole time. Nothing made me look away and go, why did they do that? So really just go see this movie, ignore all the haters because this is a great addition to the MCU and you wont be disappointed. Just enjoy it and try not to pick it apart.