Avengers: Age of Ultron

AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON

The titular team of superheroes is once again forced to save the world once an attempt to build peace-keeping technology results in the creation of an extremely dangerous AI.

Superhero sequels are always a make-or-break proposition. They're coming off the back of an origin story that has already firmly established its heroic character (or characters, as is the case here) and now has to come up with a worthwhile story on its own. Often, these stories tend to involve an antagonist who serves as a dark reflection of the protagonist, thus setting up a compelling duality that should serve the story with both weighty thematic content and provide for interesting conflicts both in the physical sense and the emotional. Avengers: Age of Ultron, the latest in a long line of films set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that was kick-started by 2008's Iron Man, features multiple heroes who have been given considerable establishment over the past few years (naturally including 2012's The Avengers, which serves as the group's "origin" film). Right from the opening minutes, Age of Ultron wastes no time in re-introducing its leads as they embark on a wintry mission where they have learned to co-ordinate with one another much better since the events of their previous film - already, the promise is strong.

Each of the Avengers get their fair share of development, even the ones that have been short-changed a bit by previous films such as Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner). The former finally gets some solid material of her own to work with, with some insight into her mysterious back-story and a heavy sub-plot regarding the constantly tense situation between her and the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo). The rest of the cast all bounce off each other well, whether it's during moments of levity (the rather extended party sequence early on in the film) or extreme tension, especially between the group's de facto leaders Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and Captain America (Chris Evans). The main contribution of Thor (Chris Hemsworth) ends up being the provision of a lot of the film's best laughs thanks to his arrogant yet charming persona and flowery language, though he naturally brings his fair share of ruckus to the fighting.

The film follows up on its promise well enough, with a compelling antagonist born out of a desire for peace (even though that does seem more than a little similar to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s surveillance plot from Captain America: The Winter Soldier). Ultron, a blue-tinged AI presence that jumps from robot to robot, is voiced by James Spader in what initially sounds like an awful lot like Michael Keaton's Birdman voice (to the point where that was my best guess as to who it was until the cast credits rolled), but he supplants Ultron's more obviously villainous demeanour with some very human personality traits that feel unusually comedic yet don't undercut Ultron's menace. The other significant additions to the cast include the Maximoff twins, Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), who definitely hold their own both as characters and as superpowered beings. My only real nit-pick is how this film doesn't seem to acknowledge the fact that there was also a Quicksilver in last year's X-Men: Days of Future Past (played by a different young actor in scenes that took place during the 1970s, no less) - though this can be hand-waved by the fact that the current wave of X-Men movies takes place in a different universe to the MCU, it's still a bit distracting.

In terms of action, it also makes good on providing that. Though it will of course depend on your tolerance for the current cinematic generation's requirements for blockbuster fantasy action, I found it frenetic without being disorienting (for the most part, anyway). The setpieces are paced rather well and never feel anti-climatic or too same-y despite the fact that the bulk of the antagonists end up being a bunch of robots, which does feel a little too familiar after the use of villainous robots in Iron Man 2 and wave after wave of faceless aliens in the original Avengers film. Despite that, the film does manage to escalate the scale of its action not just with every new sequence but with each new film. Age of Ultron could still be nit-picked considerably (and it definitely will be in the weeks to come), but for the time being I felt it delivered on what an action blockbuster should be. It manages to justify its lengthy running time reasonably well by packing out the lulls in the action with good character moments and having solid dialogue in both the loud and quiet parts of the film. Having Joss Whedon handle dialogue duty will help in that regard. This marks the first actual 2015 release I've watched - at least it's a good one.

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

Nice. How did you see this already? Love the score but won't read review till I see it next week.

Advance screening. Film's actual Australian release will be tomorrow (technically today, it's 1:24 a.m. on Thursday right now).

I saw this monday. More of the same, just darker. If you liked the first I think you will like the second as well... But for me it's a at the most.

Ime meant to be going to see this on Saturday but a few reviews have really put me off. I've heard that it's wayyyyy to long. I've read that it's to crammed, and I've read that the movie is abit all over the place. Is any of that correct?.

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In regards to the length, it's certainly a lot more tolerable than other recent films of similar running times such as The Dark Knight Rises and Man of Steel (though the latter is sort of justified in that it's an "origin" film). I never quite got the sense that it was crammed and all-over-the-place - sure, there's a lot going on even during the quiet parts, but I'll take that over the dragging that happens in a lot of shorter superhero movies.

Sounds like a description of the first film to me.

So not anything new there...

For reference's sake, I currently hold The Avengers at , so good, but not that good. I do reckon Age of Ultron has a good chance of dropping down to , but we'll see.

How do you mean Iro? What kind of acknowledgment where you expecting or wanting? From a legal standpoint there can't be any direct link between the two different versions. The only thing you could have had was perhaps a little meta moment/wink to the audience where Stark or someone says something along the lines of Quicksilver looking familiar, as if they feel they saw him a year ago or something

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I have since learned about the legal reasons for the different Quicksilvers, it was simply a matter of not knowing that particular detail. I don't exactly keep up with things.

Hey guys, here's my spoiler-free review of Avengers: Age of Ultron. Any feedback would be brilliant and I hope you enjoy!

Please note that since Avengers: Age of Ultron is yet to be released in regions such as the United States, this review will be totally free of any spoilers. Once the film is released in America on May 1st, I will publish a spoiler-filled review as soon as I can. Anyway, into the review:

It’s impossible to argue that Avengers: Age of Ultron is easily one of the most anticipated films of 2015. It’s really no surprise, after the astounding performance of 2012’s Avengers Assemble, grossing over $1 billion worldwide. I loved Avengers Assemble, which is why I’m disappointed to say that Age of Ultron left me slightly underwhelmed.

Don’t get me wrong, the film was good, but unfortunately just not as much as previous entries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The stakes were far lower this time around, and in comparison to the exciting prospects of Avengers: Infinity War, felt akin to a filler episode of a TV show.

Although I say this, there were plenty of things that I loved about Avengers: Age of Ultron. As expected, the action scenes were phenomenal: excellently directed by Joss Whedon and incredibly well choreographed. Every Avenger felt necessary in this entry; even those considered B-team members such as Black Widow and Hawkeye had some outstanding scenes and character-defining moments.

On the subject of character development, Age of Ultron is rife with it. Not to spoil anything, but certain characters suffer from visions that reveal more about their origins, which I found to be some of the film’s best moments. Whedon previously stated that this was going to be a more character-driven film, and that is really prevalent. In fact, even if the film was 100% dialogue, story and character development, it would be just as good a film, and I would’ve been just as glued to my seat as much I already was during this 140-minute romp.

However, as our heroes’ stories took the centre stage, the eponymous AI Ultron was definitely shoved to the back. I don’t want to say too much, but the trailers made it look like he would be a more vengeful character, motivated by his hatred of the Avengers, but his origin was thoroughly rushed. We barely got to know the purpose of Ultron before he went rogue, and it just seemed like his origin and development were an afterthought.

The film also bears too many similarities to 2012’s Avengers Assemble. I don’t want to say what exactly they are – I’ll save that for the spoiler review – but it felt like we were treading on old territory, not what I expect from a series of films that has taken so many risks in recent years, expecially Phase 2.

Although this review may focus on the issues I had with Avengers: Age of Ultron, please don’t think that I disliked the film. I’m thoroughly absorbed and invested with the characters now, and the action scenes and tight script made sure I was always entertained, but a few broken promises and a reliance on the structure of the previous film means that Age of Ultron never quite excels in the same way Avengers Assemble did. I thought the film was great, but not quite as great as I may have anticipated.

I give Avengers: Age of Ultron 8 out of 10.

Well just returned back and my first reaction was wow. I disagree with the above review. I thought this movie was a lot better than the first movie. I thought the characters where all involved a lot more this time around, and I thought the action was amazing.

Actually Quicksilver (and Scarlet Witch) were introduced onto the big screen and into the MCU before X-Men: Days of Future Past came out, in Captain America: Winter Soldier during the end credits.

I really like Scarlet Witch.

The fact that I'd managed to see Winter Soldier before Days of Future Past and not make the connection then says a lot about the relevance of that end-credits scene, especially considering the radically different back-stories that would only further distance the two versions of the character.

I personally am not bothered by the fact that Quicksilver is in both franchises, since the fact that Marvel's version of The Twins that are used are more vital. That they are the ones who are going to be expanding through the cinematic universe and not Fox's Quicksilver. Especially Scarlet Witch who will be in Captain America: Civil War, and if the character is deemed needed.....in Infinity War.

The problem I have with these Marvel phase movies is that none of them are "great", at best a couple have been like 8/10, Suppose Iron Man, Thor and The Avengers are top of the pile with about 8/10. They are all good fun but kinda forgettable, whereas the Dark Knight trilogy at least first 2 parts was like 10/10, Rises can be debated.

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I smell a:



lol

Smell better.

Isn't a rating anything above a from Iro considered a masterpiece.