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Joss Whedon, 2015
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.
AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON
Joss Whedon, 2015
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.