Avengers: Age of Ultron
Hello MoFo’s! It is time once again for another installment of At the Theater with The Gunslinger45! And what a night for me! Easy to guess what movie I rushed out to see after work! THE NEW AVENGERS MOVIE! And as many of you know it was my most anticipated movie of the year (though the new Star Wars movie is a very close second). And shock to no one I am a huge fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Hell the first Avengers movie is one of my top 15 favorite movies of all time. Of course I was looking forward to this! But I admit I also had a few concerns. For starters I did not want to over hype this film. So I went in with the expectation that it would not be as good as the first. If it topped the first, great, otherwise I did not want to be disappointed. Also, the first Avengers movie was the ultimate culmination of 5 previous films. Each introducing characters, establishing the shared universe, and ultimately setting up for The Avengers movie. AND IT WAS GLORIOUS! This time however it is not the case. Now yes this film is essentially the end of Marvel Phase II, however this is not the ultimate payoff like the first movie was. That final fight was announced in during the reveal of the Marvel Phase III titles. There it was revealed that these movies would ultimately lead to a two part movie event called Infinity War, where Thanos (introduced in the teaser scene at the end of The Avengers) will be the villain. So one concern was will this just be a stepping stone to Marvel Phase III? Another concern was the introduction of a lot of new characters. Many casting moves were announced before the movie’s release. Now the announcement for the casting of Ultron was a given (his name is in the freaking title) but there were a lot of other villains announced. The press releases also said that the film would include Hydra villain Baron Von Strucker and Black Panther villain Ulysses Klaue. And while I knew they would change their stripes, Wanda and Pietro Maximoff (AKA Scarlett Witch and Quicksilver) were built up to be villains under Hydra’s thumb. Naturally I thought this film would suffer from a fault that plagued Spider-Man 3 and most recently Amazing Spider-Man 2. That there would be too many villains, they would be underdeveloped, rushed, and that would make the movie suffer. Those were my two big concerns. Did these concerns have merit or no? A little from column A and a little from column B. But did it hurt the movie for me? To quote the Mighty Thor, I SAY THEE NAY! This movie was still awesome! Want to know more? Then fire up the Quinjet, grab your vibranium shield, bow, armor and Mjolnir, and let’s charge right in to The Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Just like the last movie we open on a BIG action scene. Only now since the Avengers have been already assembled (had to say it) they get right into the action. We see Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Hawkeye, and Black Widow charging Hydra headquarters in the fictional nation of Sokovia. Only now our heroes are aided by a new invention of Stark’s, the Iron Legion. Robots made to mimic his suit’s look in order to help direct people away from collateral damage. Our hero’s naturally make quick work of Hydra, recover the scepter Loki used in the first movie, download all of Hydra’s data, and then return back to base. While back home Stark scans the stone in the head of the scepter and makes a startling discovery of a new and immense power. One he wishes to power a new AI system. With this new data Tony and Dr Banner toil to try and create an idea they have been working on, a project called Ultron. Ultron would be a series of automated suits like the Iron Legion. But with this new and far more advanced AI, Ultron would be programmed to bring peace to the world. Thus reducing the need for the Avengers as well as creating a new force to combat intergalactic threats like they had in New York City. So Tony and Banner toil for three days trying to harness the power of the scepter. After many failures they decide to take a break to attend a party with the rest of their teammates. Unfortunately while at the party the new AI begins to function. Confused about what it is, Jarvis (Tony's AI Butler) informs the fledgling AI of its purpose. And in the short time it takes to download the required data the AI takes a homicidal turn with a simple conclusion. In order to bring about true peace, humanity must be annihilated. The rest of the film is the Avengers desperately trying to combat Ultron and to save the world.
Now I feel I must say this again, I LOVED THIS MOVIE! But a few of my concerns did happen to a degree. I will go over these faults first before ending on a fan body gush fest. First off we have the villain issue. This did happen, so to speak. Ultron is the main villain and is aided by the Maximoff twins. They have the most time featured in the trailers and the most screen time. As for the other two I think they did a perfect job with Klaue. He got enough screen time to establish his character, his motivations, and establish his future role to play in Phase III. Baron Von Strucker on the other hand, got the shaft hard. He was to this movie what Rhino was in Amazing Spider Man 2; a footnote. Von Strucker is barely talked about outside of a mid credit cut scene in Captain America: Winter Soldier. Now he was built up quite a bit in the recent season of ABC’s Agent’s of SHIELD. But unless you watched that show, you would have little idea who the hell this guy was. And to boot he has VERY little significance to the movie despite all the buildup. I think he must have had a bigger part to play when Captain America 3 was supposed to be called Serpent Society, but since they have decided to go the Civil War route, I think his character became a loose end to be cut. As for whether the villains are rushed, I felt that was not the really the case. Now Ultron does go from infant AI to Skynet in a few minutes. But given what he learns of his purpose and what he learns about humanity that is a reflection of his abilities to process data as an artificial intelligence rather than poor writing. Ultron in other words was not given the Electro treatment in Amazing Spider Man 2. As for my other concern, yes this movie does heavily set up the third phase of the MCU. Thor’s Ragnarok plot line got hinted at and he introduced the concept of the Infinity Stones to the Earth bound heroes, Black Panther’s home of Wakanda got mentioned, and Pietro and Wanda continued what Agents of SHIELD has been doing in slowly introducing the enhanced humans which will lead to the Inhumans movie. And while to many people that will be a bad thing, to us fanboys it does give us a taste of things to come. And while that does occasionally feel like they are cramming a lot of info in the film (and they are) it does not hurt the film that much. Those Phase III set ups, while numerous, do not detract from the main villain. In fact most of the set ups actually fit in pretty damn well.
But enough of the bad, ON WITH THE FANBOY SQUEEING! While Von Strucker was undeveloped and a big letdown, Ultron was damn near perfect! The design, the casting of James Spader, his motivation, and his monologues were brilliant! Now I can’t say Ultron was perfect since they did change a significant amount of his back story from the comics. But that is completely understandable. I mean you would have to introduce Hank Pym (and probably Janet Van Dyne), Wonder Man, and the fact that it was not until Ultron-5 (there are a crap ton in the comics) that we get the Vision story line. So instead they make it a brain child of Stark and Dr Bruce Banner. So the MCU and Joss Whedon gave us the best of all possible worlds really. Now he does not supersede Loki as the best Marvel villain, but they did make Ultron one of the better MCU villains. And to be fair it is hard to top Tom Hiddleston. In addition it was very cool to see Wanda and Pietro Maximoff finally on the big screen after all the teasing from end of credit trailers and name drops in Agents of SHIELD. I thought the introduction of these characters was done very well. Their origin’s, however, had to be revised from the comics since we can’t have them be Magneto’s kids and mutants because of conflicts with the 20th Century Fox X-Men movies. And Wanda especially plays a big role, as her psychic and telepathic powers play a big role in the plot. She taps into the minds of most of the Avengers and gives them visions of fears and sometimes past traumas; leading to infighting within the team and presents a few obstacles to overcome. And yes we do finally get Paul Bettany as the Vision. But I will try not to talk TOO much about him, lest spoilers be told. I will say this though, how he proves his noble intentions as opposed to his homicidal brother, actually made my jaw drop to the floor!
Again… this movie was AWESOME! This is exactly what I want out of a summer blockbuster! BIG spectacles, BIG action, BIG explosions, BIG stakes, and BIG fun! But the film is more than just a CGI wank fest. I mean it is, but it is SO much more then that since the old characters get to develop beyond what they were established as in the previous films. We also get to peek inside the heads of most of the Avengers in this film thanks to Wanda Maximoff’s uses her powers. Many of these visions build off of past character development (like with Captain America) to the discovery of shocking new secrets of others (like Black Widow). And while Black Widow arguably gets the most character development in the movie, probably the most out of the blue comes from Hawkeye. The Avenger who had been the least interesting character gets to be more than just the guy with the bow in this movie. Not so much in huge character development, but we do see a lot more about his secretive life as well as his relationship with Black Widow. Speaking of Natasha (and relationships) it seems she has developed feelings for one of her teammates. And in the course of the film develops a bit more intimacy with said character. Again… spoilers. And as advertised in certain trailers, Stark and Rogers continue to have issues (setting up Civil War no doubt).
And as always the respective Avengers actor deliver on their performances. Each character is still as fun as the last film. Robert Downy Jr is still as charming as ever as Stark, Chris Evans is still the perfect Captain America, Scarlet Johansson has Black Widow still remain the same hard ass (but has let the character grow), Chris Hemsworth’s Thor is still hardy and larger than life, Jeremy Renner still portrays Hawkeye as the team's sure shot (though with more wise cracks), Dr Banner is still played the best by Mark Ruffalo, and Hulk still smash. And as I said James Spader was the perfect casting for Ultron. The action sequences were still as big as the first film. At least for the most part. The film opened on a great action hook, with the destruction of the Hydra base. And oh yeah, the fight with the Hulk versus Stark in his Hulk Buster armor was friggen epic! And while I still enjoyed the final fight in this movie, it still was not as big as the fight in New York City for the first movie. But while The first movie tended to stay in New York for the most part, there was a lot more global travel in this movie. Sets and fights were in Eastern Europe, then New York, then a trip to South Africa, back to the States, then Seoul South Korea, then back to Eastern Europe for the final fight. As opposed to the last movie which was mostly set in New York City. Joss Whedon does still include his trademark Whedonism’s into the film for quick comedic breaks. And again it is perfectly balanced. Not too dark and serious, but he does not over do it on the laughs either. Stan “The Man” Lee makes another cameo appearance fairly early on so keep an eye out there. And as per usual, stay during the credits. There was not anything for the end credits, but the mid credit sequence offers some foreshadowing for future events.
All and all this was a great time at the theater. Now the first Avengers movie is still my favorite and that film still was the best theatrical experience I ever had. But that was because that film was perfectly executed following the build up of the five previous films. And at that time, a film like this had never been done, making the success of the movie all the more special. I will not detract from this film, but while this was still great, ultimately the first is better since it was ultimately the final pay off. Maybe it will be out done by Infinity War, I do not know. We will have to wait and see to find out. But Age of Ultron in and of itself is still WAY better then a lot of the crap that gets peddled these days. Unless you are just not a fan of these movies see this movie on the big screen. Like now. Seriously… see it on the big screen where it belongs. TIME NOW DAMMIT!
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I also thought the guitar guy was really cool... and Furiosa... she was so awesome 
