Review of 'Avengers: Age of Ultron'
The sequel to the first Avengers movie we start off seeing the Avengers in action as they attempt to break into a castle containing a sceptre with mysterious powers. Investigating it, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr), aka “Ironman”, and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), aka “The Hulk”, unwittingly let lose the terror that is “Ultron” - an experiment in bringing about true artificial intelligence - that strictly interprets Stark's “bring peace to the world” as a directive to wipe out all of civilization and begin anew. A set of twins, Pietro Maximoff (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), aka “Quicksilver”, and Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), aka “the Scarlet Witch”, with her mind-bending powers sows the seed of discontent amongst the Avengers. Retreating to the Clint Barton's (Jeremy Renner), aka “Hawkeye”, home in the woods they regroup and do a bit of wood-chopping and getting in touch with their family side.
A further Stark/Banner experiment results in another being that is far more powerful than Ultron though it is not clear whose side he is on. Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) of SHIELD pays a call to give them a bit of a pep talk then when Ultron's final plan is revealed they must work together with all of their strength to save humanity…
There is here also a bit of development in the stories of the individual characters with the relationship between Banner and Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), aka “Black Widow”, advancing somewhat as well as Thor (Chris Hemsworth) looking further into his own history to understand his role on Earth.
This film is much like the first with loads of action yet oddly interspersed with long sequences of the heroes pondering on the meaning of their lives. A bit of existential angst is probably more than welcome though here it is present in large quantities.
The action scenes are quite good, as might be expected, though soon the endless dispatching of soldiers and, later, robots is little more than background carnage. There are few epic battle scenes here with the action more focused on each of the Avengers battling the minions that surround them in ever-increasing numbers. It all seems to our heroes that this is just yet another day in the office. They even seem to take with only a minor bit of disgust the fact that Tony Stark really has brought them to the current state of affairs (the destruction of Earth) - Oh well, c'est la vie!
They have tried to inject a bit of humour with the odd quip here and there but sometimes these are a bit misjudged and, potentially, can be construed as offensive to some.
An interesting instalment in the franchise by Marvel but someone disappointing from the epic events of the first movie. At the end of the movie they say “The Avengers will Return” (along with a tempting look at what MAY be “Galactus”) so here is hoping that they manage to improve the action from “battle loads of loads of baddies” to truly epic battles and strike a better balance of action/drama.
Rating: “It is OK but I have some issues”
Review Date: 2015-05-03
Directed by: Joss Whedon
Studio: Marvel Studios
Year: 2015
Length: 141 minutes
Genre: Action/Adventure
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2395427/