I loved the first Avengers movie an absurd amount and to assume Age of Ultron will compare to its groundbreaking structure is a fool’s errand. However if you look at the key pieces of the first movie that made it great, many of them are back.
The Avengers kick off the movie establishing that they are a team. They are mid-mission, the kinks have been worked out and they are tearing through a Hydra complex like a well oiled machine. As odd as it was to be dropped into an action sequence like that it felt great to see the team back together.
After a well-executed victory celebration scene, Tony Stark and team get down to business and by business I mean creating the onus for the movie…Ultron. Here’s where the movie’s plot moves at a break neck speed and things start to unravel. A lot has to happen for this film to work. There’s so many moving parts, understanding what everyone is doing became a bit tedious.
Here’s the Cliff’s Notes version of the review of the plot. The story needs to get from point A to point B and to get there were going to ride a bunch of plot-device shaped band-aids. Obvious, out-of-nowhere story beats, that do nothing but make the character able to fix the problem in front of them, are not new to the MCU, but they have never been used so flippantly.
Thor visits a completely unexplained magic hallucination pool, and Stark stops by a keyboard that is supposed to be the physical representation of the entire internet. Stuff like that makes it hard to take the film seriously. Both of those instances were lightly explained and only helped justify an action scene later in the film.
As always, the action was top notch and they definitely found fun new ways to combine the powers of the individual Avengers. However there was probably one too many fight scenes and by the end the allure of combo attacks was wearing thin. The climatic battle with the Ultron bots on the floating city was deliberately crowded and looked both a fantastical and exhausting. It will take a couple of viewings before that whole scene makes sense.
The humor seemed more present than it was last time around and it was coming from more surprising places like Thor, Ultron, etc. I’m of two minds when it comes to the humor. It plays really well in a crowded theater, but does it really help the movie be better, probably not. I do prefer my one liners be funny, but this film had so many that it was playing with fire.
As much as I enjoyed watching this film, its hard to look past its biggest flaw. Many major issues in the movie seem muted. Ultron, a being that within an hour of its creation was able to infiltrate the entire internet and establish a worldwide presence, was conveniently unable to use it to his advantage later in the movie. Ultron’s threat was global, but no time was spent showing it. No public reactions, no speech from the president, no panicked news reportors. Very little real scope was given until Ultron started picking up a city in the final scene.
Also, Tony Stark, in his arrogance, created an artificial intelligence that caused an immeasurable amount of death and destruction and very little is said about holding Stark responsible. Even the characters that were there first hand seem completely ok with Stark’s attitude being very “My bad you guys, I’m glad we were able to beat that Ultron thing right…haha.”
No consequences, none. Stark is directly responsible for an entire city being blown up, and he ends the film by driving away in a sports car free as a bird. I guess its not much different than in real life when a rich person ruins the lives of millions of people and gets no more than a slap on the wrist. I’m not trying to get political, but if this is not addressed in Captain America: Civil War, something is very wrong.
All new casting choices were strong. Spader as Ultron was an exceptional pick up and the rolling of Paul Bettany from voicing Jarvis into the role of Vision is truly bonkers. There’s no way they had that planned when he was cast in Ironman, but it definitely feels like it. The Maximov twins were good choices and Aaron Taylor-Johnson has no trace of Kick-ass on him at all.
The story wraps up really well, and the new Avengers crew that’s shown seems cool. The most satisfying thing in the film is the continued adventures of the Infinity Stones. Those things just keep popping up everywhere. As each stone is revealed the impending Infinity War gets more and more exciting. Marvel has completely cornered the market on this kind of film making and despite there being a few minor missteps here and there, the movies remain fun to watch.
The last thing worth noting it the crazy number of cameos this film has. Agent Carter, Heimdall, Falcon, War-Machine and others all show up for the party. Age of Ultron is going to scratch the itch that you need it to scratch, but don’t be surprised if you leave the theater thinking Marvel Studios might have pulled a fast one on you. Because they probably did, and its completely OK.
Verdict: Every moment with Vision on screen is worth your movie ticket…period.
