C&C Film Review - Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron
Time to suit-up once more!
A Review by Steven Carter
(DISCLAIMER - This review contains details that may be considered spoilers) Here we are. The difficult second album. Words couldn't describe how excited I was when Age of Ultron was announced. Joss Whedon made it clear from the start that the title was the only thing he took from the comic book story line that was released back in 2013. To be honest, that was a smart move although a little unimaginative. I then began to hear the stories behind the origin of Ultron. Instead of sticking to the comics where it was Hank Pym that inadvertently created the homicidal artificial intelligence, they made Tony Stark the creator. Being as the new Ant-Man movie was just around the corner, I thought it would be a nice touch to introduce Pym in Age of Ultron. Obviously the creators thought otherwise so I thought “what the hell! In Feige we trust!” The days and months ticked by, we were dealt the usual Marvel deluge of trailers and clips from the film and finally the day arrives. I arrive just in the nick of time, no thanks to the mid-morning traffic, stock myself up with a packet of sour patch kids and settled down for the next 142 minutes.
It doesn’t take long for the action to kick off, the events of this film appear to take place not long after Captain America: The Winter Soldier, with a long, glorious action sequence involving all of the current roster of Avengers. It appears to be just another day at the office for these guys, exchanging witty banter whilst handing legions of henchmen their own backsides. It seems Joss is back to his old ways again! I was certainly grinning from ear to ear. This sequence is simply fantastic, to the point where I was getting goosebumps all over The wit is ever present throughout the first few scenes, keeping this a very light hearted affair, encouraging the viewer to not think too much and just sit back and enjoy the punching and the explosions. Which is exactly what I did!
We are introduced shortly afterwards to our villain, Ultron. James Spader (albeit with a few sound effects) offers his vocal talents to give this character a rather menacing demeanour. His transition from heap of junk to glistening murder-bot was quite a swift one all thanks to a little help from the Internet! In the trailers, he is made out to have a very dark personality. You do however, see some moments in the film where he has a bit of a sense of humour, little quips here, a sarcastic comment there, I guess was added in just to offset his psychotic nature.
A few new faces are thrust in our direction in the form of super-powered twins, Pietro and Wanda Maximoff. The comic book fanbase will recognise them as the X-Men alumni Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, although don’t mention the word Mutant! Otherwise Fox (who own the rights to X-men and the linked term of mutants) will be warming up their super powered lawyer strike force! We’ve been teased as to how the twins will be referred to but looks like the producers have settled for “the enhanced”. I was surprised at how I received these two characters, I loved the way Wanda was portrayed by Elizabeth Olsen in her first encounter with the Avengers, almost like something out of a horror film! However her brother Pietro, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson seemed to be just a bit of a jerk.
The film does indeed progress rather quickly in the first hour, and erupts into the chaotic and at times overbearing clash between the Hulk and Iron Man’s Hulkbuster armour, which shows a colossal amount of collateral damage on par with Superman’s spat with Zod in Man of Steel. The repercussions of which I am sure we will see in Civil War next year. We are then treated to some down time where we get to see a lot more behind Jeremy Renner’s character Hawkeye. This is a rather welcome change to get some empathy for the un-powered characters, who many people viewed as pointless additions in the company of gods. (Quite literally in Thor’s case!)
There is a bit of a love story brewing in the background between Black Widow and Bruce Banner as well! I didn’t see this coming but it’s out there for the world to see now. Natasha appears to have been working closely with Banner in between movies, working on a routine to help Banner return to human form after smashing puny humans, and it seems that some sparks are now flying between the two. Last but by no means least, roughly 2 thirds of the way through the film, we have the Vision! Played by Paul Bettany, who had voiced J.A.R.V.I.S in four previous films. I’m sure it felt awesome to finally get some proper screen time with the rest of the Avengers! I can’t really reveal too much about his character as it is rather integral to the climax of the film. All I can say is that he is an awesome character who reveals some astonishing abilities!
Whilst watching, I couldn’t shake the feeling that this film feels a bit out of place. There is rather a lack of (dare I say it) continuity in the story telling here. Unless a LOT has happened between the phase 2 films and AoU. Take Iron Man for example. In his third outing, he was suffering from post traumatic stress after the events of New York and decided at the end of the film to destroy all of his armour projects, presumably to then spend more time working on his strained relationship with Pepper. But in AoU, he’s back to his cocky ways, in a nice shiny new suit and has created even more robotic armours, calling them the Iron Legion! We aren’t offered any kind of explanation as to how he got himself back into the superhero game, just “Ta daaaa! Here’s Iron Man! Watch him blow stuff up!” It did kind of make Tony Stark’s character a little less likable. Whether or not this is for preparation for Civil War remains to be seen. Captain America was another, who seemed to not really give two hoots about finding his long lost bestie Bucky any more following the events of The Winter Soldier, in fact as it turns out he even delegated this task to Falcon! If this were a cartoon in the 60’s, it would be acceptable that every week, the hero’s start off in high spirits with no lasting repercussions of whatever happened in the previous episode. Joss Whedon seems to have tried to recreate this but it’s kinda backfired.
Spader’s Ultron was a decent baddie although he doesn’t take as much of the limelight as you would expect. There were long periods in the film where you don’t see him at all only for him to suddenly pop up and you think to yourself “oh yeah! He’s the bad guy!”. There seemed to be a lot of paths that this film wanted to go down and I’m hoping that what I watched wasn’t just some glorified advert for the next bunch of phase 3 films. There certainly were some opportunistic moments for brands to shamelessly show of their products though! (I'm looking at you, Audi and Beats by Dr Dre!) As an action film, Age of Ultron is absolutely fantastic. Just what you want out of a comic book movie. Bright colours, stunning visual effects mixed together with some light humour. The highlights for me would have to be THAT opening sequence, the Vision showing up in the final few fight scenes and the appearance of War Machine.
Overall Age of Ultron is not the best of the Marvel films, that accolade still stays with Guardians of the Galaxy. But still, it holds it’s own against the rest. A very good sequel nonetheless! I certainly wouldn’t mind paying again to see it. It’s sad that Director Joss Whedon is leaving but at the same time it's exciting that the Russo Brothers will be taking the reigns for parts 1 and 2 of the Infinity War!
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