The Avengers: Age of Ultron Review

So, its been a while since I've done a post on here, so apologies for that but I thought I would do a Marvel double bill, as I have just recently returned from visiting my brother down in the South of England where I watched a few Marvel films.

So, for this review I will be looking at one of the Avengers movies, Age of Ultron. Now I wasn't a big fan of the original Avengers film, Marvel Avengers Assemble, so how does this one fair? Well, let's take a closer look and find out...

And yep the usual warning is coming...

PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

STORY 

So, the film starts off with the Avengers team on a mission in the Eastern European country, Sovokia, as they raid a Hydra facility run by Baron Strucker (Thomas Kretchmann) who has been experimenting on humans using a scepter that was previously used by Loki (Thor's villainous brother). They soon encounter two of Strucker's test subjects which are Pietro Maximoff (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) with Pietro having superhuman speed and Wanda having both telepathic and telekinetic abilities.  Strucker is soon caught by the Avengers team and Tony Stark aka Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr) takes the scepter.

Tony along with the help of fellow Avenger, Bruce Banner aka the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) discover an artificial intelligence inside the scepter's gem and decide to use it to complete Tony's Ultron global defence program. However, its not long before Ultron becomes sentient and believes that humanity must be destroyed in order to save the Earth and it attacks the Avengers at their HQ aswell as destroying JARVIS (voiced by Paul Bethany) Tony's AI. Ultron then retreats to Sokovia where he upgrades his basic robotic body and builds himself an army of robots and he also recruits the assistance of the Maximoff twins to plot the Avengers downfall and ultimately take over the Earth....

THOUGHTS

Well after the rather dull Marvel Avengers Assemble, Age of Ultron is a big improvement and is a thoroughly entertaining superhero film with a good cast of characters and a somewhat rather talktative villain in Ultron! And here the film starts off very well as we head straight into the action in Sokovia where the Avengers team attempt to capture Wolfgang von Strucker and its a great sequence that pulls the viewer in straight off. It also introduces some new characters such as the Maxmimoff twins, Pietro and Wanda with the latter having some incredible powers that will play a big part in the film itself.

PERFORMANCES (Warning: No notable scenes this time but the odd spoiler might be mentioned ahead!)

As for the performances the ensemble cast all give fine efforts all round. 

To kick off, Robert Downey Jr is great once again as Tony Stark/Iron Man, who is out to try and create a global defense program using Ultron but it ultimately backfires on him when Ultron turns sentient. Robert has his share of amusing dialogue and scenes throughout, which for the sake of saving ALOT of typing I won't mention here as such but I will mention that he does share a nice rapport with the other cast members and in particularly Mark Ruffalo as Tony and Bruce Banner are involved in trying to get the Ultron initiative to work only to screw it up!

Chris Hemsworth is also excellent once again as Thor, the God of Thunder, who by this time has blended in well with modern society and has been a long time Avenger. Chris also has an amusing moment in the film where he dares the other Avengers to try and pick up his hammer, which none of them are capable of doing...well except maybe one of them later on but I won't say who!

Mark Ruffalo does very well in his role as the mild mannered scientist, Bruce Banner, who just also happens to conceal a raging monster in him, aka the Hulk, i.e. the green muscly monster guy! And here the writers have decided to create an unlikely romance between Bruce and one of the other Avengers, Natasha Ramanoff (Scarlet Johansson) which kind of doesn't go anywhere much but its still nicely played by both performers.

Chris Evans again is really good as Steve Rogers aka Captain America, the perfect all American hero, who has superhuman strength and uses his powerful boomerang shield to take out his enemies and is the leader of the Avengers team.

Scarlett Johansson is also once again excellent as the sexy and deadly Natasha Romanoff, who here we get to learn a little more about her back story than in prior films. Natasha in this film also appears to develop a crush on Bruce Banner (or was her crush on the Hulk?!) in the film which doesn't really go that far but its still a nice addition to the film that doesn't do anything to its detrement.

Jeremy Renner also makes another welcome appearance as Hawkeye, one of the Avengers and a master archer, who has something of a different agenda in this film as he partly hides his private life from his other team mates but he's still very much part of the Avengers team. 

And of course there is James Spader, who does the voice of the main villain of the film, Ultron, an artificial intelligence that gains a robotic body and later builds an army of robots he intends to use to wipe out humanity. And Spader's voice work is excellent here although it has to be said that Ultron is easily one of the most talkative villains in the whole history of the Marvel films!

Next is Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen as the Maximoff twins, Pietro and Wanda, who has superhuman capabilities as a result of experiments with Loki's scepter and they are ultimately used as pawns in Ultron's game to wipe out humanity. The two actors both give good performances here and it has to be said though by the end of the film there will be a tragedy for one of them but that's all I will say!

Paul Bethany is also very good in his role as Tony Stark's AI, Jarvis but this time round, Bethany takes on a double role as he later plays the part of Vision, which is essentially Jarvis in the sentient form and we see Bethany wearing red paint and prosthetics over his skin for the role of Vision. 

And last of all is Samuel L Jackson who makes yet another appearance as Nick Fury, the former director of SHIELD who isn't given more than a cameo role this time round but his presence is always welcome in any film of course and here you are just waiting for him to appear at some point!

DIRECTOR AND MUSIC

As for the director, Joss Whedon does a very fine job with Ultron, who of course directed the first film but he kind of misfired on that one in my humble opinion. However here, Whedon has a better handle on dealing with the film's action and he paces the film out well and its fairly lengthy run time of 2 hours and 21 minutes actually flies by, which is much to the film's credit and Whedon's also.

As for the music score, Brian Tyler and Danny Elfman provide a good score here and its well suited to the tone of the film although I have to say its not the most memorable of scores overall but its fit for purpose and does what it needs to.

FLAWS (Warning: this section may refer to spoilers!)

As for flaws...yeah well Ultron does have one or two niggles.

For starters I think one of the main problems for me was to do with the fact that Ultron really isn't that menacing a villain and it comes down to him being just a bit too chatty! Now, I don't mean to diss James Spader fine vocal performance as Ultron but this villain is a definitely a prime example of a baddie who gives too much away and delivers truck loads of exposition for the audience. And there is even a funny scene in the film where Ultron has chatted too much that the Hulk decides to punch his lights out! So, on this basis I think Ultron really lacks much in the way of menace as a villain, which is a bit of a pity.

Another issue was to do with the whole concept of nobody being able to lift Thor's hammer as everyone out of the Avengers team tries to lift it but they have no luck whatsoever (well except one other character!). Its a fun scene in itself but its a bit daft to think that they any of them would have a chance to lift it any given that I presume only a God can lift it anyway!

Then there is the issue to do with Tony Stark using scepter's AI abilities to create his so-called global defense program "Ultron" only for it to backfire on him big time! Now, of course when you look at this situation its pretty clear that this film was very much Tony Stark's fault as his ambition was his own undoing here, which ended up in creating the villainous Ultron. And this of course would lead more significant damages to US cities when Ultron starts to wreak havoc!

And last of all this brings me onto the whole subject of superheroes and how much damage they create when fighting enemies yet NONE of them will be handed a huge bill for all the damages they have done to the cities buildings etc! And yet again this is well on display here with the Avengers having to fight off Ultron and his robot army and it actually hammers a city in the process! But of course being superheroes they will get away with paying the bill!

Anyway that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So to sum up, The Avengers: Age of Ultron is a very enjoyable superhero film, which saw the Avengers franchise get back on track after the rather mediocre Avengers Assemble and its a fun film filled with good characters, who all share a nice rapport with each other and plenty of good action. And yes there are still some problems here of course and Ultron himself it has to be said is a rather weak villain but that aside its still worth checking out.

Right, so that's it for now and I will return soon with my look at the new sequel to Ant-Man, which is Ant-Man and the Wasp.

Till then its bye for now!