Monday, May 18, 2015

Avengers: Age of Ultron (Review)

Let me start by saying that this is my review of the film, this will not be a piece on all the opinionated bullshit going around the web right now. Age of Ultron is a movie and I am going to review it as such, I’ll leave the rest up to the other guys. So without further delay, my review of highly anticipated sequel Avengers: Age of Ultron. 




Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Action/Adventure/Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Directed By: Joss Whedon

On May 4, 2012 super hero audiences were introduced to a new age of comic book cinema when Marvel Studio’s The Avengers hit theaters. The movie took the world by storm, quickly becoming the fastest movie to make $1 billion worldwide (dethroned just this year by Fast 7) while absolutely dominating the month of May. From there Marvel moved onto Phase two giving a third installment in the Iron Man franchise as well as sequels to Phase ones Thor and Captain America. They also made huge waves last August when surprise smash hit Guardians of the Galaxy was released. I think it’s safe to say that we were more than ready for this sequel. And when I say sequel that’s exactly what this is. 

Despite all the new breakthroughs in the other movies since, Age of Ultron still feels completely like a continuation of the first film. The movie opens up right into the action with The Avengers already teamed up and running a mission. They have finally located Loki’s scepter which has been lost since the battle of New York and the entire team is ripping through Hydra agents like they are paper people to get to it. So right out of the gate we are already being pulled back into the world of the first movie and it’s clear that “The Avengers” are now at least a semi established team. Loki’s scepter is the key to this film yet again, without being two spoilery as to how I’ll just say it leads to Tony Stark and Bruce Banner creating the artificial intelligence that will become Ultron, our main villain of this movie. James Spader owns his role, even if you think he becomes a bit repetitive by the end of the movie. He nails every line he was given and is, in my opinion, the next best villain so far besides Loki in the entire MCU. With all of the the heroes they have to get screen time we have to accept that it’s difficult to build a brilliant villain in just one movie (here’s to hoping all of the Thanos build up pays off big time). 

Age of Ultron gives us the usual gorgeous action sequences and Joss Whedon goofy dialogue we love so much but it separates itself a tad from its predecessor with two rather interesting side stories. They finally give Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) something more than small quips and zombie eyes and develop him into a true Avenger, almost more so than anyone else on the team in hindsight. Then of course there is the highly talked about and debated Banner/Romanoff kind of romance story line (which we will not get into here). I’ll state that I was a fan and it was great to see those two characters get a little more to do.

On top of all of that, Marvel introduces three new rather Important characters to the universe. Quicksilver, Scarlett Witch, and Vision, who might I say is the “Hulk” of this Avengers flick. By that I mean he (Vision) completely steals the show in the third act, much like Banner/Hulk in the battle of New York. Elizabeth Olsen, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Paul Bettany are wonderful in their roles (people have opinions on the Twins accents, I think they are fine. This is a fantasy movie remember). With all of this jammed into two and a half hours it’s quite amazing Whedon was able to give every character any screen time at all. That being said, I want to see that first cut that is three and a half hours long. Bring it on Mr. Whedon, I’m sure I’ll adore it. 

Unfortunately the opening of this movie has been tainted by some bad apples and I’ll go only as far as to say I think it’s all being way overblown and the movie is just super fun. Whedon took a risk trying to add a deeper level to a rather fluffy comic book movie that unfortunately didn’t work for everyone. If you want to know what it’s all about just go see the movie and form your own opinion. If you are a fan of what the MCU has delivered so far it’s hard for me to believe that you won’t enjoy this movie. It delivered on multiple different levels for me and after seeing it twice now I’m super excited for what it’s shown for the future of these movies. If you’re really skeptical of this movie, just go for the Hulkbuster. That alone is worth the price of admission.


As always, thanks for reading! I am Zach Who Watches Movies and you can find me on twitter @ZachWWMovies, smell ya later

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