Avengers: Age of Ultron (2014)
Producers: Kevin
Feige, Victoria Alonso, Stan Lee, et al.
Director: Joss
Whedon
Rated: PG-13
for intense sequences of sci-fi action, violence and destruction, and
for some suggestive comments
Runtime: 141
min
Genre: Action,
Adventure, Sci-Fi, Comic
The Avengers are back, and right off
the bat you get to see them in action. The opening sequence
reintroduced us to a team that has been working together for a while,
and it shows in their tactics. One of the things about the first
Avengers that bothered me was
the lack of team work. I think there was one instance of two heroes
combining their abilities to take down enemies in the first film,
there are several in the sequel; serving to highlight their growing
familiarity with each other. The initial action sequence also
brought to light one of the difficulties of working in such a huge
shared universe. At the end of Iron Man 3
Tony retired and destroyed his suits. Here we are in Age
of Ultron and he's right back in
the thick of things without an explanation for his return. Just an
acknowledgment from someone else on the team that this was his return
to action would have been preferable to ignoring the situation
entirely.
The
villain of the film, Ultron, was short-changed in they early
development of his character. Upon capturing Loki's scepter from
Baron von Strucker, Tony and Bruce decide to use the properties of
the staff to create a true artificial intelligence. Their first
attempts are unsuccessful and with a celebration looming they leave
JARVIS to continue their work. Tony's program and the capabilities
of the staff are merged while all of the heroes are occupied and
Ultron is born. Ultron and Jarvis have a verbal confrontation as
Ultron undergoes a Leeloo-esque education on the state of the world.
He immediately decides that the only way to fulfill his mission of
world peace is to rid the planet of humans. Ultron goes full Skynet
in a matter of moments, and I was left wondering how many Hollywood
blockbusters would be entirely different films if the inventors
depicted in them had read a little Isaac Asimov.
The
new additions to the cast all leave you caring about them. Andy
Serkis' brief appearance has me excited to see what he can do in a
villainous role in the upcoming Black Panther.
The Maximoff twins were manipulated by different villains until they
made their way to the light side, and the progression worked with
what the audience is told about their lives. James Spader brought
equal amounts of humor and a sinister tone to Ultron. I was left
feeling as though he had too many jokes and one-liners, although I
suppose as a creation of Tony Stark some part of his personality
leaking through makes sense. Vision was amazing, a being that
possesses that much power but was, as he mentioned, “born
yesterday” had to played with a strangely confidence naivete that
Paul Bettany conveyed wonderfully. The moment after he was born when
he looked at Thor and decided he'd like to have a cape too, so he
materialized one out of thin air encapsulated his child-like side.
Most
of the preexisting characters are much as we remember them, with the
notable exception being Hawkeye. After getting shafted in the
character development area in the first Avengers
a lot of time is spent making us care about him. He has a personal
side the audience never suspected and an entertaining awareness of
his own apparent shortcomings in a group like the Avengers. Black
Widow was also a recipient of some much needed back story that made
me more confident than ever that a Natasha Romanoff led movie could
be successful. The romance between Natasha and Bruce Banner was a
little forced. Not because I didn't understand the motivation, they
both view themselves as monsters in their own way, more because
Scarlett Johannson and Mark Ruffalo didn't seem to have much on
screen chemistry. The only returning character that rubbed me the
wrong way was Don Cheadle's War Machine. I don't know if it was his
sullen reaction when his story of taking out a tank wasn't met with
guffaws from the Avengers, or something else, but I just couldn't get
into his character this time around. Which is strange since I've
enjoyed his previous appearances in Iron Man
movies. His inclusion in the film felt obligatory since Marvel needs
every hero they can find for the upcoming Captain America:
Civil War.
Speaking
of setting up future movies, for the most part the attempts to do so
succeed in Age of Ultron.
It wasn't as prevalent as I expected, but the philosophical
differences between Tony Stark and Steve Rogers will make for a
compelling story. Andy Serkis' Ulysses Klaue will most likely serve
as the main villain in Black Panther,
and getting some of the development for him out of the way will allow
that movie to focus on its hero more. The one swing-and-a-miss I saw
in the setups for future films involved Thor, whose upcoming Ragnarok
has the potential to really shake-up the MCU. The teases of his
future were disjointed and incomplete, giving the audience no idea of
what to expect, or a reason to be excited for what's to come.
The
final battle was what you'd expect from an Avengers movie. The need
to differentiate itself from Man of Steel's
disregard for collateral damage got a little old, but served to add a
different dynamic to a fight the audience knew the Avengers would
win. I had hoped Ultron would provide more of a threat to the team
as an individual than he did. We've already seen this group beat
down hordes of generic enemies, earlier in this very movie and during
the Chitauri invasion from the first film, so I was really hoping for
a villain powerful enough to threaten the entire group. None of that
is to say that the action was disappointing, it wasn't. There was
more teamwork than before and the new characters meant new powers, so
there were fresh and inventive ways for the enemies to be ripped
apart. I was just looking for something different
in the overall type of action we got.
Conclusion:
Whereas Avengers
was the culmination of Phase One of the MCU, Avengers:
Age of Ultron
felt more like an intermission. I realize one of the Infinity Stones
makes an appearance, and that there was a lot of setup for future
movies, but overall it felt more like a standalone movie than the
rest of Marvel's recent offerings. It wasn't as dark as the trailers
led me to believe, which was a good thing, the humor came at the
right times, even if the source of the humor was odd at times. The
new characters, and the deeper exploration of some existing ones,
left me feeling better about the fate of the MCU after old favorites
move on to other things.
Rating:
8/10
