The second installment of the Marvel "team up" movie bringing together the World's mightiest superheroes. In this one, Tony Stark a.k.a. Iron Man, and the gentle side of The Hulk, Dr. Bruce Banner, unknowingly create Ultron, an AI program that was supposed to be a program for World peace. As Ultron becomes more self-aware, he decides that in order to save humanity, he must destroy it. Now it is up to The Avengers to stop him before he succeeds.
Cast
Robert Downey Jr. ... Tony Stark / Iron Man
Chris Hemsworth ... Thor
Mark Ruffalo ... Bruce Banner / Hulk
Chris Evans ... Steve Rogers / Captain America
Scarlett Johansson ... Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow
Jeremy Renner ... Clint Barton / Hawkeye
James Spader ... Ultron
Samuel L. Jackson ... Nick Fury
Don Cheadle ... James Rhodes / War Machine
Aaron Taylor-Johnson ... Pietro Maximoff / Quicksilver
Elizabeth Olsen ... Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch
Paul Bettany ... Jarvis / Vision
Who will like this:
The easy answer, obviously is anyone who has seen any of the 10 previous Marvel movies, including the first Avengers movie. However, due to the increase in violence, action and even language to some degree, I may not recommend this to a very young viewers. Hence the PG-13 rating. It is also is not a movie for the casual fan as was the case for the last one. The stronger follower of the movies and/or comics will get more out of it than others will
Phantom Thoughts
Well....here it is. Finally the movie we've been waiting for since the last end credit scene from the last Avengers movie in 2012. You've gone through Marvel's "Phase 2" of movies like Iron Man 3, Captain America: Winter Soldier and maybe even started watching Agents of S.H.E.I.L.D. and Agent Carter on TV in anticipation for this....the BIG PAYOFF! Ummmm......not so much.
You know how when you start a new job, and you are told how much you will be making and think to yourself "OK. That's sounds pretty good". But after you get that first paycheck, you realize that "Wow. After taxes, insurance and....hey,what's this OASDI thing? " You didn't end up with as much as you expected? Yeah. It's kinda like that.
Now don't get me wrong. That's not to say it wasn't good, it just didn't live up to expectations and hype. But anything that is the magnitude of Avengers: Age of Ultron rarely does. The most common criticism I've heard about this movie is that it falls into the same pit a lot of other Superhero movies suffer from in the past: too many characters. And they're right....to a point. The difference is Joss Whedon. His storytelling skills juggle the characters so effortlessly that each one is handled individually without dropping any one of them or having them knock into each other. And while the amount of players do not cause the film to crash and burn, it doesn't help much either.
James Spader's mesmerizing voice breathes incredible life into the sentient robot Ultron, but Ultron's development into the villain he is supposed to be is not quite as fleshed out as he is. We are introduced to "The Twins" that we met at the end of Captain America: Winter Soldier, who become Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, but they are also under-utilized. There is a love story that seems to be thrown in out of nowhere between Banner and Romanoff that, although an interesting side plot, probably could have been avoided.
BIG SPOILERS AHEAD--------
So in the movie, Ultron is basically created by a mix of Tony Stark's attempt to create an AI program for World peace, mix in the mystical Mind Stone from Loki's scepter in the last Avengers and finally taking over most of Iron Man's JARVIS system. In the comics, Ultron is created by Hank Pym from Ant Man. And with THAT movie set to come out later this year, it seems like a missed opportunity to introduce it. Then again, that would mean adding even more characters to an otherwise overcrowded credit list so I can forgive that. On the other hand, Ultron created Vision in a very similar way to the comics, enough to satisfy the die hard fans, I would assume. Bringing Vision to life was also a saving grace for actor Paul Bettany , who was the voice of JARVIS in the previous Iron Man movies. Since JARVIS "died" and was replaced by FRIDAY at the end of the movie, being on screen to act as Vision is a step up for Bettany. (He also has the second awesome Thor's hammer: Mjölnir moment in this movie)
One thing that DID live up to the hype, was the Hulk vs. HulkBuster Iron Man fight. First off, I love the fact that the pod carring the suit and it's replacement parts is called "Veronica", an in-joke based on the Archie comics. Archie Andrews is always torn between the two women that love him, Betty and Veronica. Banner already had a girlfriend, Betty Ross. And seeing the Hulk get his payback for one of the funnier moments in the original Avengers was welcome nod as well.
But the most DISappointing thing about AOU is....no end credits scene! This is one thing that Marvel movies are famous for (next to Stan Lee's almost guaranteed cameo, which might I add, was one of his best ever! Marvel geeks twitched in their seats when he gave his famous sign off line "Excelsior! ") although there were rumors and a what we now know to be a faked Spiderman end credits scene talked about, I was disappointed not to find anything there.
It was a wild ride for your senses. And not the typical fun for a few hours fare Marvel usually dishes out. It's one that will have to be seen more than once to catch and follow everything that happens. And although I wouldn't say it was better than the first one, it wasn't that much worse either. There were a LOT of things to find and see. Much too much to get into here. Maybe too much for one movie as I have already pointed out. Still, I will watch it again....and again to catch everything.
Until next time, see you in the center seat!
