The Avengers Age of Ultron Review

Comics Movie Reviews
The Avengers Age of Ultron Review
By Hervé St-Louis
May 3, 2015 - 22:02

Studios: Marvel Studios
Writer(s): Joss Whedon, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby
Starring: Robert Downy Jr, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Samuel L. Jackson, Paul Bettany, Scarlett Johansson, AaronTaylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Jeremy Renner, Don Cheadle, James Spader, Cobie Smulders, Chris Hemsworth, Idris Elba, Anthony Mackie
Directed by: Joss Whedon
Produced by: Kevin Feige
Running Time: 141 minutes
Release Date: May 1st 2015
Rating: PG13 (Parents Strongly Cautioned)
Distributors: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

The Avengers attempt to retrieve Loki’s scepter that contains the mind gem from Baron Strucker and HYDRA. However, they encounter two of Stucker’s experiments, the Maximoff twins known to comic book readers as Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. The twins want to avenge the death of their parents by Tony Stark and start to confuse him with glimpse of his future. Allying themselves with the renegade artificial intelligence known as Ultron, the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver attack the Avengers and nearly destabilize the team. Ultron reveals his ulterior plans for planet Earth. Will the Avengers stop him from destroying the planet?

The only problem this movie has was exaggerated expectations. On its own, it would have been a fine movie. But as the first movie since the Guardians of the Galaxy and the first Avengers’ film, it was not as great. I’m not going to compare it to 2014’s Captain America: Winter Soldier. Everybody and their cousin swears by this film. I don’t. Winter Soldier was fine but not the best movie produced by Marvel. Rant over. Let’s tackle what did not work in the second Avengers’ film. Director Joss Whedon has borrowed a page from Michael Bay. His film is filled with big explosions and fast-paced scenes that are barely decipherable for a viewer. There was a lot of action but much of it was too blurry and too fast for me to appreciate.

This movie relies too much on continuity. I don’t remember Baron von Strucker appearing in Winter Soldier’s bonus scene last year. I don’t even recall what happened to Loki’s sceptre in the first Avengers’ movie. I’m not sure how many Infinity gems were released yet. I understand that we have seen several since the first Captain America movie. I’m confused and I am a comic book fan. Unlike comics where continuity elements are easy to recall from story to story and where the next episode does not force the reader to wait two to five years for the next installment, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is taxing my patience. Again, I am a comic book fan. I am used to convoluted continuities. But I feel like I missed half of the story having to remember details and plot points from films stretching back to 2008.

The film felt like the main actors, Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth and so on were faxing their performances in order to fulfil their contractual obligations. The foul language joke kept comic back, but it was not funny after the first five minutes. The joke of having the villains moan in pain after a fight, as was done in the first Avengers film after Hulk stunned Loki was old and not funny anymore. A good joke should be used once. Use it every time, and it loses its impact.

Whedon borrowed a plot point from the Man of Steel movie with the large meteor that could destroy the Earth. I was wondering if any renegade Kryptonian was going to assist him in terraforming the planet. The whole Jarvis is Vision is a new being thing was again confusing. Who is the Vision? And where did Doctor Cho draw the human material to create the Vision’s body?

Now, the good. The movie is character-driven. Each Avenger has personal foils that he or she needs to vanquish as part of the story. Many of them do not really vanquish their fears and subsequently leave the team at the end of the film. Some of the Avengers who stayed also have not resolved their inner conflicts. This is of course, a setup for the next series of Marvel films.

The sound effects and the soundtrack were some of the very strong parts of the film. I only noticed them when a power surge in the theatre forced the theatre attendants to pay the film score without pictures while trying to reboot the system.

I enjoyed the Avengers Age of Ultron but I admit that it was not as good a movie as the first Avengers’ film or even Guardians of the Galaxy.

Rating: 7.5/10