Saturday, May 2, 2015

Avengers: Age of Ultron Review

If you want summer blockbuster fun with tons of superheroes, Avengers: Age of Ultron is the place to find it.  This movie is jam packed with heroes, allies, and foes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  


The film centers around the Avengers, who have continued the search for Loki's staff from the first film.  It turns out that the staff has been seized by a Hydra scientist who had been experimenting on people to create "enhanced" humans.  (This is Marvels way of getting around the fact that they can't use the word "mutant" due to legal ramifications with Fox studios and the X-Men series) As the team tracks down the staff, Tony Stark, once again played by Robert Downey Jr., has plans to create an artificial intelligence to help keep Earth safe.  Everything backfires when that A.I. he creates, called Ultron and voiced by James Spader, goes haywire and decides the best way to save Earth is to kill humans.  When Ultron teams with a set of "enhanced" twins all chaos ensues for the Avengers.  


As far as superhero movies go, this is an epic storyline that brings together everyone's favorite heroes; Cap, Ironman, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow, & Hawkeye.  However we also see cameos from War Machine, Falcon, Fury, and a few surprises.  With great action, comedy and one liners it is no surprise that the movie is already a hit.  I would argue that the character development makes the film.  Jeremy Renner in the role of Clint Barnes a.k.a. Hawkeye does a great job at establishing some depth for a hero that seems rather mundane in the first film.  At the same time we get to see Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff a.k.a. Black Widow and Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner bring more depth to their characters and a little spice to the team with a budding romance.


The film offers everything you want in a summer blockbuster. Lots of action, great characters, & tons of big name actors.  Being the second in a string of many more Avengers movies to come with a presumably rotating roster of heroes, this film is a great addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  As a fan of Marvel, I can't wait to see what happens next.  Although I must admit I was a bit disappointed that the characters or events of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Didn't play any role whatsoever in this connected universe.  Like Marvel says, it is all connected!  Because the film doesn't quit deliver the experience of the first film, I give Avengers: Age of Ultron 4 out of 5 stars.