The world’s mightiest heroes are teaming up again, but this time they aren’t so mighty as a Tony Stark (Iron Man) feels it’s within his duty to save the planet from everything by creating a self-thinking A.I. mind named Ultron but that backfires as it comes to the conclusion that the only way it can save humanity is by destroying it. So it’s up to Ironman, Captain America, The Hulk, Thor, Hawkeye, Black Widow, and a few new super-powered beings to combat Ultron while at the same time combating themselves to try to save the world.
Much like Jaws and Jurassic Park the first Avengers movie became a colossal game-changer in the world of summer blockbusters, it was a multi-billion dollar formal and risk but that risked benefited ten fold and will probably shape the landscape of Hollywood product making for the next few generations at least. And rightfully so. The movie had everything a big budget popcorn entertainment flick needed and more. A simplistic story that doesn’t speak down to you, perfectly casted characters we like and became familiar with, very competent and effective filmmaking techniques. Some movies have taken 5 years in the making, but this is really the first I can say “This movie took 5 movies in the making.” Now will the highly anticipated sequel be much like “The Empire Strikes Back” or “The Godfather Part II” and surpass the billion first and set the stage for an all-new structure of Hollywood? The short answer; No, not at all.
The short answer; No, not at all.
Now don’t get me wrong the movie is still very solid and an enjoyable time and I will likely see it again sometime. However, it fails to capture the kind of entertainment value of the first. In fact, it tries to emulate the same sort of structure and beats with similar but weaker gags and because of that I had trouble letting the movie distance itself from the first by forcing me to compare it to the first and not allowing me to let it stand on its own merits.
But as I stated before there is a lot to take away. Like the first movie, it expects you to know the previous stand-alone movies and post-credit scenes and almost literally hits the ground running in the opening sequence with Joss Whedon’s familiar long take. The actors retain their strong chemistry with one another and highlights how perfectly casted they are. Even the new super beings that come to assist or disrupt The Avengers such as Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, The Vision all make a strong presence and don’t hinder one another in any way. Finally Ultron himself with the intelligent sounding voice of James Spader makes a very enjoyable villain to watch as he is really witty for a sarcastic evil robot A.I. that wants to destroy the entire human race, I felt as though I wanted to have a drink with him instead of seeing his demise. The action is well shot, everything in the frame is clear and the characters are identifiable in the fast action and all the players use their strength and are hindered by their weaknesses appropriately. The strongest action scene in my opinion came in the form of an out of control Hulk causing destruction on an African city and Iron Man is the only available member at the time is force to punch in his failsafe for the beast and forms this massive hulk buster armor and the two do battle in a fight scene that left me giddy with excitement, laughing with joy, and on the edge of my seat with anticipation. The entire scene is perfectly choreographed, using their size and physics to appear plausible and entertaining.
Hulkbuster Armor
Now we get into the negatives, what pains me to state some of the negatives is that these negatives are normally positives and that the problem is that there’s too much “character”. I’ve always said I prefer a good character than good story, but this is a special case. What the first movie did so well is that it had amazing character interaction here the interaction is sacrificed for character development and that got in the way of what made the first so great, that we knew who these characters were and that they conflicted with one another and learned to resolve their differences, here new conflicts within themselves are raised and they seemed more disconnected with themselves than they were with one another, and if they wanted to create those new conflicts they should have done that with the solo films they created. Because of that I became detached with these characters and my investment in their team shrunk toward the end and was less and less concerned by the minute. Not only is the overall conflict almost identical to the first (powerful being threatens earth’s destruction and creates an army), in the context of this story the stakes aren’t as high and I became less invested in their goals.
But the biggest disappointment was the villain the title is based on. Though he is well liked and well acted by James Spader, it’s just that his motives continue the very same motives of every single generic super computer A.I. robot story that has ever been told. “Human beings are a disease and we are the cure” “For the better of humanity we must end it” “God created man, man created machine, it’s our turn” blah blah blah. Every single speech about humanities self-destruction he made I wanted to roll my eyes in frustration. The problem I believe was that they wanted to make a very sympathetic and understandable antagonist much like the Loki in the first Thor movie but the reason why Loki worked so well in the first Avengers movie is that he had a serious lack of sympathy. In the first one, he became a villain who chose his path and was not at all conflicted with his decision and with the lack of sympathy we rallied with the Avengers in their pursuit to stop him. So by the end of the movie I didn’t become eager to see more Ultron in future installments (and we probably won’t).
Ultron
That being said, my gripes with the character of Ultron was somewhat made up for in the form of The Vision played by Paul Bettany. I really got a strong sense that he and Ultron were “two side of the same coin” type of brothership, that they were polar opposites but mirrored identical, down to fact Ultron is all CGI and The Vision was mostly practical with makeup, and watching The Vision’s arch from creation to establishment (especially how he proves himself with the team) was really exciting to watch. So when the two had their final confrontation with one another as they share their beliefs (though predictable) I got a really gratifying arch between the two.
The Vision
All in all I felt as though this movie was a “diet” version of the first, the memorable moments like The Hulk making a toy out of Loki, Thor getting punched or tossed out of frame, and the long take showing the Avengers working as a team were all done in this movie but it wasn’t earned and gratifying. People stated that Iron Man 2 suffered a lot of sequelitis, well Avengers: Age of Ultron even more so. I feel as though this is a mostly a setup movie to Civil War and the next phase of the marvel movies but if they need a whole movie to shape the next phase, you can be damn sure it’s going to be a big one.
Verdict: B-
More than face value 