Review: “Avengers: Age of Ultron”

Grand sequel shows up Man of Steel

The latest incarnation of Superman, Man of Steel, was released the year after Marvel’s The Avengers. Both movies were game changers, but for vastly different reasons. For Avengers, a team up film spanning multiple storylines and characters could, in fact, be pulled off, and gloriously so. For Man of Steel, the original super hero could be pinned into violent standoffs involving tons of collateral human damage. The Dark Knight Trilogy told studio execs to get more graphic and tonally darker. For me, Superman CAN go to these places, but there must be a payoff at some point. We’ll have to wait a year to see if the big fight with Batman will do just that.

What we don’t have to wait for is Marvel one upping DC, and The Avengers shaming the Man of Steel.

In Age of Ultron, our heroes return in full force, battling a foe created from within their ranks. Like with most Marvel movies, the tone is light and playful, even when dealing in serious situations. There are shades of black within the darkness, it seems. And the shades in this film don’t evoke gloom and doom, but rather danger and glory.

Leading the team is Captain America who, at every turn, makes it a point to remind his friends to protect and evacuate civilians. “Keep the fight between us” he says, and as a hero, this is right statement for him to make. Superman, as depicted in Man of Steel, stops the villains for sure, but not without personally causing horrific destruction. THAT Superman was more interested in solving personal and existential problems. THIS Captain America? THESE Avengers? They’re here to save YOUR day, even at great cost to them. True heroes are more worried about others and less about self.

What Marvel has achieved with Age of Ultron is something I wasn’t expecting: they got me to stop making excuses for Superman’s actions and non actions. Marvel has made an argument level movie against DC, against those Dark Knight films and against throwing in complex complications for super people when they aren’t needed or necessary.

Age of Ultron should give everyone, from kids to young adults to parents, something to root for, something to feel deeply and something to enjoy vastly. In a year filled to the brim with blockbusters, it’s good for a flick to stand out as a source of cheerful goodness. When someone like Superman can’t provide that, you know goodness is in scarcity. Thankfully, some is left. Thankfully, some still believe.

4 / 5