The Avengers: Age of Ultron — ★★★★
WARNING: This review contains spoilers.
3 years after Marvel finally connected all the threads for a live-action team-up of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Joss Whedon grants us the opportunity to see them all again with some new faces. While the film is laden with weak story elements, particularly from the villain (again), there are more than enough comedic and heroic moments to make up for it.
This time around, there is no element of surprise in seeing all six of the original members standing together after a massive buildup, and Joss Whedon knows that — that’s why he gets right into it and gets that scene out of the way in the beginning. More “fun” scenes like this fill up the rest of the film, but there are four key characters that are split between being beneficial and detrimental to the moral(s) of the film.
Hulk: good
At one point in the film, Romanoff rides Hulk. Yep, you read that right. She gets on top and hangs on for dear life…as he carries her, rapidly climbing up a floating city so he can get her to safety. What were you thinking, pervert? No, but seriously, they’re a thing now, and while it would’ve been great to see her flourish as a Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes, or hell, even a nod to Matt Murdock, love interest, the Banner-Romanoff thing oddly works. In a professor-teacher sort of way. It’s always great to see the green guy in action, and it’s clear that Hulk has become much more tame even from his run in The Avengers; what’s saddening is when even the raging monster, not Banner, knows he’s too dangerous for Romanoff, as he leaves her in a Quinjet. Wait, what?
Vision: great
So many things about Vision’s time on-screen are great, literally almost every scene he is in is hilarious or amazing, whether it’s seeing Thor and building a cape for himself for it, rescuing Scarlet Witch and possibly foreshadowing the future there, or, possibly sarcastically, admitting there’s no way The Avengers can trust him…as he picks up and hands Thor his hammer. Vision sends Ultron on his final send-off, which is preluded by Iron Man’s repulsor beams and Thor’s lightning, with the help of Vision’s Mind Stone beam, being able to melt vibranium. The whole trinity with Tony Stark, Ultron, and Vision closes with Vision being the polar opposite of Ultron (as alluded to earlier with his ability to wield Mjölnir) and … see part 5 below.
Before we get to that though, let’s talk about what sucks…
Hawkeye: forcibly bad
Joss Whedon must’ve felt really bad about casting Jeremy Renner as a zombie in The Avengers as he forced him into being “the heart of the movie” — unlike James Gunn’s attempt to do so with Rocket and Groot, Whedon fails horribly. It’s difficult to care for Renner’s Clint Barton, particularly when we lose newcomer Quicksilver to him via heroism.
Real quick, on that note, Whedon totally killed off Quicksilver just to attempt to be dark and/or avoid the possible incestuous future (so Vision can get that scarlet V instead), because I’m pretty sure a) the bullets would’ve pierced the garbage car anyway, and b) he could’ve just pulled Hawkeye and the kid away and all three would’ve lived.
Back to Hawkeye: it is an absolute relief when, at the end … see part 5.
Ultron: meh
It was bad the first time around to have a villain that was bad just to rule everyone and just have power, but Ultron wanted to kill everyone and destroy the planet so he could rule copies of…himself? Surely a robot that can deal in sarcasm and jokes would eventually be lonely, and, you know, have to get off to some Romanoff taking a BGC? Seriously though, when will these villains ever have a real purpose? Apparently back in 2014 when Captain America found out HYDRA was around the whole time.
Also with Ultron comes one of the bigger plot errors — he is an evil A.I. based off of the Mind Stone, which we know works because of The Avengers (and even a nod to that in this film), but Vision is infused with the stone itself and is good? Or is that because it bonds with JARVIS? Basically, the film is great as long as you don’t think about it or ask too many questions.
Part 5
Ready?
Are you sure?
…are you SUPER sure?
Okay.
Part 5 is…THE NEW AVENGERS.
That’s right, at the end of the film, there’s a new team comprised of OG’s Captain America and Black Widow leading the new kids on the block: Don Cheadle’s War Machine (who had a couple of awesome cameos earlier, including a jab at Iron Man 2 and 3 stories), Anthony Mackie’s Falcon (with the makings of a new suit), Vision himself, and Scarlet Witch (with a perm and tighter-fitting clothing….oh yesss).
The other guys? Stark realizes this isn’t for him, Thor has to go figure out who wants the Infinity Stones, Banner/Hulk crashed into the ocean, and Hawkeye looks like he’s out of the picture(s) for good to settle down and do more stuff we don’t care about. Of course, we know this isn’t the last time we’ll see Stark as he’ll be back to go toe-to-toe with Cap in Civil War.
All in all, The Avengers: Age of Ultron looks better than The Avengers in that it actually looks like a big picture and not a made-for-TV movie, but it’s best watched with an open-mind not looking for any deep enlightenment or anything. In fact, we probably, no, DEFINITELY, won’t get any of that with Ant-Man either. So, save all that for Jessica Jones (hopefully), if not Civil War and season 2 of Daredevil.
Post (mid) credits scene
You like how I put my review of the mid-credits scene at the end of the review? Like Marvel does it? Eh? Whatever, man, I don’t need this.
Big, bad Thanos shows up and steals the Infinity Gauntlet. Right out of Odin’s vault. Before you think that’s absurd, keep in mind who is really on the throne in Asgard from The Dark World. No, the error and annoyance with this comes from Thanos smugly remarking “fine, I’ll do it myself” as if he already has the six stones. In fact, he doesn’t have any of them, he just knows where four of them are. Do you mean to tell me this intergalactic being feared across the universe had no idea the Mind Stone was in the scepter he gave Loki? Or is that why he concealed it in the first place? QUESTIONS. Either way, Ronan screwed him out of the Power Stone, he lost the Mind Stone and Tesseract (except he’ll probably get that back now as it too is in Asgard), and he never had the Aether. So, basically, he just has the glove now. For being so badass and powerful, this dude’s laziness sure is screwing him over.
