The Avengers: Age of Ultron Review

(Minor Spoilers throughout the review discussing the characters and events in the film. For a summary, skip to the end for my overall thoughts on the film)

The summer film season is in full swing now and that means another superhero film to kick us off for 2015. This time, it's the highly anticipated, heavily hyped Marvel event film that serves as a sequel that legitimized this cinematic/shared universe in the Blockbuster formula of film-making known as "The Avengers" and this time, they are going up against a new villain known as Ultron (James Spader), a sentient AI program created by Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) to protect the world only to instead commit to its utter annihilation. Does the magic of the first film carry on in this sequel or has it worn off a bit and exposed the kinks in this well crafted, successful comic book film phenomenon from Marvel? That is a question worth keeping in mind as the answer is quite tricky in this case.

This picks up right after the events of the first film (minor references to the events of the solo outings) with the heroes taking down a secret Hydra base as they obtain Loki's Scepter as well as Stark receiving "inspiration" to create an advanced Ai that can govern the world from any possible threat which is a familiar plot line from another Marvel film (deja-vuing to Winter Soldier). Unfortunately, the AI short circuits and evolves into Ultron who sees all of humanity as a threat. The only solution, extinction...This puts the Avengers through tough trials and dangers that will push them to the breaking point, forcing them to work together to take down an opponent that may very well bring about the end of humanity.

As you guessed it, it throws you right into the action with only a handful of scenes with downtime for you to process the situation and character development of the team. It does move at a brisk pace which is good for the mainstream audience and it engages in all the right spots emotionally and to the overall narrative structure to move the story along. The recurring characters Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) get some needed development that fleshes out their personas and actions more satisfyingly than in the previous Avengers film with their back story and lives put on display in this film. The main, recurring cast of heroes are just as likable and wonderfully in sync with each other as the last adventure with Iron Man, Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), and Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) giving great banter and chemistry with each other thanks to the sharp writing from Joss Whedon and the commendably spirited performances from the main cast. This leaves very little room for character development for the new members of the team, leaving them out in the wind to be nothing more the plot devices to be used at convenience making the film feel overflowing with story elements that are introduced in passing and dropped with little consequences to the main film itself.

This leads to the new cast of characters from the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) to Quicksilver (Aaron Johnson) as the new kids on the block along with the next attempt to blend the cosmic and Earth Marvel stories with the creation of Vision (Paul Bettany) by Korean scientist Helen Cho (Claudia Kim). For the most prominent new additions, they are utilized sufficiently for the action set pieces with Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver but the laughable Russian accents and lack of personality in the writing and direction of their characters makes them very insignificant for the majority of the story. Helen Cho is another character that plays only one crucial role to the plot outside of eye candy and catering to the growing Asian audience but is given very little to establish her character in the grand scheme of things. The new character/hero Vision built from Jarvis might be the only character to really receive a proper introduction and enough development to make his role matter in the story as well as scoring the most amazing, crowd pleasing moments in the film.

While these characters are either functional in the action sequences or underdeveloped as characters, it is the main villain that will garner the most praise and criticism performance wise. Ultron himself is perhaps the most powerful villain to date that the team has to face but he is also another unremarkable generic one-note character that only serves to be a nuisance to the heroes. The best way to describe his portrayal in this film is a mechanized lite version of Loki with his jokey attitude and over the top actions to rule the world. Not only was this a distracting element to the film outside of the light comedic tone of the film in odd places, it really diminished his threatening demeanor as a character and killed the tension of the action sequences particularly the last 40-50 minutes finale action extravaganza. Spader gives Ultron a rich, humorous character in his performance but it undercuts the intense action and supposed drama of the set pieces and story overall.

There is only one more element of the story and characters to be discussed and that is the overall tone of the film along with the major character developments that take up most of the runtime.  It was mentioned earlier that there is a ton of bantering and one liners throughout the entire film and while it is well done for the first half of the film, it eventually gets annoying and is used to hide the inability and lack of time to really develop the characters themselves or with each other meaningfully.  There are some cringe worthy dialogue that sprouts from this problem as well as a romantic subplot between Banner and Natasha that I felt was forced, contrived, and completely left field to their characters which means Banner must have moved on from his main love interest (comic book wise and previous solo film), Betty Ross. There is also a health dose of character development for Hawkeye A.K.A. Clint Barton who represents the rational component of the team and is proven to be an invaluable ally to the Avengers, justifying his role in the team thanks to the passionate writing gone into fleshing him out.  It has to be stated that the film is comedic and kid-friendly overall with very little hints of dark elements that might have been present in the advertisements and/or supposed cut footage of the film which does make the action and drama of the film lack any sense of danger or conflict needed to be engaging for the viewers to care but it doesn't accomplished this at all with the questionable direction taken with the film but it is still entertaining to watch.  The gist of this criticism is that you get more of everything that worked in the first film but the same issues with plot and character development are still present and detrimental to the quality of the film overall with plot lines that won't get developed until the next films and a huge set of characters that have very little breathing spaces to be memorable in this thinly plotted yet fan service overload of a film.

If there is one area that the film does excel in spades, it is the action sequences throughout the film which are epic, vibrantly shot, and hard-hitting when you can see it and the editing is on point with the rhythmic flow of the characters abilities.  This is where is truly feels like a comic book come to life on the big screen with all of the heroes displaying their skills and powers with gusto and confidence that will no doubt satisfy even the most jaded of comic book fans.  The standout of these sequences happens to be the one in the middle between the Hulk and Iron Man in the Hulkbuster with the creative use of the environment and technology along with skills to make it one of the most exhilarating battles as well as the most cohesive fight to see in the film.  There are about five major set pieces including that battle with a couple of skirmishes in between that fill up most of the run time with a combination of CGI, VFX, and special effects to bring this kind of action from the page to the big screen successfully all of which have moments of fan boy cheerful moments that will bring out the inner comic book fan in you.  That does not mean the action set pieces are all but flawless in their execution within the film.

Throughout the opening assault on the Hydra Base led by Baron Von Strucker (Thomas Kretschmann), different action set pieces throughout South Africa, and the last battle in Sokovia, the action is so frantic and chaotic that it was hard to discern which heroes was fighting the enemy clearly on a geographic level as heroes disappear in and out of the battle to highlight their capabilities which isn't helped by the shoddy editing at times.  This problem with clarity and consistency in the action is more present in the finale with the entire cast involved in the conflict and the editor is desperately giving enough screen time to showcase these heroes in action.  Otherwise, they are still choreographed and framed clearly enough to follow along to the majority of the set pieces as well as being purely fun to watch the mayhem take place on a base level of expectations.  Every hero at least gets one cool moment of action from the leads to the supporting cast themselves although the only gripe with that is that for some reason The Falcon (Anthony Mackie) is not present for the battle while War Machine (Don Cheadle) is the only backup they receive on the outside other than other prominent side characters from other Marvel films (what is that all about?).  Despite those oddities in the action sequences, they are visually mesmerizing and reliably fun to watch just as in the first film.

The other technical aspects of this film are both impressive and quite forgettable in their contributions to the overall production but they are worth mentioning only to give compliments and criticizing the unsung teams behind making this film.  The art direction is relatively good in that the sets are put together nicely, filled with such little details in the craftsmanship to each lab, underground base, and exotic places the Avengers end up in.  There has to be some compliments given to the costume design team for really nailing the look for most of the heroes as well as the character design of Ultron and the digital/live interpretation of Vision.  That is the stunning visual achievement of the the costume and Makeup for this film in the design of Vision as he instills the classic look of the original designs of the comic counterpart with the proper modern touch ups to really make him come to life and quite frankly one of the few exciting surprises of the film. Unfortunately, the score is quite lackluster even with Danny Elfman major variation on the Avengers theme from Alan Silvestri as it only functions to be background noise for the action hitting accordingly to the crowd pleasing moments and move the action along without really standing out from the rest of the film.

This is the most difficult part of criticism in that the separation of being a fan and a filmmaker can be a very thin line to cross in regards to critiquing moments or properties of pop culture.  However, the belief of truth and honesty must be at least a part of any form of analysis whether we like it or not, otherwise we cannot inspire any meaningful changes in any shape and/or form of art.  This is a point that I felt obligated to bring up as it means having to be critical and honest with my thoughts about this film no matter how much of a fan I am of this genre but with an eye for what works in film-making.

The Avengers: Age of Ultron is ultimately an enjoyable, fun adventurous blockbuster sequel that has more of the same qualities of the first film that worked but also some of the same issues if not more that bring it down to being a decent yet disjointed, uneventful entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  The film delivers on the action set pieces in more ways than one, the character interactions and dynamics are fantastic from the writing to the cast, Vision is the most memorable new character from the cast that gets enough development and cool moments to matter in the main plot, and it does feel bigger and epic in quite a few aspects from the action to the technical elements of sets, costume, and makeup teams.  To put it simply with what didn't work, it completely ignores all of the previous solo films and their character developments, the story gets some much needed character development but not enough to generate interest or emotional investment in the old and new characters to the team, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver were really uninteresting, forgettable characters that were only there as plot devices to instill emotional moments and move the plot forward, Ultron is a relatively funny, captivating character but non-threatening as well as an under-powered joke of a villain, and the banter/humor are enjoyable but gets annoying in the intense, world destructive battles that kills the tension of the action constantly.

It is still worth a trip to the theater as it is an enjoyable ride going into it but like all rides, you have your fun on it and eventually it fades away with only the faint remembrance of what might have made it worth the ride in the first place.

Overall: *** out of *****

This is a sequel that gives you the same ingredients you loved the first time over again but it has now lost its flavor a bit and isn't quite as good as you remembered.  The action sequences are flashy, bombastic, and everything a comic book fan wants out of a superhero team film along with a terrific group dynamic between the cast of characters overall.  However, the general lack of threat from the jokey Ultron as well as the unremarkable performances from the new characters (with the exception of Vision) made the action beats have no tension to them as well as being disjointed near the end in all the wrong ways.  It is a film that hits its marks where it counts and under-delivers where it could have been great film akin to "Iron Man" and/or "Captain America: The Winter Soldier". It is a fun superhero film that will be great now but only time will tell if it has any staying power months after its release.