The summer season officially kicks off with one of the most anticipated films of this year, Avengers: Age of Ultron. But does the high-octane superhero sequel live up to expectations?
The story follows the titular superhero team - eccentric billionaire Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.); shining WWII hero Captain America (Chris Evans); Norse god Thor (Chris Hemsworth); rage-filled behemoth, the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), assassin Black Widow (Scarlett Johannsen); and archer Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) - tracking down and retrieving mythical weapons from Thor's home realm. After a stellar opening that showcases the might of the team, we learn that Tony Stark, the man behind the Iron Man armor, is still shaken from the events of previous films, and is determined to build a suit of armor to protect the world after he's done avenging. Enter Ultron (voiced by James Spader), a robot of Stark's creation who has gone rogue and now wants to destroy the world, starting with the Avengers. With such a sprawling collection of characters, a script that specializes in character interaction is as essential as exciting action. Fortunately, writer and director Joss Whedon (Firefly, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) masters interaction through a number of scenes, a particular highlight being when the team is assembled at a party. Nothing is being fought or smashed or destroyed, but rather the film takes a minute to slow down and exhibit a casual slow-down scene. A few times the film does this, and instead of expectedly grinding the pace to a halt, each instance, whether it be to make superhuman heroes feel more human or show one of them with a family to show what the heroes are fighting for, has a purpose. But that isn't to say that the film doesn't have good action. As opposed to the last Avengers, which kept the climax limited to New York, Age of Ultron is all over the map, boasting fight scenes from a shipyard in Bangladesh to a marketplace throwdown between the Hulk and Iron Man in South Africa - many of these scenes shot on location. The film isn't without its missteps, however, the largest of which is the overabundance of characters. While voiced with fluidity by James Spader, there's really not much to Ultron. Sure, he's got a chilling, metallic voice and a seriously imposing presence, but his plan is so vague, and his motivation almost nonexistent. It's a plus for the character that he has the sarcastic wit of Stark (fitting, since he's Stark's own Frankenstein-like creation), which makes up for the fact that the visual effects on the character at times look a little too obviously computer-generated. Then there's the superpowered Maximoff twins, Pietro, with the power of super speed; and Wanda, who can control minds by implanting hallucinations (played by Godzilla duo Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen). Apparently, the wonder twins were orphaned as children when a bomb created by Stark levelled a building that their parents were in, and now they want revenge. Both actors embody their roles with lively energy, especially Olsen, but at the end of the day, they're just two more entries into an overwhelming myriad of well-developed characters. Sure, well-developed is great, and so are the twins, but in a movie with so much going on already, shouldn't the Avengers be enough? This leads to my biggest gripe with the film: there's just so many moving parts. For fans, this movie is an absolute blast of adrenaline, the colorful pages of the comic books leaping onto the screen with exuberant energy. But a part of that, for a portion of the film, means filling the screen with something flying, something shooting, something smashing, and Marvel newcomers being left in a blur. The result more or less limits the audience to specifically Marvel die-hards. As a Marvel fan, I had a total blast with Avengers: Age of Ultron. While there were a ton of characters and plot points, most of them were done with careful detail, and there's an accomplished combination of action and comedy that wraps over the well-paced story like a thick Marvel blanket. But looking at the film without my fan bias, it's an incredibly busy film. It's not a bad film (the good elements far outweigh the bad), but it isn't for everyone. Overall, Avengers: Age of Ultron is a dream come true for Marvel fans, and a dreamy blur for everyone else. For everything it does well, I award the film three out of four stars.
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