Film Review: The Avengers: Age of Ultron (M) (USA, 2015)

avengers age of ultron

Australian audiences will be some of the first in the world to see the new The Avengers: Age of Ultron film courtesy of global positioning, time zones and release dates. All of these things combined plus the constant hype surrounding this film will no doubt ensure its rampage through the box office like an enormous green rage monster. I would be extremely surprised if those who do see it don’t enjoy it, because this film not only manages to bring enough freshness to appease old Marvel comic fans but keep enough structure to be understood by new fans or those unfamiliar with the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). I’m going to do my best to avoid any plot-critical spoilers but I can’t guarantee that things won’t be mentioned that will appear in the film, consider yourselves forewarned.

The film begins all action guns blazing with Earth’s Mightiest Heroes attempting an assault on Baron Wolfgang von Strucker’s (Thomas Kretschmann) compound where Strucker has Loki’s scepter and has been using it to experiment on the Maximoff twins, Pietro (Aaron Taylor Johnson) and Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen). Our Avengers – Iron Man/Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr), Captain America/Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), Hulk/Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye/Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) are working as an effective team until they’re ambushed by the “enhanced” Maximoff twins. They manage to retrieve the scepter but not before Clint ends up badly wounded and Tony cops some of Wanda’s (aka Scarlet Witch) mysterious mind warp. Tony’s subsequent paranoia then convinces him the Avengers aren’t enough to save the world so he opts to build an artificial intelligence robot resulting in Ultron (voiced by James Spader). Unfortunately for the team, Ultron becomes convinced that the only way he can achieve “peace on earth” is to eradicate human kind. Enormous explosions and mass destruction ensues, and of course the Avengers must once again join forces to save the day.

There’s a couple of key themes being touted in the film, the notion of creating artificial intelligence and whether it’s a safe path for us to tread (here’s a hint, sentient robots are not cool) and that this now well-oiled machine of a team can be torn apart by their own fears. The first one is pretty obvious, Stark creates Ultron thinking that the world needs to be protected by more than just the Avengers, this then backfires when Ultron decides that wiping the slate clean of the human race is a much better option. It’s a recurrent theme we’ve seen before a la Terminator or Battlestar Galactica but the thing that separates Ultron from the former is that he seems to enjoy the idea of killing people. There is a twisted humour he has about genocide but I guess after bearing witness to all our atrocities courtesy of a super-fast internet upload, he thinks the planet would be better off without us. James Spader is perfectly cast as the maniacal Ultron, A++ performance.

Our other theme is that of the team, of trust and of facing their fears. Courtesy of a little mind bending of the Scarlet Witch we get an insight into some of our characters greatest fears. This not only serves to give us character development, particularly for Natasha Romanoff who we’ve had almost zero backstory for up until now. But it also helps to plant the seeds of doubt and distrust amongst the players which is the game plan by Ultron to weaken the team unit. We also get a surprise look into the private life of Clint Barton, who at least in this film compared to the previous is way more involved and has more screentime. MCU fans will also be pleased by the subtle shift in tone between Tony Stark and Steve Rogers, which is of course leading us in to Captain America: Civil War and the rift opening up between those two.

Personally I felt that the story was a little wobbly and didn’t feel like it flowed as well as it could have. This may be due to the fact that we launch into the film in the midst of a firefight and that the big battles and fights seem littered all throughout, rather than having enough slower moments to contemplate direction and what’s happening. But on the flipside the fights are phenomenal to watch, the upgraded Iron Man suit that converts into the Hulkbuster VS the Hulk scene may have been redundant in the grand scheme of things but who cares? Joss Whedon has also ramped up the comedy factor in this film by about 500%, there are some wonderful snarky back and forth moments, not only between the Avengers but also from Ultron towards his “creator” Tony Stark. “You know I fully support your avenging” was definitely one of my favourite lines.

If you like your movies with laughs, you’ll get them. If you like intricate fight choreography and action sequences, you’ll get that too. If you like seeing mass destruction, there’s a lot of it. MCU fans will get their fix and people who are just in it to see a good fun blockbuster will also be happy. It’s hard to see how Marvel is losing anything when they’re on a roll with providing consistently overall great films that cater to everybody.

Review Score: FOUR STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Running Time: 141 minutes

The Avengers: Age of Ultron is screening in Australian cinemas from 23rd April 2015 through Disney Pictures

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Carina Nilma

Office lackey day-job. Journalist for The AU Review night-job. Emotionally invested fangirl.