In 2012, theaters across the globe were filled to the brim with Marvel fans, moviegoers and critics alike. They were stupefied by the dazzling CGI, loud explosions, violent battle scenes and the star-studded cast that portrayed Earth’s saviors: “The Avengers.”
Almost three years later, even more people gawked in great awe at the silver screen as the new film, “Age Of Ultron,” danced spectacularly before them. Those people smashed box office profits and were in store for a real treat.
Instead of opening with a long winded villain background story, “Age Of Ultron” opens with a fantastic battle. Captain America (Evans), Thor (Hemsworth),Hulk (Ruffalo), Black Widow (Johansson), Hawkeye ( Renner) and the beloved Iron Man ( Downey Jr.) are in the midst assaulting a Hydra base in Eastern Europe in the hunt of Wolfgang von Strucker, who has stolen The Scepter and experimenting on humans.
“Age Of Ultron” does great justice to the viewing audience by implementing many lengthy, and rather entertaining, battle sequences. But it also balances it out with heartfelt, and sometimes funny, story driven talk scenes. The film does a great job at balancing the two, and it really shows as it is virtually impossible to look away from the screen.
With the Scepter in the hands of The Avengers, Tony Stark and Bruce Banner secretly use the power of the Scepter to create Ultron, an AI system that will be used to protect Earth from any threats.
In a matter of hours, Ultron becomes a sentient, fully aware AI system who believes he has to eradicate the human race. Stark’s AI system, JARVIS, attempts to stop Ultron but is destroyed.
As mentioned before, the film does an excellent job at keeping the audience’s attention. But, however, the film is not without flaws. One of the more prominent flaws is that the story glasses over seemingly important plot points to advance the film’s pace.
This induces confusion, especially towards the end when plot points do not really matter as the film is in a hurry to wrap itself up. The film clocks in at about two hours and forty five minutes, which is a lot of time, but with long fight scenes, elements of the story are left behind in the dust.
With an army of robots under his command, Ultron races across the globe to find vibranium, a metal that can be used to create weapons of mass destruction. With The Avengers locked in a battle with Ultron in Southern Africa, Hulk runs amok in the city of Cape Town.
Stark uses a failsafe to stop Banner, or Hulk, from destroying the city and killing innocents. At this point, the film begins to delve into the troubles Banner faces as he becomes the all-powerful Hulk. It also starts to develop a sort of love between Black Widow and Banner. This adds a layer of emotion to a film that does not really have any.
After tasting defeat, and worldwide animosity for the destruction, The Avengers retreat into hiding on a small farm where Hawkeye has secretly been living with a very loving, a supportive, family. Thor departs to discover what Ultron is really trying to do.
The short time the Avengers spend at Hawkeye’s farm serve as downtime for the entire team, and the elongated talk scenes further progress a rather engaging story. But that peace is shattered when Nick Fury (Jackson) arrives and tells them that Ultron is in Seoul, South Korea in efforts to create a humanoid body for himself.
As far as story goes, the next scene is pretty typical.The good guys attack the bad guys, but a good guy is captured. With that aside, the elements in this part are by far the most important in the film thus far.
With the construct being used to create Ultron’s body in the hands of Stark and Banner, they, yet again, attempt to create an AI system with the idea in mind for it to protect Earth. With the rest of the team learning of their actions, The Avengers fight amongst themselves all the while their savior is brewing.
Dubbed The Vision, he confronts the Avengers and expresses his desire for humanity. Knowing that Ultron’s action are justified, but wrong, The Vision vows to fight alongside the Avengers.
The film closes with an epic final battle as The Avengers combat a seemingly infinite amount of robots. As the city of Sokovia, powered by massive vibranium turbines, is lifted into the air the fighting becomes desperate as Ultron plans to drop the city on Earth to decimate the entire globe.
In typical fashion, The Avengers quell Ultron’s powerful army. The Vision vaporizes the fleeing Ultron which signals the end of a threat of extinction. In upstate New York, The Avengers have a new headquarters. All are present except for Bruce Banner, who is missing, but alive.
The film closes as Captain America and Black widow begin to train the new Avengers members. After the credit roll, a new and even more fearsome enemy is revealed as he plots his attack on Earth.