On DVD: Avengers: Age of Ultron Review
Title: Avengers: Age of Ultron
Year: 2015
Genre: Action, Science fiction
Length: 141 minutes
Score: 4/5
"Avengers: Age of Ultron" is an amazingly achieved visual fest and an enjoyable popcorn flick; but it doesn’t live up to its predecessor due to an overload of story arcs.
If we can all agree in something, is that superhero movies are in their prime, especially
Marvel movies (the ones produced by Marvel Studios, at least). The Marvel
Cinematic Universe is one of the golden gooses of the Disney Empire. And the
Avengers movies are the cornerstone of that success. Without them working, it
would all fall apart. So it’s understandable that director Joss Whedon
had a big pressure on his shoulders to make this movie work. And it did, but somehow
it felt like it tried really hard.
The film
starts off with an eye popping action sequence full of incredible special
effects in which our heroes fight the remaining forces of HYDRA. In the middle
of the battle, they run into a couple of "enhanced" humans: the Maximoff twins,
also known as Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. After this battle and with a
little help of the Scarlet Witch, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) starts
developing a peacekeeping program, playing with artificial intelligence and
alien technology.
But things
don’t go as he planned, and then Ultron appears, a sentient AI with a simple and
deadly notion: humans must be destroyed for the sake of peace. The Avengers must unite
once more to fight this threat that can jump from one artificial body to another and has access to all the information stored
on the internet, including nuclear codes. In their crusade, they will go from
scene to scene fighting this enemy and his new allies: the twins.
One of the
many things to praise about this movie is that the spotlights are on the
three characters of the group that don’t have their stand alone movies (or at
least won’t get them in the foreseeable future): Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson),
Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo). These three have more
screen time than their teammates, and it’s appreciated, since we get to know
aspects of their lives we weren’t aware of. And that’s something really necessary
in films like this, where the characters are constantly putting themselves in
extreme danger; getting to know more about them makes us care about them.
As said before, the action sequences are amazingly well achieved. They're non stop and dynamic, and every character has their moment to shine. But this was no suprise, being a Marvel movie, and especially an Avengers Marvel movie.
As said before, the action sequences are amazingly well achieved. They're non stop and dynamic, and every character has their moment to shine. But this was no suprise, being a Marvel movie, and especially an Avengers Marvel movie.
Another
great aspect of the film is the dialogue. And that’s for sure the Whedon mark
right there. Few genre writers can pen as smart, funny and witty dialogues as Joss
Whedon can. And that shows in all the conversations and discussions held in the
gatherings of the team.
But not
everything’s great here. The movie introduces so many story arcs and plot lines
that it feels like it could be divided in two parts. Being a "part of a Universe" film, it's normal that they're setting things up for the next ones, but it
doesn’t help with the progression of this story. And at times, the plot feels a bit convoluted
and tiresome.
The Avengers: Age of Ultron is worth watching,
and a very good sequel, though it could definitely spare some narrative threads.
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