Avengers: Age of Ultron review
Age of Ultron begins with a great battle between the Avengers and the remnants of Hydra for the Staff of Loki, which was teased at the end of Captain America Winter Soldier. It’s a well-choreographed battle that showcases each member’s strengths, teamwork, and trust developed between members, and once again raises the question of why Hawkeye is dating a god and a super soldier. The Avengers and the new SHIELD are delivering a crushing defeat to Hydra when Hydra’s two human experiments make an appearance, Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. They will be recognized by fans as Quicksilver and Scarlett Witch, mutants and Magnito’s children, however due to legal issues over who has the rights to whom, both characters are never known as mutants and are given a new but realistic backstory. . SHIELD still wins the day and Tony Stark finds Hydra’s secret laboratory filled with alien artifacts. Scarlett Witch then shows Tony her deepest fears that drive Tony’s actions and lead to the creation of Ultron.
Tony fears that without a definitive plan to protect Earth against alien threats, all of his friends will die, leading him and Dr. Banner to use Loki’s staff to develop an AI to protect the world and fulfill the Tony’s dream of peace in his time. However, the AI learns all about Earth’s problems through 24-hour cable news and comes to the conclusion that for there to be peace there cannot be humans, and so Ultron is born.
The rest of the movie is a fun series of action scenes and witty lines, as well as flesh out Hawkeye, which is good considering he was barely in the first Avengers movie. The relationship between Black Widow and Bruce Banner came out of left field, considering the implicit relationship between Hawkeye and Black Widow in the first Avengers movie and Captain America Winter Soldier. This is where movie fans learn the term “retcon” as they take delight that Hawkeye has had a secret family all along and that no Black Widow arrow necklace in Captain America Winder Soldier actually meant anything.
Age of Ultron is not an in-depth character study for any of the characters and is like any comic book event. All the heroes get together and the villain proceeds to ruin their day. The heroes are weakened by this surprise attack and must regroup and summon their friends so they can unite and take on the villain. It certainly feels like the Marvel Cinematic Universe has fully embraced their wacky comic book source material rather than rejecting it in favor of gritty realism like DC’s current trend. This stylistic choice is overshadowed by Hawkeye in his motivational speech to Scarlett Witch when he points out the ridiculousness of the situation.
Age of Ultron is a hefty ticket for anyone who’s a fan of the current Marvel Cinematic Universe, full of nods to the comics and foreshadowing future movies, yet it has a steep entry fee for anyone not up to speed with the rest of the game. Marvel Cinematic Universe. Age of Ultron ends Phase Two for the Marvel Cinematic Universe and ends with a bang, the only question is how long can Marvel continue to produce high-quality movies?