Marvel is back with the latest installment in their cinematic universe. This time, all the major heroes assemble for the second in The Avengers series.
The movie focuses on Tony Stark’s attempt at creating a peace keeping force that would in many ways eliminate the need for the Avengers team. He and Bruce Banner create this technology using data gathered from the scepter Loki had in the first movie. The newly formed intelligence takes on a life of its own and inhabits a spare Iron Man suit becoming Ultron. From their Ultron warps Stark’s original intent to believe that the human race need no longer exist. James Spader is cast as the villainous Ultron and delivers a strong performance. he brings both dark elements and humor to the role, proving for an entertaining villain.
Along the way, the Maximoff siblings are introduced. They are survivors of genetic manipulation experiments of Strucker, one of Captain America’s villains. They are recruited by Ultron as his minions before realizing his motives have gone too far.
Character development sees a lot of time with Stark fighting with some of his inner demons again, Hawkeye wondering id he is needed on the team and what his worth is, and their is also some interaction between Romanoff and Banner that I’ll leave out to not go too spoiler heavy, but it was one of my main problems with the film as it seemed out of place and a bit forced.
Visually, the movie is stunning. Between the epic fight scenes and what goes into showing the individual Avengers powers, the movie is beautiful. Director Joss Whedon does a great job of getting good performances from the actors, including another decent run from Chris Evans as Captain American, who I have been extremely critical of in the past.
All in all, Avengers Age of Ultron is a great movie that certainly ranks among Marvel’s best. Their are a number of teases that begin to set up the third phase of Marvel’s cinematic universe as the set up now goes forward to Avengers Infinity War. Many of the Avengers cast will be back in the next major step in the direction in Captain America: Civil War.
