It's still hard to believe we live in a world where an Avengers movie exists, let alone two. The first was a spectacle to behold, and just amazing to think they pulled off a movie with such a big cast. It went on to do over a billion at the box office and was a world wide phenomenon. Something I'm sure the second will repeat. It's hard to re-capture the awe of that first team up but Marvel knows how to do things bigger and better and with Age of Ultron we were sure to see a super hero team up on an even larger scale. The real question is can it be pulled off a second time, and how well does it fare against the first?
Well I'll start off by saying that I like the first Avengers more. Now that doesn't mean this is a bad movie, I just think the first was a lot tighter in the sense of plot and writing. It's also worth noting that we had a build up to Loki being the villain in Avengers. We saw hints of it through the films, especially in the post credits for Captain America. We didn't get a build up to Ultron. When we come into the plot of Avengers 2 we see that Bruce Banner and Tony Stark have clearly been kicking this idea around for a while, yet we never got even a slight reference in any of the phase 2 films. This to me was a planning oversight that could have helped make the hype and set up for this film even better. Now I think the solo films in Phase 2 were, for the most part, better than anything in Phase 1. Iron Man 3 and Captain America 2 being the highlights. One thing that's always come up with any movie post Avengers is "Why doesn't anyone come help each other in their movies" and I wish we got a little more references to previous films and where characters were. We do get a lot of talk about SHIELD and it no longer existing, but mostly that's it aside from character mentions and cameos.
Now I think Loki was a better villain for the first team up, but Ultron is no slouch. He is wonderfully played by James Spader and the voice acting is impeccable work. A robot with a human like intelligence who for all intents and purposes acts human is a creepy aspect. The most interesting part of Ultron though is that he's a flawed villain. He's smarter than the Avengers but he has psychological issues he can't avoid and it gives him depth. He was designed to save humanity so in his plan his thoughts constantly come back to bettering the human species. He just wants to destroy it first. He's also not as threatening as I originally thought he was going to be. Just looking at him, he's just a robot. We've seen plenty of Iron Man armors or robots get destroyed already so how is this one robot supposed to stand up to all of the Avengers. Well he doesn't. Ultron isn't s much a body as he is an intelligence in the internet, which is something I had a small issue with. So since he is just an A.I. he can bounce from body to body which is an awesome aspect. I love the times they have him destroyed only to literally have another one appear right behind him. The only problem I have is how do you destroy something that can exist in the internet? Even if you destroy every robot couldn't his consciousness still exist in cyberspace? It's the same issue that came up in Terminator 3 with Skynet. It's a small nitpick but something that bothered me nonetheless. Ultron is technically immortal as long as there is a wifi connection and this is pretty much ignored as far as I noticed.
UPDATE: I was reminded that there is the scene where Vision grabs Ultron and disconnects him. I missed it the first time but I still feel a little more light should have been shined on that aspect. Shouldn't be so easy to miss.
With the first Avengers we spend a lot of the movie trying to get the team together and get along and you don't get a a lot of action scenes, just some key great ones. Age of Ultron however, we already have the team in full swing and the movie opens up with a great action scene and we only get more and more as the movie goes on. This movie is action packed and all of it is fantastic. I have to mention the ending last stand as a highlight. We get to see them battle in multiple different types of locations and there's a lot of combining powers to great effect. We've seen the Avengers fight before but now we have some new additions. Scarlet Witch has her telekinesis which makes her a dominant force on the battlefield and it's so satisfying to watch her rip robots in half with her mind. Her mind control is also a fun power that helps play into the story and the character development. She's able to mess with the Avengers minds and bring out their worst fears. Quicksilver however is an odd character in the sense that we already saw a cinematic version of Quicksilver last year in X-Men, which honestly I think was the better version, but Aaron Taylor-Johnson still brings his own flair to the character and is great in the role. It's awesome to see him use his powers throughout the movie and it looks very different from what we saw in Days of Future Past. There's a lot of great character work in this movie but I do feel like there's just a few too many. It's nice to see Don Cheadle get included as well as Falcon from The Winter Soldier, but between Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, and The Vision it's almost a little much. Especially since The Vision get's little screen time so we don't get to know the character very much. Luckily it's all handled very well so it kind of masks the insanity of so many characters in the mix. A much needed addition in this film was more back story for Hawkeye. Now I know he catches the most heat and people call him the most useless member but I've always been a Hawkeye defender and he was awesome this time around and his back story just helped flesh out his character even more. What I did find weird is that he has a family and I always assumed that him and Black Widow were an item, but suddenly she's interested in Bruce Banner and that just seems to come out of nowhere, especially when all signs pointed to Hawkeye in the previous films.
There's still a lot of great writing in this movie but I honestly feel that everything was just better in the first movie. There are a lot of great lines (Hawkeye has some of my favorites) but I didn't find myself laughing out loud as much as the first film. This movie does have a much darker tone however and that is most likely the case. There's a lot of fighting within the group and no matter how awesome you think the Hulk vs Iron Man fight looks in the trailer, it's way better in the final movie. I honestly just wish that was it's own movie, either Hulk 2 or Iron Man 4. The whole movie just could have been a little more tighter like the first was. There's a lot decisions made that just feel like "Okay we need to get to the next scene" where as in the first film everything felt fluid as we moved from beat to beat. While I still think it's a fantastic film it just feels slightly inferior to the first on a technical level, but maybe more fun and exciting on a spectacle level. I give Age of Ultron the same score I give the first Avengers which is a four out of five. This movie is worth your time and may be the most fun you will have, but if you're looking for a better story than the first you may be slightly disappointed.
