Well, it's here.
After almost two years of anticipation, from the moment the title was announced to a roof-raising response at Comic Con, like many fans I have been
counting down the months, weeks and days until we can finally see this
film. If fan expectations were high,
this film also has to live up to those of audiences and critics - coming as it
does after the box-office record breaking, bench-mark genre classic that preceded
it. That's a lot of pressure, even for 'Earth's Mightiest Heroes'.
Does 'Avengers Age of Ultron' live up to expectation? It depends upon what you're hoping for; if
you want to see a film that is even better than its predecessor in terms of
being a genre-defining great, well you will be disappointed. In that respect, this film doesn't hit the
heights of 'Avengers Assemble'. However,
if you were hoping for an entertaining, engrossing, crowd-pleasing, spectacular
blockbuster - and more Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) excitement - then yes,
this film certainly delivers.
The film opens with a thrilling sequence showing the
Avengers attacking a Hydra fortress, attempting to recover Loki's sceptre
(which apparently went AWOL during the SHIELD/Hydra snafu). Here they encounter two 'enhanced' humans -
Pietro and Wanda Maximoff (Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elisabeth Olsen,
respectively), given powers by Hydra through experiments with the sceptre, and who
are not fans of the Avengers at all. This
scene starts the film with the same gleeful thrill that underpinned the first
Avengers film - seeing the team together, kicking ass and being all-round
generally awesome; however, as the team split off to fulfil individual
objectives as part of the mission, it must be said it does feel to lose its
impetus a little. But quickly after this
the wheels are set in motion for the film's main plot, and things get back on
track. After recovering the sceptre Tony
'Iron Man' Stark (Robert Downey Jr) discovers something that leads him to
revive a dormant defence/peace-keeping initiative. Working with Bruce 'Hulk' Banner (Mark Ruffalo), the resultant AI construct Ultron (voiced and motion-captured by
James Spader) turns out to not be what they were hoping for, or intending;
Ultron hates The Avengers, and has fairly genocidal ideas about how to achieve peace
and save the world.
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| Can the team hold together in the face of Ultron's scheme? Let's say they are fairly tested... |
Whereas the first film had to spend a lot of time setting
up the reasons for drawing this team together - some might argue, at the cost
of a substantial plot - this film doesn't need to do that; in fact, Writer/director Joss Whedon
clearly was aware of this perceived flaw with the first film, so here he keeps
the plot driving forward at a brisk pace.
In some places this benefits the film, giving some scenes a sense of
urgency; in other places it leads to a reliance on exposition heavy dialogue that
flies by so quickly you're in to the next scene wondering 'hang on, how did
they know that/ How did they figure that out?'
Whilst things seems to work out conveniently and quickly at times, the
film moves at such pace you don't dwell on the fact the plot does occasionally wobble
due to this. It is surprising that Whedon
has taken this route - he could have easily taken the success of the previous
film as license to be indulgent and make the plot and key scenes run to a
bloated degree, but it is refreshing he has chosen not to. Perhaps other writer/directors could take
some notes from this... *cough*Nolan*cough*
If certain elements of the plot will have you thinking
'hang on, wait a minute...' when you think about it later, there is no question
of Whedon's attention to character, as each of the Avengers is equally
well-served as they were in their last film.
Each are given scenes that show a deepening emotional depth to their
arcs - Stark's desire to see and end for the need for the Avengers, Steve
'Captain America' Rogers (Chris Evans) growing comfort with his role in the
team, and the world; and the deepening relationship between Banner and Natasha
'Black Widow' Romanov (Scarlett Johansson).
The latter pair get a scene which genuinely tugs at the heart strings, as the
notoriously secretive super-spy begins to lay her true-self bare to someone she
feels she can really trust. But, of
course, it's not all heavy, emotional beats - Whedon is a master of witty one-liners,
and there are some absolutely cracking, laugh out-loud lines shared between the
team. An early scene, in which the team
celebrate their success at Stark's 'Avengers Tower', is destined to become an
absolute classic quote-fest; believe me, you will see a great number of
internet memes and gifs come from this.
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| The Maximoff Twins - aka Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch - are well handled additions to the cast. |
Pleasingly, when it comes to new characters, Whedon
proves a safe pair of hands. When
superhero films have added these in the past there has been a tendency to do so
at the cost of muddled plots and losing focus on principal characters. The introduction of the Maximoff twins -
better known to comic fans as Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch - could have done
this, but they are handled well; they do not 'upstage' any of the existing
characters, their motivations and character arcs are clearly defined, and they
are given their hero moments, just as the rest of the cast. Their powers look effective on the screen -
there was a fear that this MCU incarnation of Quicksilver would pale in
comparison to 'X-Men Days of Future Past's scene-stealing appearance - but here
there is a functional, un-showy approach that fits with the rest of the film's depiction
of all the characters and their powers/abilities. The only slight issue is their East-European
accent, which Olsen seems to handle better than Taylor-Johnson - this proves
the only quibble about these portrayals.
As well as the Maximoffs, Whedon introduced one of the
comic's most formidable villains to the MCU; and by and large, Ultron is
handled well. Perhaps his (its?)
introduction is a little rushed in terms of setting up the various 'issues' the
character has about The Avengers and solving world peace through, erm, mass-extinction,
and maybe we could have seen a little more of the insanely murderous side of
the character. But those qualms aside,
Ultron is a deliciously fiendish and imposing villain - you never doubt he has
the power to carry through with his schemes, or that he justifies the combined
response of the whole Avengers team - one-on-one, they're no match for
Ultron. As well as that, with Whedon's
witty script and Spader's seductive-yet-dangerous tones, he is an entertaining
and fun villain, too.
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| Ultron is dangerous, crazy, yet strangely likeable - thanks to Whedon's writing and Spader's performance. |
Other characters sadly don't come off as well - recurring
comic villain Baron Strucker (Thomas Kretschmann) gets a decent line, but then is side-lined; Andy Serkis appears too briefly as Ulysses Klaw (hopefully we'll see more of him in 'Black Panther'...); and the introduction of Vision, played by Paul Bettany (he's
on the posters, so talking about him isn't a spoiler!) will bemuse general
audiences even while it delights comics fans.
His earnestness and philosophically-slanted talk might go over some
people's heads, or seem ill-fitting with the rest of the film to others. Thankfully, Whedon knows when to add a witty
line or moment to allow the character to also prove a fun addition, so his presence doesn't ever feel as jarring as it might have been. It's worth adding that he is impressively realised,
the borders between Bettany's performance and the CGI are almost imperceptible
at times.
This film is heavily reliant on CGI, and effectively so -
but to a point that some may feel it is overloaded. But in order to realise Ultron, his army of
drones, and some of the spectacular scenes that take place in the film, there
was arguably no other way of doing these than through CGI. That said, the film looks good, it arguably
has a more 'cinematic' sheen than the first did. Each set-piece is meticulously planned and
executed, especially the much-anticipated fight between Hulk and Iron Man (in
his Hulk-Buster suit), which has some soon-to-be iconic moments, and
(literally) brings the house down.
There's an argument that the finale, in some respects, replays the
battle between Avengers and faceless minions (last time alien Chitauri, this
time robots) too closely, but it is done in such a way that is logical - and
again, has some really major stakes to it.
You're going to see some, if not mixed, then lukewarm
reviews for this film. As I said, it
follows a classic film; not only this, it follows two films ('Captain America
The Winter Soldier' and 'Guardians of the Galaxy') that not only exceeded expectations,
proved to be genre classics in their own rights also. This film doesn't quite hit the heights of
any of these films - in the case of 'Avengers Assemble', there was no way it
could match the geek-gasmic rush of bringing this team together on screen for
the first time; and in the case of 'Winter Soldier', there was no plot
development that blew me away as much as the SHIELD/Hydra reveal in that film
did. So 'Avengers Age of Ultron' is a
victim of the success of its predecessors in that respect, and I think people
may be negative about it because of this.
On its own terms though, it arguably wears its philosophy too much on
its sleeve (coming after the likes of 'The Dark Knight' and 'Winter Soldier'
that have some meaty subtext); and if you were expecting to see some darkening
and fracturing of certain relationships in the team, feeding in to next year's
'Captain America Civil War', the film doesn't go as far as you might have
expected.
Does this mean the film is a failure? No, not in any way. It lives up to its predecessor, and every
other Marvel Studio film, by being an entertaining, fun, funny and spectacular
action-blockbuster. Comic fans, super-hero
movie fans, and general movie audiences will come away from this film feeling
satisfied and entertained. It continues
Marvel Studio's almost impeccable run, and is yet another solid entry to their
cannon. Viewed on its own terms, it is a
successful summer blockbuster movie - even if it can't quite match up to a
classic forebear. But then again, it was
unlikely to; but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it enough that I would watch
it again, and again. As the end credits
rolled I turned to my friend and said "can we watch it again?" And there aren't many films, I should
imagine, that most people would want to do that with - surely the proof that this is one of
the most enjoyable film experiences you'll get at the cinema.
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