"The Avengers: Age of Ultron" Revew

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Avengers: Age of Ultron

Recommendation

-Fun and engaging
-Worth seeing in theatres
-Not as good as the first one

Content

-Mild sexual innuendos that will go over kids' heads
-Sci-fi action violence throughout
-Some blood after characters are attacked, but it is not gory







Joss Whedon, the writer/director of both "Avengers" installments, knows the Marvel characters well and keeps the same witty dialogue in "Age of Ultron" that made the first film so enjoyable.

In the film, Tony Stark (Robert Downy Jr.) delves a little too far into the "mad scientist" category. He tries to play God, and it blows up in his face in the form of Ultron (voiced by James Spader), an advanced artificial intelligence with the ability to duplicate itself into robotic bodies. Stark's idea when creating it is protecting the world. The AI takes it to mean protecting the world from humans. To put the story in a nutshell, the Avengers try to stop him.

Like most Marvel films, this one develops the characters further. They are in a different position by the end. Their characterizations are solidified with well-written, often hilarious, dialogue, and some of their motivations are deepened in some brilliant segments that reveal their deepest fears.

One problem with this movie comes from one of these segments, which involves Thor (Chris Hemsworth). It connects to something that happens in the third act of the film, but it is never explained very well.

Another problem comes from the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) character. Some people have critiqued Whedon's handling of her as anti-feminist. I did not get that from this film. The problem is more about the direction Marvel decides to take her love life. This will be discussed in detail at the end of this review.

There are more action scenes than in "The Avengers." Some are really fun to watch. The filmmakers got creative with the choreography, and even had characters like Thor and Black Widow use Captain America's shield.

BUT...much of this is wasted by bad shooting and editing. There are too many tight shots on the characters' faces so when he/she/it hits an enemy, the audience cannot see what happened. The editing between shots is so quick, my eyes had a hard time seeing the action itself.

I know Whedon can make good action scenes. In the Avengers, he produced this one

Courtesy: imfdb

in which the Hulk jumps on a plane, thrashes at it and throws the ejecting pilot in the opposite direction. This scene is so good because it uses a combination of wide, tight and medium shots. It is not just a few quickly-cut close-ups of the Hulk's face.

I look forward to the next "Avengers" installment, which will be directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, who directed "Captain America: The Winter Soldier." Out of all the Marvel films, that one had the best-shot action sequences.

Spoilers: Black Widow's love life

This film proves the people behind Marvel do not know what they are doing with Natasha Romanov. In "The Avengers," her and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) deny having an intimate relationship, but the film implies they do. In "Captain America: The Winter Soldier," her and Captain America (Chris Evans) show chemistry, and it looks like something will happen there. In this one, her interest lies in...Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo)?

This leaves the audience thinking "Wait a second, what about Hawkeye? Isn't she supposed to be with him?" The film answers with "Actually, he has had a family the entire time, and Natasha is that friend the kids call 'aunt' even though she's not related," which came out of nowhere and seemed forced.

In a way, Natasha and Bruce is an interesting match-up, given their history, and "Age of Ultron" addresses this. In the first film, Natasha is the one who recruits him even though she is afraid of him. Later on, it is her who is with him when he turns into the Hulk on the helicarrier. This plot point could still be handled better than it is.