Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

I have mixed feelings about “Avengers: Age of Ultron.” Most of the action set-pieces are jaw-dropping, the character interactions are excellent and we get more of an insight into our heroes head’s, what their greatest fears are and what drives them. However, it also features some of the most ham-fisted attempts to set up future films in the MCU, whilst also committing the crime of being too bland. It’s by no means a bad movie, or even a mediocre one (it definitely has its moments) but “Avengers: Age of Ultron” is hands-down the weakest movie in the “Avengers” franchise, let’s just hope it stays that way!

Before I start droning about its faults, let’s talk about what I liked in this film.

The cast in “Avengers: Age of Ultron” are just as brilliant as ever! Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson and Mark Ruffalo all give enjoyable and gripping performances. A surprising stand-out here is Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye, I love the way that Hawkeye is used in this film; his relationship with the Maximoff twins and his various lines of dialogue are very entertaining. This is easily the best use of Hawkeye in an MCU movie!

The new members of the cast are also very good. Elizabeth Olsen as Scarlet Witch is a great inclusion (although she definitely improves in later films) and Aaron Taylor-Johnson is decent as Quicksilver, it’s a shame that he couldn’t have appeared in another instalment because he is slightly wasted here (if you’ve seen the film you’ll know what I mean.)

Every “Avengers” movie needs an intimidating and formidable antagonist for our heroes to battle against. Ultron, played by James Spader, is a bit of a mixed bag. Spader gives a terrifying performance as Ultron in some scenes, but in others, he quips a bit too much for my liking. I understand that he is supposed to be the physical embodiment of Tony Stark’s worst traits, but after seeing the haunting trailers for this movie, you’d expect Ultron to be a Terminator-like murder machine, not another jokey character in a film already stuffed with jokey characters.

The character interactions in “Avengers: Age of Ultron” are some of the best in the series. The sequence in which each Avenger attempts to lift Mjolnir is one of my favourite MCU moments. The Barton farm scenes offer a nice slow-down to let the team breathe and let the actors dig deeper into their characters. Also, although they’re not very fun to watch, the horrifying Scarlet Witch induced nightmares do give some of the Avengers more depth as we learn more about their deepest fears.

The action sequences in this movie are fantastic! The opening scene is amazing, the joy of seeing these heroes on screen together will never wear off! One of my favourite MCU set-pieces is housed within “Avengers: Age of Ultron”, that being the phenomenal Hulk vs Hulkbuster fight. This sequence is nothing short of outstanding, it’s the cinematic equivalent of smashing two action figures together! It’s a creative, intense and incredible slugfest!

I’m quite confident that “Avengers: Age of Ultron” is a victim of studio interference. Joss Whedon did a stellar job with the action and character moments in this movie, but you can definitely tell that Marvel forced him to add certain things into the narrative. It’s a shame because if Whedon had been left to his own devices, he might have been able to make a sequel that could have been on par with “Avengers Assemble.” Instead he made an ok second outing, before leaving the MCU to direct the reshoots of “Justice League.” Ouch!

Now that I’ve been relatively positive, it’s time to look at everything that I didn’t like in this movie!

As much as I love the characters in “Avengers: Age of Ultron” and the actors who play them, I have to admit that there really isn’t any character development in this film. Tony Stark and Bruce Banner make a catastrophic mistake (though it was mainly Tony’s fault), but you don’t really get the sense that either character has learned or grown from their errors. Tony’s devastating guilt and desire to make up for his choices are left for “Captain America: Civil War” to deal with. “Avengers: Infinity War” didn’t have the time or space to give all of its characters epic arcs and journeys, but this movie doesn’t have that excuse (which is another reason why “Avengers Assemble” is my favourite film in the series so far, because it’s the only one where the heroes feel like they evolve over the course of the narrative.)

This is the first time seeing an MCU movie in the cinema where I noticed how bad the CGI was. The Iron Man suits looked astounding in Phase 1 and most of “Iron Man 3”, but here they look terrible, they’re far too floaty and sleek and they’ve lost any sense of weight or power. Ultron too looks completely false, the design is good but the execution is very poor, he looks like he isn’t really there most of the time.

The cinematography here is very dull, the movie has a drab grey tint to it and the colours don’t burst off the screen like they should, which makes the film quite uninteresting to look at. Coupled together with the sub-par CGI, the majority of “Avengers: Age of Ultron” is not a visually-spectacular experience.

The score here is a huge step-down from the first film. It’s clear that Alan Silvestri didn’t return for “Avengers: Age of Ultron”, the music lacks the titanic grandeur that makes the other “Avengers” films sound so awe-inspiring! Again, like a lot of things in this movie, the score isn’t bad it’s just not as good as it could have been.

A major gripe that many people have with “Avengers: Age of Ultron” is that it is beat-for-beat the same story as “Avengers Assemble”; I cannot argue with this. The plot is far too similar to that of the first one, which becomes very apparent in the third act, the final battle is another “fight the faceless CGI army to stop the plot device from killing everyone” situation. I adore the finale of “Avengers Assemble”, but the Battle of Sokovia in this movie isn’t as well-crafted or as thrilling because it’s just a less enthralling version of something that we’ve already seen!

Finally, the biggest issue with “Avengers: Age of Ultron” is that it focuses too much on films to come, rather than telling a tight and compelling story. I’ll admit, some of these ideas work, such as introducing Klaue (played by the ever excellent Andy Serkis) here, so that “Black Panther” could kick off his story immediately without establishing who he is. The movie also does a good job of building upon the rising tensions between Steve Rogers and Tony Stark, which would pay-off explosively in “Captain America: Civil War.” But then there’s the notorious Thor’s Magic-Jacuzzi-Party scene, which drags the narrative to a complete stop. I’m pretty sure that this sequence exists for two reasons- Number 1, to get Chris Hemsworth’s shirt off and Number 2, to set up “Thor: Ragnarok” and “Avengers: Infinity War.” I understand that in a gigantic shared universe of movies, you have to lay the groundwork for upcoming stories at some point, but when those set-up scenes aren’t necessary to the plot and feel so out-of-place and inconsequential, that’s when they’re a problem.

Overall, I like “Avengers: Age of Ultron.” I get enough entertainment out of it when I watch it, but I don’t watch it that often. Aside from when I do Marvel Marathons, I never choose to watch this movie on its own. It was my most anticipated film of 2015, and whilst I wasn’t that disappointed by it, it is nowhere near as great as “Avengers Assemble” and doesn’t have the raw emotional thrills of last year’s “Avengers: Infinity War.” I would recommend re-watching this before you see “Avengers: Endgame” because of how much setting-up this film does for future instalments, but aside from that, you don’t have to rush back to this one.