The Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie Review)

Rating:

The “1-4-0″: More epic, more action, more characters… #AvengersAgeOfUltron satisfies as pure escapism, yet, it’s not as good as the original or ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’.

The Gist: The Avengers team up with 3 new heroes against the most destructive villain yet, one who was created by none other than Tony Stark himself… here comes the Marvel Civil War!

What Works: When it comes to production, the $250,000,000 budget to make the film is evident. Everything from getting top flight actors to first class action sequences, Marvel knows how to bring the comic book universe to life.

What Doesn’t Work: The newly brought in characters – Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, The Vision – didn’t make much of an impression, the type of impression that makes you want to spinoff a character into their own movie. They had dialogue, some noticeable screen time and pretty cool powers and still, were not able to create a sense of singularity. What was apparent was a level of apathy that invaded the screen of The Avengers sequel. How apathetic? Let’s put it this way, a superhero character dies towards the end of the film and I nor anyone else seemed to care. Though it was unexpected, much of the indifference had to do with a lack of character development. Whenever you try to parcel dialogue amongst more than a dozen characters, something will suffer. Equally, Joss Whedon tried to improve upon the original, ineffectively, by introducing emotional universal themes such as a family past which not only took the audience by surprise, but also took the protagonists by surprise as well, and a tough to believe romance between two of The Avengers members.

Pay or Nay? Pay. The Avengers: Age of Ultron is the epitome of a summer blockbuster. It is family friendly with a ton of action. Plus, it’s a visual spectacle that will that will set box office records. Nevertheless, I still think Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a better movie; it feels more real, the threat of death is much more imposing and it is less cartoony.  

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