Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johannsson, Mark
Ruffalo
Having joined forces, the collective of heroes known as The
Avengers have become world famous and depended upon to save Earth from the evil
grasp of nefarious groups such as Hydra. As a result, the team feel stretched
to the limit and in an effort to help, Tony Stark (also known as “Iron Man”)
(Downey Jr.) sets about creating Ultron (James Spader), a robot with AI
designed to aid the Avengers. However, when Ultron gains “consciousness”, he
comes to the conclusion that the only way to save the inherently destructive
human race is to destroy them, the Avengers now having to stop their own
creation.
In 2012, The Avengers (or “Avengers Assemble” in the UK)
busted onto movie screens displaying a culmination of Marvel Studios’ different
film projects with Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans)
and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) as well Iron Man’s one-time sidekick Black Widow
(Scarlett Johannsson), newcomer Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and a “sort of new”
Hulk (Mark Ruffalo, though there had been previous attempts at solidifying a
Hulk franchise with Eric Bana in 2003 and Edward Norton in 2006). Given the
popularity of Marvel’s movie work, this film was a sure-fire smash-hit and in
short order we get this sequel which keeps the tone of the first Avengers film,
but subtly adds to the existing franchise. What results is, thankfully, not an
inferior sequel but not one that massively ups the game, either.
The thing that Age Of Ultron seems to put a lot of stock in
is its status as an ensemble movie, and why not? People like these superheroes
individually, so teaming them up is just making a good thing better, like ice
cream on top of cake. The theory’s simple and is sort of correct. It helps that
each of the main group has their own distinct personality and this film helps
to build on what makes each of the characters so different, with time
especially being devoted to Hawkeye, currently the most under-developed Avenger
who wasn’t even expanded on much in the first movie. With the scenes of Hawkeye’s
family life being an off-beat departure, it makes for an intriguing change of
pace but also slows to an uncomfortable degree as does the over-stretched
finale. Where the character development really works is the dialogue. Joss
Wheedon has a reputation for brilliantly witty and zippy dialogue and this is a
film that desires more to entertain and make you laugh rather than to be dark
or brooding.
That being said, Age Of Ultron does go in some darker
directions, particularly with the villain of Ultron himself, a genuinely frightening
creation and played with severe menace by James Spader. As much as Tom Hiddleston’s
performance as Loki from the first Avengers film was also entertaining, it’s
nice to see a villain completely unique to The Avengers and not from one of the
related franchises as it feels like less of a cast-off and more like the film
has more confidence to stand by its own merits. There isn’t much dimension to
Ultron (for all of the grandiosity of James Spader’s acting, the character is
basically the motives of HAL in the body, or rather bodies, of a Terminator-type
figure) but as a one-off, he’s a memorable villain with some occasional
sarcastic quips, a nice nod to his origins as a project for the snarky Tony
Stark. His two henchmen played by Elizabeth Olsen and Aaron Taylor-Johnson have
some cool powers but aren’t as provocative a presence.
Within the Avengers group, there are some character arcs, in
particular an emerging romance between Johannsson and Ruffalo that is fairly well
written and well-acted but also feels arbitrary. Robert Downey Jr. still takes
a lot of the screen-time though here he seems to have less personal motivation
before, the film just relying more on Downey’s charisma whilst the Chris duo of
Evans and Hemsworth have their own running gags with Hemsworth, whilst still
being played up as the big blonde hunk, being more assured and confident on
screen then ever even if his Australian accent still flares up from time to
time.
With Age Of Ultron,
the idea behind the project seems to have been that people liked the first
Avengers movies and so lets give the people more. It’s a sound strategy and
there’s plenty of big superhero action to go around, with several lengthy
action setpieces and some genuinely thrilling explosions and carnage. It’s not
a great revelation for the superhero genre. It’s not even on the same “good old
fashioned” superhero mantle as Superman (1978), but it seems mostly concerned
with not wanting to disappoint the fans and to be fair, it doesn’t disappoint at
all.
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