Avengers: Age Of Ultron- Review

The movie starts with a bang. There’s no take-off, no waiting for the action to begin, it just starts right away. Right from the start the movie attempts to overwhelm its predecessor which made the avengers the success it enjoys today. This time the team is faced with its biggest challenge yet, the one they brought into existence with their own hands, Ultron. One whose sole purpose is to wipe off the avengers team. Will they survive? We find out as the Avengers Assemble!

The story begins with the team of our beloved superheroes squandering their enemies- goons of the evil organization hydra. Their mission to dismantle all remaining bases of hydra and locate Loki’s sceptre. This time, much to the delight of the viewers, we find our heroes working together very efficiently as a team seemingly invincible. It is then after securing the sceptre that Tony Stark has a vision which makes him believe in the eventual failure and death of the avengers. So to prevent that, Stark tries to create a sentinel program which autonomously operates the iron legion (Stark’s personal unmanned iron man dummies) to protect the avengers from future threats, invasions and wars. But as expected he fails, terribly, very terribly. His new-found Artificial Intelligence is far from helping the avengers but hell bent on killing them which unreasonably enough is his natural impulse. What ensues is the mayhem of action, lasers and witty dialogue. The avengers are put to test at the best of their abilities as they’re up against the Ultron army. We see what the team does to keep the citizens of Sokovia safe and stop Ultron without losing its own integrity. Which they unsurprisingly do with the help of a new powerful member, The Vision.

The characters seem more well balanced this time in the whole team with the exception of Tony Stark. Tony is really shaken by the vision he saw and desperately tries to create something to help themselves, twice. Captain America strangely works very well as the leader of the avengers with minimal authoritative capacity. I always found it to be strange for captain America to be the leader despite the fact that they have Tony on their team (just like why superman is the leader of JLA and not batman). But captain pulled it off, not once sounding like a leader but still being one which is exactly how you keep a team of superhuman god-like creatures together. Twisting tales were seen for the characters of Natasha Romanoff, Bruce Banner and Clint Barton. Clint aka Hawkeye struggles with justifying his place in the avengers which sounded like an issue at first but is very easily resolved later in the movie. Bruce/Hulk and Natasha/Black Widow were seen as a budding couple who tried to get together in the whole movie but the overprotective nature of Bruce kept getting in the way and the ending saw a separation. Natasha was also battling her past issues and the program  behind her turning into the Black Widow which still horrifies her. The film also introduced three more characters besides the eponymous Ultron himself. The twins who weren’t as strong characters despite having a strong influence all over the story. Scarlett Witch (the girl from the twins) uses her magical powers (telekinesis, hypnosis and whatnot) to manipulate the avengers into confronting their darkest fears which acts as a catalyst to the whole story. This thing works well on Tony although is mostly inconsequential on others (hulk smashes some civilians though). Like her brother she was orphaned in childhood by a missile attack on their home which was made by stark industries. This leads them to take revenge upon Tony Stark for which they volunteer for hydra experiments. Her brother, Quicksilver aka Pietro is a character I love since its first appearance in the X-Men: Days of the Future Past. Although portrayed by a different actor as a completely different person who assists his sister during the whole ordeal, is still an enjoyable character. The Vision is the prized reveal of the movie. The character is righteously naïve, immensely powerful and as a bonus can lift Thor’s hammer as well. During his very short presence on screen he never fails to impress. The greatest character I found in the whole movie was the villain Ultron who is created in the image of Tony Stark and accomplishes all his evil deeds with same charm and wits of the Iron Man. He brings the much needed humorous take on destruction which in some ways surpasses even Loki himself. It is a treat to watch how the Tony Stark persona can be very well adapted for a negative role. All in all a strong, internet scattered cyber monster with fearful physical abilities. 

The presentation is edgy enough. With more explosions, well-choreographed action sequences and more POV shots, much like the previous movie with slight polishing. The dialogues are witty, humor is very well times and nice attention to little details (like the anti-hulk mechanism being called veronica which is a reference to Archie Comics). The movie only lags when there is no action involved and which is only 20% of the time. This makes all the action very repetitive and after a while a little tedious to watch over and over again. All-in-all a little more Michael Bay-ish stuff.

The music is good enough when it comes to the noises of weapons, rubble and destruction. But when it comes to the background score, the old avengers theme sounds a bit dated and fails to make an impact. Almost unnoticeable at times and with no connection to the events or their intensification, the music only acts as filler.

The Verdict
The movie is a nice adrenaline filled sci-fi action flick and a visual treat for the fanboys and girls but somehow lacks some core elements required for coherent story-telling. From an evaluative perspective, the movie does not present anything new which isn't already seen in the previous avengers or any other marvel movie. The action is non-compromising though. You will see all the epicness you hope for but nothing more than that. So, final word would be to give it a go even if you've not seen all marvel movies but don’t go in expecting layered storytelling. Watch it purely for fun and your devotion to the marvel cinematic universe.

 Hope you agree with the review and don't forget to check out the trailer of my personal yet-to-be-released favourite of the year, the new Star Wars movie.