Occasionally living in the UK can have its advantages. One of those is that we tend to get the new Marvel films early! I've no idea why but I'm definitely not complaining! So there will be MAJOR spoilers in this review.
For those of you who don't want spoilers, I'll just say this. It's a great film. Maybe not quite as brilliant as the original but definitely in my top 5 MCU movies. For those who want to know a little more, read on...
Given that The Avengers ended with the team going there separate ways and Iron Man 3 ended with Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) destroying his suits you'd be forgiven for thinking Avengers: Age of Ultron would open slowly, bringing the team together and the audience back up to speed. Instead Joss Whedon choses to throw the audience into the thick of the action as the Avengers attack Baron von Strucker's hideout in Sokovia. It's a wise choice that kick starts the movie with a bang and allows the audience to see the Avengers working together as a well oiled machine before Ultron and the twins begin to tear them apart.
One of the most incredible things about this film is how well balanced it is. All of the main heroes from The Avengers return and more are added along with a new villain who this time didn't have the benefit of having been set up in a previous movie. Yet nothing feels rushed and every characters gets their moment to shine. Joss Whedon is truly the master when it comes to ensemble super hero movies. Surprisingly though, it's Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye who really shines here, after being brainwashed for most of The Avengers this is our first chance to really get to know the character and by the end of the film I cared for him in a way that I didn't before.
Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth all bring their A-game. There's no surprises here, they wear their characters like a second skin now and it's great to see them share the screen once more. The same goes for Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow and Mark Ruffalo's Hulk (when are they going to get their own movies?!) who find themselves exploring the beginnings of a romantic relationship and questioning whether two "monsters" like them can truly have love, especially when the world needs them to be the monsters.
The film moves at a brisk pace. The attack on Strucker's base brings down Hydra (I wonder how that's going to affect Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.?) and allows the Avengers to reclaim Loki's Sceptre. From here Tony Stark once again learns that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions as he discovers within the Sceptre the ability to create artificial intelligence, the key to creating his and Banner's dream; Ultron (James Spader). A global shield to keep out alien threats. Tony may not be suffering from post-traumatic stress anymore but the events of the Battle of New York still weigh on him. That's one of the things I love about the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It just continues to build on itself in both major and minor ways. Avengers: Age of Ultron is full of wonderful little nods to the past and teases of the future but none of them get in the way of the story being told.
Obviously, something goes wrong. Instead of fulfilling Tony's dream of a global shield to protect the world, Ultron seeks to create an extinction level event. Sadly, for me Ultron was the weakest link of the film. The Avengers need an extinction level villain otherwise the threat isn't great enough to justify the team being together (they wiped up Hydra in the first 5 minutes) and on that level Ultron more than delivers. The climatic battle in Sokovia takes the Battle of New York and raises the stakes (quite literally) into the stratosphere. But as a character he doesn't have the presence or charisma of Loki. He raises some potentially interesting questions about artificially intelligence and what it means to be human but those questions are addressed more with the Vision than with Ultron. In the end he's just Tony's mistake, another robot to be smashed, which is how the Avengers see him. The only time we see him with real humanity is at the end, with Vision, when we see him through the eyes of another artificial intelligence, reduced to a final battered drone and that learn he's afraid to die.
In his quest Ultron enlists the aid of Baron von Strucker's experiments. The Twins. Pietro (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen). Not mutants (due to Fox owning the film rights to the X-Men) or Inhumans as had been speculated. They are simply called "enhanced", their powers the results of Strucker's experimentation with Loki's Sceptre. The Twins are a wonderful addition to the film, and ultimately to the Avengers when they come to realise what Ultron is really planning. And they're not the only new heroes as Paul Bettany's Jarvis becomes the Vision.
Obviously, this is a super hero film so there's plenty of action to be had but Whedon does an excellent job of keeping it relevant to the story being told and not dragging it out past its welcome. He also keeps the action focused on the characters. One of my absolute favourite moments in the film comes when Tony gives Cap their options, which basically boils down to sacrifice Sokovia and everyone in the floating city to save the rest of the earth, and Cap responds by saying sacrificing the city isn't an option until everyone is safe. It's moments like this that make Captain America my favourite Avenger. I just love the unashamed super heroness of it.
There were so many little things that I loved in the film, and they were mostly the little touches like the worried expression on Thor's face when Cap manages to, slightly, move Mjolnir, Tony's line about "how fast can we buy the building" before smashing hulk through a half built tower, the numerous appearances by other characters and heroes from throughout the MCU and the time with Hawkeye's family on the farm. Of course I totally geeked out when Fury brought the Helicarrier to the rescue as well! But it was Pietro's sacrifice that hit me the most. I had a feeling someone would die, the film built to it naturally and the stakes were high enough, but I didn't expect it to be one of the twins so I was caught off guard.
The film ends in a similar fashion to the first, with the threat defeated original team of Avengers going their separate ways with hints at the stories that will drive the MCU forward into Phase 3. S.H.I.E.L.D. (or at least "what S.H.I.E.L.D. is supposed to be") appears to be back at least in some form, Thor returns to Asgard to pursue the mystery of the Infinity Stones, Bruce Banner is once more on the run, trying to hide himself from the world for fear of unleashing the monster within him, Hawkeye leaves to spend more time with his family and Tony Stark leaves to, well to be Tony Stark. But that doesn't mean that the MCU is without any Avengers as Captain America takes Black Widow to begin training the new recruits. Vision, War Machine, Falcon and Scarlet Witch. I think it actually succeeds in topping the ending to the original. If only they'd let Cap finish saying "Avengers Assemble" but I guess we're going to have to wait for Avengers: Infinity War for that!
And speaking of Infinity War, there may be no post credits scene (at least yet, the shawarma scene wasn't screened in the UK until after the original film opened in the US so I guess it's still possible one could be added) but the mid-credits scene is awesome with Thanos claiming the Infinity Gauntlet deciding it's time to take matters into his own hands! Role on Phase 3!!!
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