When Marvel released the first “Avengers” film, it garnered generally positive reviews from the public, including the movie critics and die-hard comic books fans. Thus, it came as no surprise that its sequel,”Avengers: Age of Ultron” became a highly anticipated movie because there were so many things to look forward to.
But perhaps there was too much hype surrounding the sequel, it came out slightly less than impressive.
Now, don’t get us wrong. We can fully agree with most of you that it is a fun film packed with tonnes of superhero puns and shocking twists. The action scenes were ridiculous, but they were very well-shot too. Writer-director Joss Whedon should be given a round of applause for dropping us all these unexpected twists and one liner jokes in the film.
However, there were way, way too many sub-plots featured in a 142-minute long movie. We will just go ahead and assume that it is supposed to be served as a launch pad for the studio’s upcoming superhero films including “Captain America: Civil War“, “Black Panther“, and so on. Though we enjoyed seeing some new characters popping up, it seemed like they were introduced in a rush and some stories seemed forced.
The film opens with an epic action scene, where the Avengers fight against an army of baddies to retrieve Loki’s sceptre from Hydra member Baron von Strucker (played by Thomas Kretschmann). We were then introduced to twins Wanda (played by Elizabeth Olsen) and Pietro Maximoff (played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson), who were genetically enhanced by Strucker. They are the same twins that were shown in the first mid-credits scene of “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and technically, they are mutants.
But as some of you may already know, anyone with mutant power cannot be referred as a mutant in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Thus, the twins were probably injected with a serum similar to the one that made Steve Rogers into Captain America and Bucky Barnes into The Winter Soldier. Their powers were summed up by Agent Maria Hill (played by Colbie Smulders) as, “He’s fast, and she’s weird“.
The Maximoff twins bring a certain impact to the Avengers team as a feud suddenly occurs between the team members. Amidst their feud, Ultron (played by James Spader), an artificial intelligence that is created by Tony Stark/Iron Man (played by Robert Downey Jr.) and Bruce Banner/Hulk (played by Mark Ruffalo), emerges out of nowhere and further tears them apart.
Spader did a fairly amazing job portraying the role, which is both witty and menacing. He has a unique mind set that makes him think that keeping Earth safe from the invaders requires him to eliminate the existing threats, including the Avengers who have already damaged some cities while trying to save the world.
The sequel seems a lot more crammed than the first film as it ensembles some new cast members and the recurring cast from “Captain America”, “Iron Man”, and “Thor”. Fortunately, the director made sure that Jeremy Renner got to enjoy more screen time by featuring his character’s backstory in the movie too.
Having previously mind controlled by Loki, Clint Barton/Hawkeye is finally able to deliver his hilarious personality that most movie-goers did not expect to see. He shares some very amusing and emotional moments with the Maximoff twins as well.
There were a few winks and nods to the Marvel Universe too, including Wanda Maximoff’s relationship with a new character called the Vision (played by Paul Bettany). Both characters were once married in the original comic books, so it will be interesting to see how their relationship will be developed in the future films.
Not to mention, the Vision will probably emerge as one of your favourite characters from the movie. Though it’s a little tacky, Banner and Natasha Romanov/Black Widow (played by Scarlett Johansson) were finally given some proper arc. Die-hard comics fans will be excited to find out what they have in store for the 2 characters as well.
The expectations we held up for this movie have definitely left us a tad disappointed, especially with its repetitive jokes. However, we must say we had a blast watching it and there’s a giddy excitement to its upcoming 2-part sequel after the mid-credit scene was shown.
Written and directed by Joss Whedon and produced by Kevin Feige, “Avengers: Age of Ultron” was released in Malaysia on 23rd April 2015.
For more information, visit the movie’s official website or Facebook page.